Actua Soccer 2

Featured Welsh Content

The Wales men’s national football team is playable.

As well as providing menu music for Actua Soccer 2, Welsh rock band Super Furry Animals feature as a playable team, unlocked by inputting a cheat code.

To unlock the team in the PlayStation version of the game, on the main menu players must press the following buttons in order: Left, Left, Square, Right, Right, Circle, Up, Down.

The band wanted to be digitised into their music video for 1997 song “Play It Cool”. Singer Gruff Rhys told FourFourTwo in an interview that the developers of Actua Soccer 2 said they could create video game footballer versions of the band members. The result for the video was singer Rhys and the other bandmates appearing as digital players for the Wales national team, with Rhys wearing casual clothes and the other guys in full kits. The team ended up beating Brazil in the process.

Following that, the band was asked if they wanted to feature as a team in the game. Upon agreeing, they were allowed to pick the names of their heroes to fill in the remaining slots for the rest of their squad. However, despite sending an email across, the developers used famous and historical figures that weren’t all of the band’s choosing.

According to a Select magazine interview (1, archived here), it seems Gruff and guitarist Huw Bunford weren’t pleased by some of the people chosen to make up the rest of the Super Furry Animals football team. That all said, the FourFourTwo interview ends with Gruff saying, “We loved it though. Very funny.”

When playing as the Super Furry Animals team in the game, advertising boardings around the football pitch feature the band’s name, the name of their album Radiator, and the song “Play It Cool”.

Screenshots for Actua Soccer 2

Videos for Actua Soccer 2