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ISS'98 Review
Gavin Frankle
00/12/0000
There are two kinds of people in this world - Those who worship EA Sports and those who would rather see them bludgeoned to death with a spoon.
Personally, I fall into the latter category. There's no doubting that they single handedly revolutionised sports gaming, but I can't stand the way they release the same product every year with a handful of new features and a supposed overhaul of the graphics engine.
I could go on and on about why I dislike EA Sports, but I'd rather talk about a company that, in my humble opinion has created THE best soccer game of recent years, Konami. Best known for the Castlevania series, Konami is the last company I would have expected to create a great soccer game, but lucky for me they did. While ISS 64 was an excellent game it did lack in certain areas, however these have all been addressed in the latest version, International Superstar Soccer 98(ISS 98 for short).
I didn't want to compare the FIFA series of games with ISS, but to accurately describe just how good ISS 98 is, I need a frame of reference and unfortunately the majority of people haven't even heard of ISS, let alone played it.
In terms of gameplay, ISS wipes the FIFA series off the face of the planet. Tight control, silky-smooth animation, superb presentation and intelligent A.I all come together in one dynamite package. The animation is some of the best I have ever seen. Players run, turn, volley, bicycle, dive and slide just like their real-life counterparts. The game claims to use 17,000 animations, which I think is a slight exaggeration, but when players look and move this well, who cares?
Thankfully, the game feels as good as it looks. Each move seems to be mapped to just the right button. Everyone I know who has played this game instantly takes a liking to the default controller setup, something very rare indeed. The A and B buttons are used for passing and shooting, and as has become standard in most soccer games, the longer you hold the button, the harder the pass or shot. The left C button is used to lob the ball, the right C button initiates a one-two pass, the bottom C button makes your player run faster and the top C button plays a through ball, which one of your computer-controlled teammates runs onto perfectly. The R button changes the user controlled player to the player nearest to the ball and the Z button is used to put some curve on the ball.
The control setup, while elegantly simple, overwhelms most players their first time and does take time to get used too, but once mastered you soon realise just how well the control scheme is set up. Besides your standard moves there are also rainbow kicks, dummies and feints that can be performed with a combination of buttons. The game's Artificial Intelligence is some of the best I've ever seen in a sports game. Teammates run onto through balls and they'll continue a run after a one-two in an attempt to make some space for you. It's all really fantastic and comes together seamlessly. However, that said, the goalie A.I could use some improving. At times they pull of fantastic saves and at others look like complete idiots, missing straight shots and fumbling soft ones. While it can be annoying, I like the fact that they screw-up occasionally, it really makes them look almost human instead of scripted A.I.
The atmosphere created by the game is also phenomenal, members of the crowd wave their countries' flags and the rest chant or boo depending on what's happening to the home side. The commentary, however, is laughable and is easily overshadowed by the FIFA series of games. Voiced by Tony Gubba, out friendly commentator says some of the most inane things you've ever heard. Sometimes he'll exclaim "That should be a penalty!", when a player gets tackled in the middle of the pitch! The commentary really isn't great, but is good enough to not annoy you, eventhough you've heard the same phrases a million times before.
Another area where the ISS lacks is regarding official team and player names. Each player looks and acts just like their real-life counterparts, but have garbled versions of their names. For example, Teddy Sheringham is called Sherigham. While it's possible to edit the teams to reflect their proper player names, it takes up space on your memory pak and is quite an undertaking if you plan on doing all the international teams! I applaud EA Sports for their use of official licenses and really hope that Konami picks up the licenses soon(As a point of interest, they did pick up the MLS license for their soon to be released soccer game).
Friendly matches aside, the game offers a variety of modes including a tournament, a world-league and a scenario mode where you are given a set task to complete. For instance, in one scenario, you are Japan and must come back from 2-0 down against Brazil in the last 3 minutes of the game. It's a great feature that I had a lot of fun with.
As you've obviously guessed, I love ISS 98 and have gushed like a giddy schoolgirl about almost every detail of the game, but as hard as I've tried to flesh out every detail of the game, it's an impossible task and like the Matrix, I cannot tell you what ISS is, you must see it for yourself. Even with Konami set to release their new version of ISS I'd still suggest that you give this game a rent if you're not sure whether to lay down the cash for it, but do play it.
