The game presents a top-down view of a simple version of soccer (there are no fouls, substitutions, or strategies). Players must dribble and pass the ball towards one end of the field and try to score a goal by forcing the ball into the opposing team's net.

This is the second World Cup official licensed franchise game based on the 1990 FIFA World Cup featuring the official logo and the mascot, the first having been the ill-fated and little-known World Cup Carnival for the 1986 FIFA World Cup. The game gives official groups, teams and the fidelity schedule of the championship. Gameplay occurs at a birds eye view.

It was ported by U.S. Gold for DOS, Amiga, Atari ST, Commodore 64 and ZX Spectrum. The Spectrum version of the game went to number 2 in the UK sales charts, behind Manchester United. After the World Cup, the game was released as World Championship Soccer and later renamed to Sega Soccer on the Mega 6 compilation cartridge on the Mega Drive removing the Virgin Mastertronic credits. In Brazil was released with the name Super Futebol II.

World Cup Italia 90 sees the player given the choice of participating as any of the teams that featured in the tournament itself, and no qualifying tournaments to reach the World Cup are available on this game.