UEFA Euro 96 England is an association football video game developed by Gremlin Interactive and published by Sega for MS-DOS and the Sega Saturn in 1996. The title is an officially licensed tie in with the football tournament of the same name.
Gameplay Players can play the full European Championships or play friendly matches. The game features all sixteen national sides that qualified for Euro 1996 and all eight host stadia.
It features commentary from Barry Davies, with the developers stating that Davies' script includes 30,000 words (up from 22,000 words for his Actua Soccer script). The Saturn version was localised with commentary in several European languages. A retrospective by L'Éclaireur Fnac noted that the game featured commentary in numerous languages and identified French commentary by Thierry Roland. A contemporary German review in MAN!AC noted the inclusion of German-language commentary, while Hobby Consolas noted Spanish commentary by J.J Santos.
The PC release offered online play for up to 20 players using BT's Wireplay network gaming system. Ultimately, it was the first PC game to utilize the Wireplay system, which eventually supported over 100 different games by the end of the decade.
Development The game was developed with the engine used for Gremlin's previous football title Actua Soccer. Gremlin used the motion capture of professional footballers Andy Sinton, Chris Woods and Graham Hyde (of Sheffield Wednesday) for the development of Actua Soccer, but told CVG that for this release they had implemented "nearly twice as many frames of motion capture creating smoother movement", with particular assistance from Chris Woods to improve the goalkeeper AI.
Reception The title received largely positive reviews. Rob Bright of Sega Saturn Magazine gave the game a score of 94%, arguing that it featured "the tidiest graphics and most dynamic animation of any footy game on the Saturn". Sega Power's Nick Merritt wrote that "the attention to detail makes this a worthy tie-in for top quality European football" and that it "blows FIFA away, no contest", awarding the game a score of 90%. In France, Joypad awarded the Saturn version 83%, while Player One gave it 72%. German magazine MAN!AC gave the Saturn version 62 out of 100, praising its presentation and multiplayer support but criticising its slow pace and similarities to Actua Soccer. Italian magazine Console Mania awarded the Saturn version 79 out of 100, particularly praising its spoken commentary, while concluding that the game added relatively little to the football genre and that more polished and playable alternatives were available. Spanish magazine Hobby Consolas was considerably more positive, awarding the game 92 out of 100 and particularly praising its graphics, gameplay and Spanish commentary.
Commercial performance UEFA Euro 96 England became a major system seller for the Sega Saturn in the United Kingdom. It was also one of the top-selling Sega Saturn games of 1996 at HMV's Oxford Street store in the United Kingdom.
Legacy In a 2014 retrospective, Hobby Consolas identified UEFA Euro 96 England as the first football video game to feature Spanish-language commentary. The magazine also recalled a 1996 feature in which Real Madrid defender José García Calvo expressed surprise at hearing commentary by J.J Santos while playing the game.
In a 2016 retrospective on European Championship video games, FourFourTwo included UEFA Euro 96 England among the notable games based on the tournament, highlighting its licensed presentation, Barry Davies commentary and use of the 3D technology developed for Actua Soccer.
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