Gary Lineker's Hot-Shot!

Gary Lineker's Hot-Shot!
Game No.	371
Voting	4.36 points, 11 votes
Developer	Ray Tredoux Graphics: Rory Green, John Harrison
Publisher	Gremlin Graphics, Kixx
Musician	Ben Daglish
Release	1989
Platform	C64, ZX Spectrum
Genre	Sports, Football/Soccer (Arcade)
Gamemode	Single player 2 players (in turns)
Operation
Media
Language
Information	also: Litti's Hot Shot

Description

Gary Lineker‘s Hot-Shot! is a soccer game in which you control a player of your team from the bird's view. It can be played alone against the computer or by two players against each other. When playing against the computer you have four difficulty grades to choose from.
The game was released for the German market under the name "Litti's Hot-Shot!". However, except for the package and the title screen nothing else was changed.

Design

Special events

An exciting scene in the box.

After three quickly done option menus you directly start the kick-off. The upper two thirds of the screen are taken in by the game area, in the lower third you find important things as the score, the time left to play, an image of the total screen with display of the player's current position, the shooting energy and a scroller that informs you about important events in the game. As single player you always play from top to bottom, this does also not changed after the first half. Special incidents such as a goal, shot at the goal, corner, half time and end of the game are indicated full screen.

Concerning the sound you get offered only meagre stuff. Next to the definitely bright title tune you can alternatively let yourself get delighted by sound effect during the game, which consists of the referee's whistle, occasional cheers from the audience in the shape of a uniform swoosh and a signal five seconds before the end of a half and the end of the game.

The design of the players from the bird's view can be called failed; the clunky sprites can hardly be recognized as players. You always steer the actor that is nearest to the ball, which is shown by a flashing football shirt. In the hectic of the game this can hardly be noticed, so that you regularly run around confusedly.

Hints

Controls

Making the goal after a solo run.

... playing on ashes

Player with ball:

• = walk into the corresponding direction
  
• = shoot
  When shooting you need to be aware that the shooting power increases and decreases again, the longer the fire button is pressed. The shooting power is shown in the POW display. As long as the fire button is pressed, the player does not move. In contrast to reality, the ball cannot be taken from him during this time.

Player without ball:

• = walk into the corresponding direction
  
• = sliding tackle
  With a sliding tackle you can take the ball from the opponent. However, there is the danger that the referee shows the yellow or in a repeated case the red card.

.

Keys

According to the manual, the player can also be steered with the keys Q , A , K , L  and Enter . At least in the emulator this is not possible.

Option menus

In the first options menu you can choose between natural and artificial turf, six turf colours, each ten shirt colours for the teams and four difficulty grades. Furthermore, you can choose here whether a player competes against the computer or if two players against each other. In the end you need to decide if a half takes five or 45 minutes. Even though the game time runs faster than in reality, 45 minutes will be very long.

In the second options menu you can choose one of four teams in the leagues I to IV, depending on the difficulty grade. The given fantasy names can be changed in the following menu. As an alternative, you start the game here. In the single player mode, the computer now gives an opponent from the league and tells the player for which place in the league he is playing. An actual evaluation or table is not shown after the game. You start anew again with every game.

Bugs

There is a bug in the time remaining which does not influence the game:

The clock does not run properly.

Solution

• When you get hold of the ball, you should run with the player to the penalty box if possible. Due to the very small visible section is a proper passing game hardly possible, as you never know where your team mates are.
• The opposing keeper has a small problem with diagonal shots...

Voting

Voting of the C64-Wiki users (10=the best vote):
4.36 points at 11 votes (rank 1047). You need to be logged in to cast a vote.
C64Games	6	03rd October 2012 - "good" 821 downs
Lemon64	3,7	04th Oct 2012 - 9 votes
ZZap64	53%	Issue 5/89

Reviews

Equinoxe: "The game is a fiasco. Even the veteran International Soccer is more fun. "

H.T.W: "A goal keeper that hides in the goal, totally chaotic team players and a computer opponent that plays against itself ... what more do you want ... moan!! However, in pairs it can partially get funny."

Miscellaneous

Cover

Cover of the tape version.

Back cover of the tape version.

Advertisement

Advertisement for the game.

Competition to the game.

Highscore

A highscore does not make sense with this "computer intelligence"...

Links

• C64Games.de - Game No. 3963
• Lemon64 - Game No. 4109
• Gamebase64.com - Game No. 3073
• Gamebase64.com - Game No. 15248
• ZZap64 test report
• TheLegacy entry no.940
• C64.com - Game No. 596
• ready64 - Game No. 2800

Videos