International Superstar Soccer 2000

"Why do so many people think this game is so great?"

I’ll be the first to admit that this is unorthodox for me, but I rented a game today that was so bad, I returned it after playing 4 games. That game, of course, is International Superstar Soccer 2000. Words cannot even begin to describe the anger and frustration that I feel. Personally, it astounds me how so many people love this game and other Konami soccer games. Just about everything is done wrong here.

Let’s start with the actual action out on the field. You should notice almost right away the most major thing wrong with this game. YOU CANNOT SWITCH YOUR OWN PLAYERS. You stay the player you are until the CPU decides there’s someone else on your team who can make the play better, and then boom, you’re that other player. Would you like to switch to the furthest back player when your opponent is breaking free? Sorry, no can do. You’ll just have to wait till he’s the “closest” player to your opponent, and by then, he might have blown by you. It continually astounds me how so many people can complain about how you can’t manually change your fielder in World Series Baseball 2K1 (Dreamcast), and yet in a soccer game, where it’s much more important, no one says anything. Is this part of a huge conspiracy by Konami? Maybe. However, the crappiness of ISS2000 doesn’t end there.

For another major flaw, shots are near impossible to control. According to the instruction manual, to change the strength of your shot, hold your Shoot button down longer. That’s easy enough, but the stickler comes with the height. You’re supposed to “lean” the control stick. The more “leaned” the stick is, the higher the shot. Never mind the fact that this makes absolutely no sense, it also doesn’t work. Think about it yourself. You’re already tilting the control stick to aim your shot. How the HELL are you also supposed to “lean” it to adjust the height?!?!? Also, I’ve had the stick “leaned” as far as it can “lean”, and the ball has been glued to the ground.

You’d think after the flaws in shooting and defense, passing would be a bit better. Well, you’d be wrong. First of all, every time you press your Pass button, it’s interpreted as another pass. So if you hit Pass 4 times, the next 4 times the ball gets to a player, it will immediately be passed away. And if you’re like me and you jam the button as hard as you can to get the pass off faster, this is a really bad thing. The rest of the passing works okay, except for the fact that whenever you hit the Lob button, your players like kicking it out of bounds to give the opponent a throw-in.

Want another major flaw? Then you should look at the officiating. At least some of their calls are understandable. For example, if you slide tackle a goalie, it’s a red card, no questions asked. If you slide tackle someone from behind, it’s a foul, and probably a yellow card. But other refereeing decisions are a bit stranger, especially in the manner they hand out cards. The best way to show this is by giving you an example of what has actually happened to me. On a play in my own penalty box, I slid, and I missed the enemy player. A second later, he tripped over my foot on the ground, and inexplicably, the ref called a foul and a penalty shot. As if I wasn’t already livid, he then proceeded to hand my player a red card! FROM THE OPPONENT TRIPPING OVER HIS FOOT ON THE GROUND!! I understand in real life there is human error in referees; after all, I am a soccer ref myself. But why, why, WHY does this have to be present in a video game? When you’re playing a game where errors like that can be avoided, you don’t want to be screwed out of a victory by a decision like that.

The game is also prone to glitches. I had an opponent with a throw-in in my territory, and he just refused to throw it in. I thought maybe that it was because I was covering his intended target too closely, so I ran far away from him. Still no throw-in from the brain dead player. Eventually, I decided to quit the game and paused it. Guess what? There was no option to quit!! My only choice was to restart my Nintendo 64. This is just another shining example of the overall shoddy programming by Konami.

Finally, the last major flaw (I think...) that can be found in the gameplay is this: The teams play practically equally! I’ve seen, and in the short time I played this game, been on both sides of a decision where a tiny European country rated lowly has defeated a soccer superpower such as Brazil. The only real difference that can be discerned between the teams is how fast the players move. Dribbling is barely even taken into account, if at all. Even if you’re the best soccer player in the world, you won’t be able to dribble by 2-3 opponents. I play soccer in real life, and I can assure you this is not the way it really is.

By now you may be asking, are there any redeemable qualities in the game despite the flaws on the field? Yes, there is...there are several modes, including an intriguing Career mode, a mode where you try to take a team from qualifying to the World Cup, and even a Euro Cup mode. The graphics are decent; however, the sound is flawed as well. The announcers are boring, and music is practically nonexistent. This may be an isolated case, but my game decided to just turn off my sound itself. Why, I don’t know.

If you read this review, and you still want to rent or, god help you, buy ISS2000, I can’t do anything more to help you. Just remember what I said before: I returned the game the day I rented it. I’ve never done that before. Not even for Rampage 2 or South Park, two other horrible games for Nintendo 64. If you STILL want to give Konami a chance, whatever. Just don’t come crying to me after you realize the error in your ways...

Reviewer's Score: 2/10, Originally Posted: 11/14/00, Updated 01/07/02