FIFA Road to World Cup 98

"EA makes up for the mediocre FIFA 64 and now even rivals ISS"

It was only a matter of time until the popular and lucrative FIFA series would be brought to the Nintendo 64 by EA, considering Nintendo´s track record back then, but unfortunately, the series´ debut FIFA 64 turned out to be a bland and utterly disappointing affair, completely overshadowed by the fantastic International Superstar Soccer 64 at the same time, gathering Konami several enthusiastic reviews. So it was only natural that EA had to make up for their failure with the first 64-bit FIFA title and release a title worth of the series´ former glory and able to compete with ISS. And boy, did they succeed with FIFA: Road to World Cup 98!

The biggest advantage of the FIFA series over its competition has always been the official FIFA license, allowing EA to use real player and club names, a fact that always makes the experience more enjoyable if you can play with your favorite team. And of course, this feature returns here, but the amount of real players, club teams and national teams here is simply overwhelming. First of all, you have all teams and hence all players from the most important leagues like the German Bundesliga, the Spanish Primera Division, the English Premier League, the French Ligue 1, the Dutch Eredivisie or the Italian Serie-A. This allows you to play an entire season with your favorite team, and not only can you attend league matches, but also cup-matches or European Cup matches in order to add to the realism. Some well made statistics as well as various tactics you can choose from make the league mode a well of fun already, but the real treat is the World Cup Qualifier mode. Here, you can choose from every single nation that is a member of the FIFA and lead it to the World Cup 1998 in France. This means that you can play the qualifiers in the CONCACAF, UEFA, CAF, CONMEBOL, OFC and AFC regions, and that alone is an incredible feat I myself really enjoyed a lot, and I can assure you that it will be a pleasure for soccer fans who are interested in foreign teams as well, and it really gives you a feeling of accomplishment and satisfaction to lead your team through the long qualifier campaign to the World Cup tournament. This kind of realism already gathers FIFA a big plus in my book, but the gameplay itself does not disappoint, either. The controls are easy to learn and provide you with a variety of different moves during the matches. However, one must say that sometimes, the game does not feel as dynamic as International Superstar Soccer, sometimes even a little too slow, and it is debatable whether that is realistic or not. In any case, it does not detract much from the fun you´ll be having while playing FIFA. In terms of difficulty, FIFA is very fair as you can choose the difficulty level by yourself, even though in the highest level, even experts won´t be challenged that much. Still, FIFA 98 is without a doubt one of the best soccer games ever, despite these minor flaws.

The visuals are another huge improvement over FIFA 64, a game that was plagued by some heavy slowdowns, wooden player-animations as well as shoddy textures and player models. While the players still do not resemble their real life counterparts 100%, the models are very well done for a Nintendo 64 game, and they are smoothly animated this time around, something that is especially visible in the goal- and victory-scenes. The only minor flaw concerning the visuals is the fact that EA did not manage to erase the slowdowns completely, and sometimes, when you´re passing the ball to one of your teammates over a large distance, this can be seen pretty clearly by frame-rate inconsistencies, but they fortunately don´t have much influence on the flow of the game. While it does not reach the high level of ISS64, FIFA 98 still succeeds in terms of visuals.

The audio in FIFA really is a high point of the game. This time, the game has been provided with a surround-sound option, and it really shows - especially during the matches. Once again, the atmosphere in the stadium is excellent, thanks to the background sounds consisting of the chanting and cheering crowds, and they sometimes will even boo when a player commits a mean foul. EA was indeed able to emulate the experience of being in a stadium and being overwhelmed by the mood and the atmosphere. Despite the limited sound-capabilities of the Nintendo 64, FIFA 98 even has some voice acting, consisting of a commentary during the matches. While the vocabulary that is being used is somewhat limited, it is still nice to see some voice acting on the N64 whatsoever, and while the comments sometimes do not really fit the current situation, it´s overall professionally done.

EA Sports really was able to satisfy disappointed fans with this game, managing to erase all unpleasant memories left of FIFA 64. With this game, the FIFA series truly has arrived on the N64, and it´s more than a worthy competitor with International Superstar Soccer. N64 gamers who happen to be soccer fans cannot go wrong with this title, and it´s still among the best in its genre.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 10/30/06