This is my all-time favourite football game. It’s not easy to describe why this one is so special—maybe it’s the memories, or maybe it’s just that the game is amazing. Probably both.
Once the intro is over, the game greets you with a fairly clean and easy-to-understand menu. Personally, I find the WC98 menus beautiful. Not much fuss—just a couple of options, and you’re into the game.
When you think of WC98 and FIFA98, you might expect them to look identical. Strangely, I find WC98 more similar to FIFA99. WC98 was released about six months after FIFA98, so I suppose they made some improvements during that time, which is why it looks slightly better. This is just my personal opinion, though—don’t take it as fact.
This time, I was lucky enough to run the game with a 3DFX Voodoo 2 card, which makes a massive difference to the overall feel of the game. Weather effects weren’t great in software mode (if you don’t believe me, check my Actual Soccer 2 post and look at the snow). The snow, rain, and misty effects add a comforting atmosphere to the game.
The gameplay is what you’d expect. Mostly short passes through the centre or long passes from the wings to the box for a header (we called that orta-kafa-gol—don’t question it too much, just go with it). I think it was just less complex and more fun. “Less is more” fits here perfectly.
And of course, the main focus was the World Cup. You can see the qualified teams on this [Wikipedia article]. As far as I remember, you could pick multiple teams to play, but I’m not sure how it worked once you reached a point where those teams played against each other. I think you’d have to choose one.
In the videos, I played as Scotland, and it was fun. I finally won the World Cup, defeating Norway in the final.
The game doesn’t end here. It also has the “Cup Classics” option where you can play some old World Cup games. Once you are done winning the World Cup, they are definitely worth having a look.
I think this is just a game I adore. I can’t pinpoint any specific reason, but it just hits the right spot. I really enjoy playing it, and I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to try an old football game.
Hardware Specs used in the video:
Gigabyte GA-6BXC
Intel Pentium II MMX 266mhz
128MB SDRam
S3 Trio3D/2X
3DFX Voodoo II
Creative SoundBlaster Live! 5.1 (SB0100)
40GB Seagate HDD (IDE)
Microsoft Sidewinder Gamepad
