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World Challenge Soccer

Gottlieb, 1994 — shot-by-shot rules and strategy guide.

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World Challenge Soccer is built around one number and one mechanism. The number is the goal value, and the mechanism is a goal unit that stays shut unless you have earned the right to shoot it. Everything else on the playfield exists to feed those two things. Get that relationship straight and the machine stops feeling random.

Two plunges, two different games

The plunger offers a genuine choice. Fire it hard and the ball runs the top rollover, worth three goals and one open shot at the goal. Feather it and the ball settles in the top hole, paying whichever award is lit — Mystery, Advance Goal Value, or Hit All Targets. The flipper buttons select which drop-target award is lit, and only while the ball is still in the shooter lane. Set it before you pull, because there is no changing your mind afterwards.

Goal value first, goals second

Every goal you score pays the current goal value, and that value resets to one million at the start of every ball. The ladder runs 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 10 and 25 million, advanced by hitting whichever left or centre target is lit, or by taking Advance Goal Value from the plunge. The difference this makes is not subtle: the ten-goal jackpot at the bottom of the ladder is twenty million, and the same jackpot at the top is two hundred and fifty. Raise the value before you go looking for goals.

Goals themselves accumulate all game to a maximum of ninety-nine. Twenty of them lights an extra ball, fifty qualifies the mystery award for Super Riot, and beating the machine's all-time goal count awards a Special.

Lining up the soccer balls

Three columns of lamps sit in the centre of the playfield, each advanced by something different. The left kicking rubber, a scored goal, or a lit hit on the goal unit moves the left column. The right kicking rubber or a lit right ramp moves the right. Only the lit centre target moves the middle. Get all three onto one row and you are paid for it: the white row switches on Superscore, worth ten, twenty, then forty million and remembered between balls, while the top purple row qualifies a Hurry-up Extra Ball at the left side rollover for about twenty seconds. Advancing any lamp afterwards breaks the alignment and kills Superscore.

Ways into the goal

Three words at once

The machine is spelling three words simultaneously. WORLD awards the Center Target Round, ten million a hit on the centre target. CHALLENGE lights the two lower holes for a challenge match. SOCCER awards Players Choice, which offers eight goals or a multiball — take goals when your goal value is high. Each completed letter is worth a million in outhole bonus, and finishing all three words pushes that bonus to a hundred million, which is often reason enough to change what you were shooting at.

Matches, the Championship and Riot

A challenge match is a short round with one objective: score a goal. Win and you advance; lose and the holes go dark and must be requalified. There is no safe stall — trapping the ball and letting the clock run out is a loss, not a draw. Five wins qualifies both holes for the World Championship, a three-ball multiball where three goals wins it. That third goal pays fifty million, ends the round and rolls straight into Riot, where every shot is worth thirty million for as long as your multiball survives. Draining right after winning throws away the best scoring on the machine.

Multiball and jackpots

Multi and Ball from the drop targets light the holes for multiball — three balls, or two if you had one parked in the top hole. Take the rollover on the multiball plunge if you can, because it spots every target and qualifies both jackpots at once. The goal jackpot pays ten goals, then twenty, then thirty, all within the same multiball. The ramp jackpot pays thirty million, then a hundred, then an unlimited three hundred. Collecting either resets the drops, and the two ladders do not step each other.

In competition

Tournament settings strip most of the randomness out. Challenge match progress no longer carries between balls, so reaching the Championship means winning two matches on a single ball. The bottom three soccer lamps start aligned each ball, which puts Superscore on from the start and makes the extra ball harder because the centre target now needs at least five hits. Mystery pays a token award unless you are past fifty goals or on your last ball without a multiball, and the left rollover no longer qualifies the penalty kick.

How World Challenge Soccer plays

You are chasing the World Cup here, and a goal is only ever worth the value showing on the ladder at the moment it goes in -- so the game is really about driving that number up before you shoot. Win five challenge matches to light the World Championship, whose payoff spills straight into Riot at thirty million a shot.

The loop

  1. Pump the goal value up first -- both the lit left standup and the centre target push it higher -- before you sink anything, because it resets to a single million each ball and that very jackpot pays far more from up top.
  2. Score through the goal unit, which only cracks open for one shot at a time; put twenty goals away to light an extra ball, and reach fifty to arm Super Riot.
  3. Sweep the drop-target bank -- its award chosen with the flippers before you ever plunge -- to bank rounds, and finish Multi and Ball there to light the two holes for multiball.
  4. Win challenge matches out of the lit holes -- one goal before the clock dies -- and five wins throw both holes open for the World Championship.
  5. Bury the Championship's three goals to kick off Riot, which burns for exactly as long as you keep the multiball alive, every shot worth thirty million.

Reading the lights

  • Goal Value Ladder (ladder) — lit: Whichever left standup is lit, plus the centre target, steps the goal value one rung up a ladder that runs from a million to twenty-five; the whole thing resets to a million at the top of every ball. · then: Build it up before you shoot a single goal -- a ten-goal jackpot comes to twenty million from the bottom and two hundred and fifty from the top. Advance Goal Value taken off the plunge jumps three rungs in one go.
  • Soccer Ball Lamps (status) — lit: Three columns of soccer-ball lamps stand for left, centre and right, and each climbs from its own part of the table -- the left column off the left kicking rubber, the right column off the right rubber and the lit right ramp, the middle only off the lit centre target. · then: Match all three lamps along the plain white row to switch Superscore on -- ten million a shot, then twenty, then forty, and it survives across balls -- or match them along the top purple row to ready a hurry-up extra ball instead. The kicking rubbers keep knocking the outer columns out of true, so lean on the lit centre target as your one dependable column and time the outer two around it, then rush any purple alignment to the left side rollover inside its roughly twenty-second window.
  • Drop Target Bank (status) — lit: Sweeping the entire drop bank hands you one lit award out of five -- Extra Ball, Multi, Special, Ball and Points Rounds -- and the pick is yours, dialed in on the flipper buttons while the ball still waits in the shooter lane. · then: Knock down Multi and Ball to open the two lower holes for a three-ball multiball, whose ramp jackpot can climb to three hundred million. When all five awards are gone the bank starts giving Light Challenge, and a lost challenge match stands these lamps back up -- so spend the drop-target challenge before the goal-unit one to keep both routes alive. · control: Either flipper button: before the plunge, the flipper buttons scroll through the five drop-target awards; the one showing locks in the instant the ball goes live and cannot be changed after (while the ball is still sitting in the shooter lane)
  • Goal Unit (status) — lit: The goal stays closed nearly the whole time and pops open for just one shot whenever you earn the right -- from a skill shot, from a boo, or from the penalty-kick combo. Each one you score pays the current rung of the ladder, and the goal counter maxes out at ninety-nine. · then: When your one boo is already spent, you can still force the goal open: poke the goal unit to re-arm the concealed rollover drop, wait for the upper flipper lane to flash, and grab that target to spring the goal for a penalty kick. · control: Both flipper buttons: squeezing both flipper buttons at once boos the crowd and throws the goal open for one shot (once per ball, and a second one cannot be earned)
  • Challenge Holes (mode) — lit: Finishing CHALLENGE off the goal unit lights both lower holes for a challenge match; enter from whichever hole leaves the ball on the flipper you want when the round begins. · then: Put one goal away before the timer expires to move on -- there is no stalling here, a run-out clock is a loss. Rack up five match wins and both holes light together for the World Championship.
  • WORLD / CHALLENGE / SOCCER (letters) — lit: Three words spell at once as you play: CHALLENGE off the goal unit, WORLD off the centre target, SOCCER off the lower holes. Each finished letter adds a million to your out-hole bonus. · then: CHALLENGE opens the holes for a match, WORLD hands over the Center Target Round at ten million a hit, and SOCCER gives Players Choice -- eight free goals or a fresh multiball, and you go for the goals whenever your value is sitting high. Complete all three words and the bonus leaps to a hundred million.
  • Championship & Riot (mode) — lit: Five match wins throw both holes open for the World Championship, a three-ball multiball asking for three goals; the third pays fifty million, ends the round, and tips you straight into Riot. · then: Riot then lasts precisely as long as you can keep the multiball alive, at thirty million per shot, so letting it drain the moment the third goal drops hands back the richest stretch of the whole game. Push past fifty goals and the mystery award flips into Super Riot, a hundred million a shot.

Lane change: not verified for this machine yet.

Start scoring

  • Ball one — Pick your plunge -- a hard one runs the top rollover for three goals and a free open goal, a soft one settles into the top hole for its lit award. Then spend the ball driving that goal value up -- work the lit left standup and the centre target -- instead of wasting shots on low-value goals down at the foot of the ladder. — Skill Shot — Rollover, Skill Shot — Hole, Advance The Goal Value
  • Building — Sweep the drop bank for its rounds and to light multiball, match the soccer-ball lamps for Superscore, and begin taking challenge matches out of the holes. Remember that competition settings strip the luck out -- the bottom lamps begin already aligned and challenge wins stop carrying from one ball to the next. — Drop Target Awards, Line Up The Soccer Balls, Challenge Matches, Multiball And Jackpots, What Changes In Tournament Play
  • The big one — Win five challenge matches for the World Championship multiball and its three goals -- fifty million on the third -- then keep every ball alive through Riot, thirty million a shot for as long as the multiball lasts. Past fifty goals it becomes Super Riot at a hundred million a shot, the biggest scoring the machine will give you. — World Championship, Riot And Super Riot, The Mystery Award

Does World Challenge Soccer have an action button?

No separate button, but the flipper buttons do more here than flip. While the ball still sits in the shooter lane they scroll through the drop-target awards, and that choice locks once you plunge. Squeeze both buttons together during play and the goal opens for one shot — once per ball, so spend it on an extra ball.

Goals in World Challenge Soccer

Every goal below is tracked step-by-step, with shot paths drawn on the playfield map, inside the app.

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