SUPER DAVID BECKHAM ISLAND

September 6, 2015 3:32 AM

Here is video of an unusual moment in David Beckham's varied career: the time he was called upon to defeat Mister Woe and the monsters of the Fourth Division. It's GO! GO! BECKHAM! Here's when he fought a giant bird with his soccer powers. Here is the beginning of his adventure on Soccer Island, and here's a complete speedrun.
posted by JHarris (11 comments total)

I... thought this was some kind of satire. But, apparently not?
posted by buriednexttoyou at 3:40 AM on September 6, 2015 [1 favorite]

Better than satire is the thing that actually happened, but sounds incredible.
posted by JHarris at 3:44 AM on September 6, 2015

The plot of the game centers around Mister Woe, who has invaded Soccer Island; Mister Woe has taken all "precious things", and turned all the animals of the island into monsters.

Does Mister Woe work for FIFA?
posted by GenjiandProust at 3:47 AM on September 6, 2015 [3 favorites]

(That is to say, the fact they made a Super Mario World-style platformer starring a cartoon David Beckham. I don't actually think he fought a giant bird. I know we live in an imperfect world.)
posted by JHarris at 4:33 AM on September 6, 2015 [3 favorites]

Actually, this is much better than the other game they did with the Beckham licensing deal.

(which is a shame - Ultimate Soccer is one of my favourite sports games of the 16bit era, Striker did away with a lot of the options of the game, and by the time the Beckham/UEFA/Microsoft licensed games were released, they were a bit shitty)
posted by lmfsilva at 7:41 AM on September 6, 2015 [1 favorite]

The secret here is, I think the game (Go! Go! Beckham, that is) actually looks pretty good. It's got character and a unique gimmick, and it knows how silly it is and runs with it. It's just bright and appealing, and only happens to feature a real-life soccer star.
posted by JHarris at 7:48 AM on September 6, 2015 [1 favorite]

It's not that unique. But from memory, it's a lot better than either of them (even if very, very short)
posted by lmfsilva at 8:25 AM on September 6, 2015

But that game clearly stars Wayne Rooney.
posted by taterpie at 1:43 PM on September 6, 2015 [1 favorite]

Not Football Island?
posted by bonobothegreat at 6:29 AM on September 7, 2015

The game was only released in Europe, so I'm kind of wondering about the Soccer Island thing myself. Maybe it was intended to get a North American release at one time, and they didn't want to localize.
posted by JHarris at 6:57 AM on September 7, 2015

To be honest, the fervent "Football never soccer" thing is relatively recent (and probably fueled by internet arguments in the late 90s). One of my favourite games, 1993s European Club Soccer was renamed World Trophy Soccer (as well as gimping from dozens of European teams to a handful of national teams, but heh) for the US release. The Amiga Hall of Light (picked the Amiga out of my ass, just to have a mid 80s to mid 90s reference) lists about one hundred games with "soccer"on the title, and I'm pretty sure a lot of them weren't even considered for the American market.
posted by lmfsilva at 11:48 AM on September 7, 2015 [1 favorite]