International Superstar Soccer 98


International Superstar Soccer 98 is a soccer video 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 for the PlayStation.
Although it lacked a FIFPro licence, it featured Italian striker Fabrizio Ravanelli along with German goalkeeper Andreas Koepke and Paul Ince 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

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. 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 also included unlicensed player names, save for the Japanese squad.

Game modes

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. 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, or win a match by breaking a tie or turning the result around.
  • 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

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.
*

Reception

The game received "universal acclaim" according to the review aggregation website Metacritic. Cubed3 praised the game's "ridiculously addictive" gameplay, create-a-player, six various modes and the ability to play multiplayer with up to three players. GamePro, however, said, "Soccer fans will find little reason to kick off with ISS '98." In Japan, Famitsu gave it a score of 33 out of 40.
Next Generation said in its August 1998 issue, "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. The only thing that could really improve this series would be the inclusion of real players' names and correct uniforms. Until that happens, Superstar Soccer is just a shade short of perfect." Six issues later, the magazine ranked it at #50 in its list of the Fifty Best Games of All Time, saying that the game "simply represents one of the finest examples of the genre. Although soccer in the U.S. enjoys nowhere near the popularity of other sports, the quality of this simulation should ensure its place on every serious gamer's shelf."