Football games are arguably the best games in their flexibility – you can play them alone and build up your career, or you can have some real fun and find a friend to play with. For me, modern football games are the best recreation of the beautiful game I’ve ever seen, but they don’t have that same fun factor I remember from the big games of the 90s and 2000s. With that in mind here are my picks (in no particular order) for the top 5 football games of all time…
1. FIFA 99 – PlayStation Version, 1998
It was a tough choice between the 90’s FIFAs, but if we’re going for the best, then FIFA 99 will always come top. Graphically it was better than anything that came before it, and some that came after it (I’m looking at you FIFA 2000), and in regards to gameplay it upped the responsiveness and pace of matches, making it much more true to the beautiful game and graphically it was a leap forward with facial animations starting to appear and more distinct differences between players. If you look for the FIFA game that cemented its legacy and paved the way for future incarnations, then 99 is where you’ll be looking.
2. Sensible World of Soccer – Amiga Version, 1994
Now I’ll be honest, I’m not sure which version of the Amiga this was on (there were a few), but the sequel to Sensible Soccer was so good that it’s actually in a list of the most important games of all time as compiled by Stanford University! SWOS kept the same 2D top-down gameplay that made the series popular and instead focused on adding more gameplay functionality, the career mode added a crazy amount of depth to the game and the number of teams and players was actually astronomical (1500 teams and 27000 players!). If you’ve never played it then you really need to, and like any football game, SWOS is always better with a friend.
3. Pro Evolution Soccer 2 – PS2 Version, 2003
PES vs. FIFA is something that has been a constant in the footballing game world; from year to year, the battle between the two is strong, with people on both sides shouting for their cause. For me personally though, 2003 is when I moved away from FIFA and stepped into PES. From a gameplay point of view, PES 2 was almost perfect, the old easy to play hard to master adage reigns true here (although it was pretty hard to play, taking a good playing before you could even get into your opponents area) and with a faster pace to the game which allowed for quicker play and better reactions you really felt like every goal had been earned instead of just fluked. Also the Netherlands were called ‘Oranges’ which always gave me a chuckle.
4. Actua soccer 3 – Playstation version, 1998
Remember Actua Soccer? Now that was a great series that went nowhere and disappeared from all knowledge, but at least before they left they graced us with the greatest Alan Shearer related cover any boy could wish for! Actua soccer 3 was huge with over 450 teams for you to choose from, all looking as realistic as you’d want from a game of the time, and giving you gameplay that relied on you thinking about what you were doing at all times never letting you lose focus on your position and the position of your other players. Actua Soccer 3 was one of the few football games that make you feel like you’re in control of every player on the pitch.
5. International Superstar Soccer Pro 98 – Playstation Version, 1998
The king of football games with no license giving every player a hilarious name (Ronarid as Ronaldo anyone) ISS Pro is actually the game series that turned into the current PES series and as such was a great Konami football game. Great graphics for the time and sound effects that made every kick of the ball sound like you were knocking on a mates door made this game, and again a tough learning curve where you really had to think about how much power you were going to put on any shot made it a tough game, but one that once you knew how was a 10 all round…except sound effects.
So that’s the top 5 football games of all time (or of 1998 apparently!), it was tough, I had to leave out Gems like Michael Owen’s WLS 2000 for N64 and Three Lions for PS1 but such is the nature of lists, of course if you have a better list or just want to challenge me to a match on any of these games then let me know in the comments and of course if you need any help getting the most out of a new or old games console then don’t hesitate to get in touch with your local store for some free advice.
Autho – Hal, Plymouth store
