Play International Superstar Soccer Online

International Superstar Soccer came out for the Game Boy in 1994, a Konami release that arrived when handheld football games were still pretty basic. It was one of the more ambitious attempts to capture the sport on that little green screen, sitting alongside other cartridge sports titles that tried to do a lot with very little. You could tell they were pushing the hardware just by looking at the sprites moving down the pitch.

You control a team of players, moving them up and down the field to pass the ball and take shots on goal. The main objective is straightforward: score more goals than the opposing team within the match time. A couple of its signature mechanics include the through pass, which sends the ball into open space for a runner, and the ability to perform a sliding tackle to dispossess an opponent. The game moves at a brisk pace, and the difficulty can spike sharply, especially when the computer decides to mount a relentless attack. It feels like a genuine test of your timing and positioning on a very small field.