So the demo is out, the girlfriends have been warned and the nation awaits. The latest installment of FIFA is set to hit shops on the 30th of this month, but that’s a few weeks away yet. So we thought what better way of preparing for twelve hour “Career Mode” sessions, than to take a stroll down memory lane, and to take a look at some of the games from years gone by that have helped ruin our vision and brought on arthritis in our thumbs. These games are major contributing factors to the fact that we are running this website from an assortment of spare rooms and dining room tables instead of performing brain surgery or having a desk to call our own… Ah Halcyon days.
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Striker (SNES)-
This 1992 release was the best, and possibly only, football game to come out on the Super Nintendo. Players got a birds eye view of the pitch, and when playing against the computer, always attacked the goal upwards in the first half. For some reason it was a lot easier to shoot downwards (probably something to do with gravity,) and as a result, games would often finish 9-0 having been 0-0 at half time.
It’s easy to look back at games like this and mock them twenty years later, (which makes compiling this list easy) but there are some features in this title that modern day developers should consider. For example an old school electronic scoreboard along the bottom of the screen (think Deutschland 1 England 5,) told you how much time was left and unsurprisingly, the score, a lovely touch. Another nice feature is indoor football, played at frantic pace, tactically kicking the ball against the wall is like having another five players on the pitch, football without thrown ins is much more fun.
The big thing that developers could learn from this game though, is how to do an opening video. Real football fans don’t want to see a glossy Kaka walking out of a tunnel. They want a picture of a muscular man showing, if anything, a bit too much leg, a swirling camera montage that leaves you dizzy, followed by a run down of who the current cup holders are. All together now….. du du du duuuuuu du, da du du du du du.
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New Star Soccer (PC)-
NSS was the gaming world’s best kept secret for a long long time. You had to know a guy, who had a mate, who has an uncle, who’s window cleaner says this game is amazing, to even know it exists, and you know what, that mythical window cleaner was bloody right.
This indie masterpiece really broke the mould as individuals would control just one player, and guide him through a career in the beautiful game. Just as in real life, the first step was go to for a trial with a small club, after successfully negotiating your way around some cones and scoring into an empty net, your player was deemed good enough to play for Woking. From there on you would have to manage your diet, training schedule, sponsorship, transfers and put in a decent shift every Saturday. Not only that, you’d have to keep the missus happy by getting her a new pair of shoes, stay integrated with the team by going out for a few drinks every now and again, go visit mum to stay in the family’s good books and all this whilst staying on top of your gambling addiction.
There is no more satisfying feeling than controlling a player who keeps falling over because he is still drunk from last night’s boozing session. NSS5 was released last month, and we think you could do worse than have a pop at the demo.
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FIFA Road To World Cup 1998 (Playstation)-
The argument over which was the best FIFA ever, very rarely lasts long, as everyone seems to unanimously agree that Road To World Cup 98 is head and shoulders above the others. Of course the beauty of this game is you never actually get to play the World Cup, (we would have to wait 6 months and save up plenty pocket money for that pleasure,) but you did get to play the qualification rounds. As a result England fans got to play mouth watering ties against the underrated Moldovans and the tasty looking Georgians.
This game just oozed class though. From the moment Song 2 by Blur blasts out on the loading screen this game delivers a product that its rivals would take years to match. The game featured all 173 FIFA registered countries, had individual player faces (so the player actually looked like Beckham not just player face type E) and had ladies man Des Lynam introducing the commentators as the players walked out, just like he did on the telly!
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Play For Your Club (World Wide Web):
Millions of children grow up dreaming of playing for their team, and millions of teenagers feel all depressed when they realize it just isn’t going to happen. Play For Your Club does exactly what it says on the tin, like a virtual Cilla Black, it yells ‘Surprise, Surprise’ at gamers, who finally get the chance to don the colors of their favorite team and represent their club against the rest of the nation/world. The game was simple; you needed the space bar and cursor keys. You were a striker bearing down on goal, crosses would come in from the left-hand side of the screen, and thanks to some suspect marking by some angry looking defenders, (who thought hurling abuse at you, rather than closing down was an effective way of defending) you were able to shoot at goal. The more goals your team scored the higher up the leader board/league table the team went. Cue football messageboards all over the country going into meltdown as dozens of lower league fans attempted to get their team above United.
Have a quick go, for old times sake: Playforyourclub.com
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Pro Evolution Soccer 2-
No list of great football games would be complete without a mention of Konami’s finest hour. Pro Evo vs. FIFA was a modern day David and Goliath, and for that reason it was so much easier to fall in love with the underdog. Sure Pro Evo didn’t look pretty and was on a shoestring budget, but chances are if you were spending all your time playing computer games in 2003, you could probably relate to that.
FIFA had the licenses, the graphics, decent commentators, and yet all that paled into insignificance, as Pro Evo, was one for the working classes, an underdog story, a cult classic. Sure we had to make do clubs called Lake District, an England forward line of Flowen and Beskey ,and we had to listen to Trevor Brooking talk in clichés that had no relevance to the match whatsoever, but this game was brilliant . The gameplay was superb, never had a gamer been in such control of the players on the pitch, scoring 30 yard screamers had never been so satisfying. And what about Master League, starting off with a complete bunch of no marks (expect Ivanov in goal he was alright, and to be fair Valery and Iorga we’re solid defenders) and four months later winning League B by one point.
So a toast, would you all like to join us in raising a joypad and thanking Konami, because Pro Evolution Soccer 2 was, in our humble opinion, the best football game ever made.
Liam Monahan
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Remember Valery, Bajora and Castello were up front. PES has always been better than FIFA in my opinion. That’s because I’m stubborn.
my friend posted this up on FB, amazing article, brought back so many memories, my first memory of a football game was on the mega drive, FIFA 96.. was AMAAZING. you could commit a foul & run away from the referee for hours unless you ran off the pitch. haha.
cracking article.
No room on here for baggio’s licensed number on snes or sensible soccer? Dissapointed…..
Utter genius! That opening salvo from Striker is class, as is the opening scene to RTWC98 – I remember getting that for Christmas! Did anyone ever play Ultimate Soccer Manager game on the PC, where you could set the price of the hot dogs and give your bank manager a name?