The game includes contemporary season data of professional football from around the world, with a total number of 1,500 teams and 27,000 players.

[1][full citation needed] Although the gameplay is simple (eight directions and one fire button) a large variety of context sensitive actions can be performed without any predefined keys.

[4] In 2007, Henry Lowood, Curator for History of Science and Technology Collections in the Stanford University together with game designers Warren Spector and Steve Meretzky, researcher Matteo Bittanti and journalist Christopher Grant compiled a definitive list of "the ten most important video games of all time".

Every player has individual skills (speed, tackling, heading, finishing, shooting, passing, ball control).

"Goalscoringsuperstarhero" by Jon Hare (born 1966) and Richard Joseph (1953–2007), with vocals by Jackie Reed, was composed for Sensible World of Soccer.

Teams present included all European nations as well as (in this version only) 64 fantasy squads whose line-ups were references to and parodies of other concepts.

Gameplay was noticeably easier than in subsequent versions, with computer opponents rarely able to tackle the player or create chances.

Unique to the release was the choice of an "astro turf", whose conditions mimicked artificial pitches installed in the 1980s by some clubs.

The '95/'96 Edition was an improved version for Amiga, with updated data, new menus and an enhanced gameplay (now with the possibility to do headers from standing positions and low passes with curling effect), which was also found in subsequent releases.

This "World Cup 98 update" was officially supported by Sensible Software and released on the Cover CD number 24 of the magazine "CU Amiga".

Although the controls on mobile phones are usually a bit complicated, the game sold well enough to make new releases of the series possible.

Due to recent popularity of retro games, Codemasters decided to release SWOS on Xbox LIVE Arcade.

Bugs in the online mode were reported by consumers in the official forum and were also mentioned in critically acclaimed game reviews,[9] but Codemasters said that there are no plans for patches, bugfixes or other SWOS-related releases in the near future.

SensibleSoccer.de is host of the "Sensible Days", an annual meeting of Sensible World of Soccer fans with international championships on PC and Amiga in the manner of a LAN party.