MER Innebandy has the unique status of being the only computerized version of a wildly popular Swedish game of floorball. The game itself is perhaps most similar to American street or floor hockey, and it was actually very popular in Sweden and Finland, and was played by athletes of almost every age level. For this reason, MER Innebandy had a rather eclectic following in the northern European countries, and was never mainstreamed like so many other sporting games. This game was created as a freeware promotional title in the middle nineties by UDS.
Oddly, it is a fully licensed title and offers the play of all “famous” floorball athletes from the Svenska Elitersien…the national floorball league of Sweden.
The rules of floorball, which the game does a fair job of following, are pretty simple. Two teams take the floor at once, and each team has five players and one goalie. The game uses a small plastic ball that gets batted around from person to person. The players carry long, flat sticks that are similar in nature to hockey sticks. The players that the user controls have two basic choices: pass the ball to a teammate or shoot at the goal and try to score. It is
a very basic game and does not contain any of the dekes, diving saves on goal, air hooks or other tricks that are common for spectators to view when watching the sport for real. The goalie basically sits on his knees and movies back and forth in an effort to stop any incoming shots from making it past him. Defensive players do have one unique move, however. They are actually able to reach out and smack their opponents with their sticks. This is a very useful maneuver when trying to steal the ball away from the opposition.
When it comes to rules and fouls, the game also remains very basic. A foul has to be quite blatant for it to earn a penalty, and this only happens about once each period. In a way, that is a nice way to insure that the game play is not being constantly interrupted by silly fouls, but it does get frustrating sometimes to watch your players get constantly mugged while trying to take shots. There are two camera angles from which to choose, and the player can decide which one gives him the more realistic feel. Overall, MER Innebandy is a very basic game, but it was the first and only attempt at turning this popular European sport into a viable video game, so let’s give it credit where credit is due, and give it a go!
