FIFA: Road to World Cup '98
- January 01, 2000 00:00 AM PST
{U.S. sports fans have never taken to soccer, but this outstanding game provides a glimpse of what gets the rest of the world so riled up. After a little quality time with FIFA '98, any true sports gamer will have a hard time putting down the controller.}
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World Cup Champion Like its excellent N64 counterpart (see "Sports Pages," this issue), FIFA's exhaustive feature list is longer than World Cup qualifications. Highlights include 360 national and club teams, 6400 real-life players, 16 stadiums, player and team creation, a killer practice mode, and complete management of strategy, formations, and more.
But what makes all that gel into a killer game is FIFA's fast, adrenaline-drenched gameplay. Excellent controls bring the action to life with a slick new passing cursor that lets you focus more on scoring and deke moves, not some field-radar overlay. Wild special moves like 360-degree spins spice things up, too.
Visually, FIFA smokes the competition with dazzling, fluidly animated polygonal players and awesome stadiums. The sounds score, too, with a star-studded soundtrack (Blur and Crystal Method) and great crowd chants, but the colorless onfield effects and commentators come up a little short.
Goal! Goal! Goal! U.S. sports fans have never taken to soccer, but this outstanding game provides a glimpse of what gets the rest of the world so riled up. After a little quality time with FIFA '98, any true sports gamer will have a hard time putting down the controller.
