Overview
Football Champ (known in Japan as Hat Trick Hero and in Europe as Euro Football Champ, not to be confused with the Amiga game of the same name) is a belt-scrolling soccer game developed and released by Taito for arcades in 1990.
One of the earliest soccer arcade games (outside of VS. Soccer) to use a side-view perspective and simplistic arcade controls, Football Champ features four-player multiplayer (with players choosing any number of team configurations, from 2-on-2 to all four against the CPU), graphical zooming effects, and a mini-map system. It also features an "ace striker" system where each player has a dedicated character that has a better chance of scoring goals. An enhanced version was released in Europe in 1992 (as Euro Champ '92), featuring a new 12-team roster.
The game was later ported to the Super Nintendo Entertainment System in 1992, with the North American version renamed to Super Soccer Champ. It was also ported by Teque Software to Amiga, Atari ST and Commodore 64 computers in Europe, released by Domark in 1992 as European Football Champ.
The game later received a Japanese-exclusive SNES sequel titled Hat Trick Hero 2 and three arcade sequels: Hat Trick Hero '93 (also known as Taito Cup Finals, Super Cup Finals, Hat Trick Hero '94, and International Cup '94), Hat Trick Hero '95 (also known as Taito Power Goal), and Super Football Champ. The original arcade version was also included in the PS2 compilations Taito Memories Gekan and Taito Legends 2.
Teams
Each version of the game has 8 teams to choose from, with Euro Champ '92 allowing 12 teams. The roster is based on the game's region, with some teams tied to specific regions.
Original
Euro Champ '92
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