With the current Brazil
World Cup happening right now, I wanted to reflect on a soccer game I used to
love as a kid; FIFA International Soccer.
The game was published by Electronic Arts in 1993, and I played it on my
Sega Genesis. The game had an isometric
view (I had to look that up), that gave gamers a new angle to view a soccer
game. This allowed for an almost 3D like
effect that opened up a perspective to distinctly see what your players were
doing. As crisp as the graphics were, so
were the controls because they were simple to learn and allowed you to do what
you wanted to do. It didn’t take much
time to master the game, but once you did it created an intense environment to
play against your friends (up to 4 people at a time).
Other great features
about this game were the sound of the crowd cheering, a coin toss before a game,
the ability to choose a field type, the picture-in-picture screen that allowed
you to view where you wanted a long kick or throw to go, instant replay
(allowing you to gloat and mock your opponent), and the ability to shove and slide
tackle a player. I would like to
emphasize this last ability because it was similar to the same fighting option found
in EA’s NHLPA Hockey '93. It was EA’s
inclusion of details like this that made their sports games so revolutionary
and enjoyable.
This
game was also significant for me because I got it around the same time the USA
World Cup was happening, so I was able to actually see my favorite teams play
such as Brazil and Argentina. Though admittedly when I did master the game and
had won the World Cup several times using Brazil/Argentina, my next challenge was
to try to win it using the worst team; Qatar.
By doing that I was able to get so many replays out of that game by
adding a new challenge. And this is what
makes FIFA International Soccer so memorable for me and why I will always
regard it as the best soccer video game ever made.
FIFA
video games Wiki:
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