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Football! Eh? Don't we all love football! The way they kick it with their feet, the lovely round shape of the ball, the haircuts. It's a game of at least two halves. And have you seen when they score a goal? Gosh, everyone gets so excited about that. What a time.
OK, look, I have to admit something. That first paragraph - that's not really me. That was the result of hours researching the subject in an attempt to pass myself off as a connoisseur of the sport. But as convincing as it may have been, I can't keep it up. I know about as much about foot-to-ball as a gnat comprehends of string theory. Which is something I have in common with International Superstar Soccer 64.
Some of you may have noticed that the World Cup is taking place at the moment. Perhaps you'll have heard it mentioned on the television, read an article about it in a newspaper, or been outside with your eyes open.
The best place to get cheats, codes, cheat codes, hints, tips, tricks, and secrets for the Nintendo 64 (N64). This is a list of games released solely for a specific console. For related lists of other consoles. Densha de Go! 64 1999 Taito. International Superstar Soccer 64 1997 Konami Konami, JP, NA, PAL, Sports/Soccer. Gaming Hacks.
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As the entire county drapes itself in the brutal flag of the English crusades, apparently in the belief that this peculiar display of faux-patriotism in their cul-de-sac will have a significant impact upon the success of a team of players on another continent, this sporting event dominates all senses. (Yes, things even smell of the World Cup.)
For those of us who don't suddenly develop an interest in a sport that we otherwise find tedious, just because it's played on an international scale, there is no escape. It is omnipresent, and not to care is to be a pariah, hounded from towns like a paedophile wolf.
So by opting to write about a football videogame I realise I'm not exactly helping. But during this time when football is as loud and monotonous as the vuvuzelas that accompany it, I found it interesting to recall the one time I've enjoyed the sport. And that was university days playing ISS 64 with my housemates.
I loved playing it. And while I've played various incarnations of the FIFA series over the years, none has ever brought me a great deal of pleasure. There was something about Konami's cartoon creation that seemed to evade concerns about realism, and instead focus on being an arcade game. In other words, I didn't necessarily lose every game I played.
I've returned to it this week, having found a copy for the N64 that has mysteriously appeared beneath my television. (Theory: If you put enough old consoles in one cupboard - Dreamcast, Megadrive, PSX, GameCube, and Xbox - eventually an N64 will manifest.) And I really couldn't be much more pleased to discover it's even more bee-in-a-tumble-drier insane than I remembered.
ISS 64 seems to have about as tight a grip on the rules of football as I do. I'm aware of the basics, I can even take a good stab at what the offside rule is. (For those who don't know, it goes something like: 'If there are three men stood within seven metres of the opposing goal line, when the goalie is touching his knees, then a ball kicked in an arch of more than 55 degrees has to bounce twice before a player can run faster than 10mph.')
I know that you're only allowed to kick another player in the face if the referee isn't watching, and that if you lose possession of the ball in a tackle you must collapse to the ground, rolling back and forth, holding your shin and crying. A rough outline of the game. And ISS 64 knows this.
International Superstar Soccer 98 | |
---|---|
North American cover art featuring Carlos Valderrama | |
Developer(s) | Konami Computer Entertainment Osaka |
Publisher(s) | Konami |
Director(s) | Yasuo Okuda |
Producer(s) | Katsuya Nagae |
Series | International Superstar Soccer |
Platform(s) | Nintendo 64 |
Release |
|
Genre(s) | Sports |
Mode(s) | Single-player, multiplayer |
International Superstar Soccer 98 (officially abbreviated as ISS 98 and known as Jikkyou World Soccer: World Cup France '98 in Japan) is a soccervideo game developed by Konami Computer Entertainment Osaka which was released exclusively for the Nintendo 64. It was released at the same time as International Superstar Soccer Pro 98, developed by Konami Computer Entertainment Tokyo (KCET) for the PlayStation.
Although it lacked a FIFPro licence, it featured Italian striker Fabrizio Ravanelli along with German goalkeeper Andreas Koepke (on German release) and Paul Ince (on British release) on the cover. The cover of the North American version featured Colombian player Carlos Valderrama, and the game featured licence from Reebok to use their logos in adboards and the Chile national football team kits.
Content[edit]
Due to the date of release, the game focuses on 1998 FIFA World Cup and includes each qualified team plus more. Every team which participated in tournament has home, away and goalkeeper World Cup official kits featuring manufacturer logos and national emblems and the rest has those used in qualifications. In the European version, the squads are in accordance with official 1998 FIFA World Cup squads as well. Teams that did not qualify have line-ups from the qualifiers (in the North American version, all teams have lineups from the qualifiers). However the players' names are misspelled due to the lack of a FIFPro license, though they have their actual numbers, appearance, age, height, weight and abilities. In the European version, the game has more sponsors other than Reebok, such as Apple and Continental AG, which appear in adboards.
The Japanese version was an officially licensed World Cup product and included accurate player names, though stylised with Japanese text.
Game modes[edit]
International Superstar Soccer 98 featured 6 different game modes:
- Open Game: a friendly match against the computer or another player with choices of stadium, weather and time of day, as well as match handicaps (player condition, goalkeeper strength and number of players on the field, from 7 to 11). It was also possible to spectate CPU vs. CPU matches.
- International Cup: This mode is where the player selects a team from one region and attempts to get them to the International Cup 98, starting from the respective region's qualifiers.
- World League: 48 international teams participate in a round-robin tournament with home and away matches.
- Scenario: 16 situations wherein the player is placed in a match in progress. Depending on the difficulty, the player must either administer a victory (in easier matches), or win a match by breaking a tie or turning the result around (in higher difficulties).
- Penalty Kick Mode: Two teams take a series of five penalty kicks to select the winner. In case of a draw, they undergo successive sudden death rounds.
- Training: Practice of shooting free kicks, corner kicks and defensive play with a selected team. The player may also practice freely on the entire field without an opposite team.
Teams[edit]
52 national teams are featured in the game, in addition to six All-Star teams, only accessible through a cheat code or by winning the 'World League' on level 5.
- Germany
- France
- Italy
- Switzerland
- Austria
- Norway
- Denmark
- Sweden
- England
- Scotland
- Wales
- Northern Ireland
- Republic of Ireland
- Spain
- Portugal
- Netherlands
- Belgium
- Yugoslavia
- Croatia
- Romania
- Bulgaria
- Russia
- Greece
- Turkey
- Japan
- South Korea
- Saudi Arabia
- United Arab Emirates
- Iran
- Australia
- Kazakhstan
- Uzbekistan
- Cameroon
- Nigeria
- South Africa
- Tunisia
- Morocco
- Egypt
- Liberia
- Ghana
- United States
- Canada
- Jamaica
- Mexico
- Brazil
- Argentina
- Colombia
- Uruguay
- Paraguay
- Bolivia
- Chile
- Peru
Reception[edit]
Next Generation reviewed the Nintendo 64 version of the game, rating it four stars out of five, and stated that 'After a few hours of play, you'll forgive the apparent lack of improvement and realize that subtlety is everything in the most popular sport on Earth.'[1]
Review aggregatorsMetacritic and GameRankings gave 91[2] and 89.15%[3] respectively. Cubed3 gave International Superstar Soccer 98 8 out of 10 praising its ridiculously addictive gameplay, create-a-player, six various modes (which have an option of 64 teams, nine stadiums, four weather conditions and a choice of night or day) and the ability to play multiplayer with up to three players.[4]
References[edit]
- ^'Finals'. Next Generation. No. 44. Imagine Media. August 1998. p. 87.
- ^'International Superstar Soccer '98'. Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved 2018-01-14.
- ^'International Superstar Soccer '98'. GameRankings. CBS Interactive. Retrieved 2018-01-14.
- ^Adam Riley (2006-03-21). 'International Superstar Soccer 98 (Nintendo 64) Review'. Cubed3. Retrieved 2018-01-14.
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