By Simon Wright - Follow me on Twitter @Siwri88
Football has
become one of the most popular simulations available for video game
addicts. There have been a range of
different titles over the years, and in a new regular series for Simon’s
Football Zone, I will be reviewing some of these games. They will range from excellent playable
games, to titles that were probably best being left on the shelf.
It is 20
years since the FIFA series started and I’ve been lucky enough to own all but
one title at some point during my life. Next
up is FIFA 97.
FIFA 97
Released: 24 June 1996
Systems: PlayStation, Windows 98, SEGA Saturn,
SEGA Mega Drive/Genesis, Nintendo Game Boy
Cover Stars: David Ginola
After the
rousing success of FIFA 96, hopes were high for FIFA 97 but unfortunately, it
failed to live upto expectations.
EA Sports
worked hard in 1997 to improve their graphics systems once again, and received
help from dashing French winger David Ginola (pictured on the cover).
Ginola, then a Newcastle United player is the cover star for the European
versions and provided the team with motion capture sensitivity allowing for
better player movement. Unfortunately,
this meant EA seemed to ignore the improvements that could have been made to
the playing side of the game.
Although the
reviews in magazines at the time were decent enough, with GameSpot scoring the
PC version a solid 8/10, others claimed the game plays worse despite the better
graphics. Having had only access to the
Mega Drive version (for the final time in 1997), I can only partially agree
with the general consensus as FIFA 97 on these machines was a poor cousin
relation to the 3D graphics that were accessible on Windows 98 operating
systems and the Sony PlayStation which was starting to leave SEGA Saturn in its
dust.
The main
bonus in FIFA 97 is the new concept of indoor tournament matches. With no throw-ins or corners in the indoor
matches, it not only offers an alternative for those bored with 11-a-side but
it makes this gameplay experience even faster.
FIFA have since developed the separate and fairly mediocre FIFA Street
series since, but even that struggles to topple the early days of street
football.
One other
point of note, there are two more familiar figures in media that join up. Former Sky Sports commentator Andy Gray joins
John Motson to analyse the latest action on the field, but not quite the same
way he does in real-life and Des Lynam provides brief introductions. Sadly there are some commentary glitches in
FIFA 97. The most unfortunate and funny
one at the same time is that Motson always seems to hiccup whenever the Italian
player Alessandro Del Piero gets tackled.
Very odd!
The FIFA
license was now four years old, but still had struggled to develop two
tremendous games back-to-back. FIFA 98
would however move the goalposts even further.
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