1985–86 in English football Cup. 13 June 1986 – Southampton sign 19-year-old goalkeeper Tim Flowers from Wolverhampton Wanderers for £70,000, while 23-year-old midfielder Ian Crook joins Norwich City from Tottenham Hotspur for £80,000. 18 June 1986 – England beat Paraguay 3–0 to reach the World Cup quarter-finals for the first time since 1970. 22 June 1986 – England's World Cup challenge is ended in the quarter-finals when they lose 2–1 to Argentina. Diego Maradona scores both goals for Argentina, his first goal being the controversial "Hand of God" goal which was allowed despite being an obvious handball. England reached the quarter-finals of the 1986
God Hand contained some comic relief, the team decided to integrate a large amount of comedy into the game based on the viewers' reactions. Inaba stated that "God Hand" is "aimed at hardcore gamers," which is shown in its hard difficulty. Unlike "Viewtiful Joe" and "Ōkami", the design team had no particular goal when designing the graphical style of "God Hand" other than that they wanted it to look more realistic. Although "God Hand" appears to share many elements with manga and anime such as "Fist of the North Star" and "MD Geist", none were actually used as inspiration for the game.