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The FIFA Series, released yearly by EA under the EA Sports label since 1994, is one of the most profitable and well known video game franchises. While there was no major competition when EA released both the first titles in their Madden NFL and NHL series, football video games such as Sensible Soccer, Kick Off or Matchday Soccer were being developed since the late eighties and were already well-known names when EA announced a football game as their next addition to the EA Sports label. The key points on EA's massive advertisement were the isometric view of the ground (when all other games used either top down, side scrolling or birds' eye views), detailed graphics and animations and of course, the FIFA endorsment. It was shipped for Christmas 1993, named FIFA International Soccer and for most active platforms at the time. While FIFA 95 did not added much other than club teams, FIFA 96 pushed the boundaries. For the first time with real player names, the PC, 32X and Sega Saturn versions used EA's Virtual Stadium engine, with 2D sprites players moving on a 3D stadium. FIFA 97 had crude polygonal models for players and added indoor football, but the pinacle was reached with FIFA 98:Road to the World Cup. Improved graphics, a complete world cup with qualifying rounds including all teams registered in FIFA and refined gameplay. Months later, World Cup 98, EAs first tournament official game, improved Direct3D support, gave each team a unique kit and broke the sequence of poor video games based on tournaments started by World Cup 94 and followed by Gremlin's Euro 96.
However the following years releases were met with criticism: people complained about gameplay, bugs never sorted out, bad support and lack of improvement over the previous title. That led to a decrease in the games' popularity. Still, fans were willing to give EA a tabula rasa each year. As both emulation and the console market grown, FIFA was being challenged directly from other titles such as Konami's Pro Evolution Soccer. By FIFA 2003 EA made an effort to improve the game, and a year later, included a new mode (Football Fusion) that allowed playing games from TCM 2004 using FIFAs engine, and when Konami announced that PES3 would also have a Personal Computer release, EA doubled the efforts the revive the series.
As it is now, FIFA is less popular than Pro Evolution Soccer on most of the consoles. However it still has a lead on PC market due to low requirements and appeal of Football Fusion feature.
Games in the series
FIFA International Soccer (aka FIFA '94)
Released weeks before Christmas 1993, this greatly hyped football title broke with traditional 16-bit era games by presenting a isometric view rather than the usually used top-down view (KickOff), side view (European Club Soccer) or bird's-eye view (Sensible Soccer). Included only national teams.
FIFA Soccer '95
Using the same engine only with minor retouches, the game featured more teams (now with 8 club leagues), faster gameplay and more animations.
FIFA Soccer '96
1996 was the year that saw the dawn of the first 32-bit systems, giving developers the power required to work with more complex 3D designs. Although there were several 3D football games released before (mainly on the SNES), those were usually sluggish and confusing. FIFA '96 for the 32-bit systems still relied on 2D sprites for players in a 3D stadium (the engine was called "Virtua Stadium"), but was much more fluid than any other preceding game (except the Actua games by Gremlin Software). The 2D versions had improved player sprites, and for many the game reached its 2D peak with this game. The CD versions had commentary from John Motson for the first time.
FIFA '97
The biggest change was the inclusion of 6-a-side indoor soccer and polygonal players, with motion capture assured by David Ginola. This game features a then unprecedented number of playable leagues from England, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Germany and even features the Malaysian league for the first time with complete rather accurate team rosters.
FIFA '98: Road To The World Cup
- Alternate Titles: Rumbo a la Copa Mundial (Spanish), En Route Pour La Coupe du Monde (French), Die WM-Qualifikation (German)
- Tagline: "Your only goal - qualify"
- Cover: There were several covers for this game. Among them, David Beckham, Raúl and Ginola were featured.
- Released for: No known 16-bit Sega version exists, SNES PAL does exist though, Windows, Sega Saturn, PSX, Nintendo 64.
Considered by many the best game on the series, it had a refined graphics engine, team and player customization options, 16 stadiums, better AI and the popular "Road To The World Cup" mode, with all FIFA national teams. The most ambitious of the entire series, it even features many accurate team rosters with even national reserves for national callup when playing in the round robin qualification modes.
British band Blur composed the well known "Song 2" for the game.
FIFA '99
This title was probably the last good one in terms of quality in the series. The indoor mode was not revived, the gameplay was overall frustrating, but the increasing number of websites dedicated to the game assured a good selling record. Graphically, it was a major improvement over FIFA '98, with the inclusion of basic facial animations. Fatboy Slim's "Rockafella Skunk" was the music used in the intro. However, the fluidity of the gameplay and the high number of playable leagues also adds playability to this game.
FIFA 2000
Although graphically slightly superior than older versions, the gameplay was an unrealistic portrayal of the sport. The gameplay was fast, simple and had a clear arcade feeling, which failed to keep hardcore fans happy, with competing games such as ISS: Pro Evolution starting to be more widely known. The leagues also featured unlicensed teams, with their club names shortened to the cities where they are based, e.g. Barcelona. Not surprisingly, this title is one of the poorly received of the entire series.
Robbie Williams provided the theme song with "It's Only Us", after doing the same for Actua Soccer 3 (released one year earlier) with "Let Me Entertain You."
FIFA 2001
- Covers: Scholes (UK), Henry (UK), Matthäus (Germany), Davids (Netherlands), Sá Pinto (Portugal).
- Released for: Windows, PSX, PS2. An N64 beta version does exist of this game via THQ, also relased on Game Boy Color
This title had a new graphics engine, which allowed each team to have its own kit, plus slighly tweakable physics made the game a modding favorite for its fan community. Despite this improved engine and the inclusion of 17 leagues, it still did not please many fans. With the release of more powerful hardware and emulators capable of running PlayStation games, by 2001 FIFA started to lose market to Konami's ISS: Pro Evolution series, a series only native to the PSX format. It however, features the Austrian Bundesliga among other leagues and has reasonably accurate facial features of the footballers of the game itself.
FIFA 2002
With Konami's franchise taking the lead, EA decided to introduce power bars for shots and passes, actually improving the game. However, it was noticed by many players how the game seemed to predetermine results on higher levels. Doing away with ordinary colour pennants as club emblems, the license has been included to feature for the first time accurate club emblems. The power bar can also be customised to suit the gamer's preference. A card reward system licensed from Panini was also introduced whereby after winning a particular competition, a star player card would be unlocked. The question often arose as to what merits a gamer achieves from this system of awards as it would not improve the playability in any way.
FIFA 2003
Completely revamping the outdated Direct-X 7 graphics used in FIFA 2001 and FIFA 2002 and introducing then new T&L graphics as well as featuring accurate team kits for the first time in the game's series, the game promises a new virtual battle with the ever-popular Winning Eleven series. However, the game falls short with its predictable gameplay, lack of attacking moves and a rigidity in player movement such as not found in the WE although a new League mode featuring elite European clubs such as Arsenal FC, Bayer Leverkusen, and many more is one of the merits of the game. This title prolongs the FIFA series run into delightful graphics but uninspiring gameplay trend.
FIFA Football 2004
Arguably one of the less popular titles of the series. The graphics are mostly polished off from FIFA 2003 with slight lighting effect changes and other minor graphic modifications. The game however introduced a new career mode where a player can opt to take his favorite team to glory culminating with the English Second Division teams. Criticisms of the game include a still rigid gameplay with relatively similar methods of scoring goals, a lack of detail into the accuracy of the team rosters as well as a generic player portrait for most of the players of the newly introduced leagues, indicating a lack of commitment towards ensuring accuracy in player details.
FIFA Football 2005
Following hot on the heels of the trend started from FIFA 2004, a more polished career mode has been introduced with a new feature 'Football Fusion'. A huge league database of 17 playable leagues is one of the biggest yet in the series although its playability is still not on par with the Winning Eleven series nor the upcoming Pro Evolution Soccer titles for PC. The game still has a very predictable gameplay, dull repetitive and inaccurate commentary, and a somewhat similar strategy of scoring goals. The game does have a tidy interface, with an interesting team roster selection menu with accurate player likenessess on most of the teams.
Recently, look at how much these game stink compared to Sega's or Konami's soccer titles! And it's more fun to tackle the other team or make them score their own goals than to play, which EA Sports has elminated altogether now, making the prettiest soccer game not work playing anymore!
Other titles
Outside the yearly series, but also from EA Sports:
World Cup France '98
For the first time in a soccer game, accurate national team kits are introduced complete with kit manufacturer logos and official merchandise. The game engine is basically a remake of the FIFA 1998 engine although it features some gameplay improvements like ingame strategy change and a more tactically accurate player positioning. The game also features VOs by Gary Lineker in the team schedules. A World Cup classic mode is also an interesting feature, with classic black and white sepia-toned graphics adds to the feel of watching an old World Cup televised match on a non-color television. The national teams also included several other non-qualifier teams which the game developers was of the opinion that should have qualified.
UEFA Euro 2000
2002 FIFA World Cup
An amalgam between the game engines of FIFA 2002 and FIFA 2003, the game still incorporates the power bar for shots and crosses but with a steep learning curve and high chances of getting card-penalised. The national team kits are accurate along with player likenessess and the various stadia of the World Cup 2002.
UEFA Euro 2004
FIFA 64
First FIFA game released to Nintendo 64 in late 1997 and similar to FIFA 97.
Stars series
In 1999 Electronic Arts gave their European studios a chance of develop a new football videogame outside the FIFA series. As the company already owned a Premier League license, it was decided to make a game interely devoted to one of the most popular leagues in the sport. Unlike FIFA 99 and the upcoming 2000 edition, The F.A. Premier League Stars had real kits and the accurate stadiums of all teams. Released for both Personal computer and PlayStation, altough failed to top the market, EA was pleased enough and allowed a second game to be deveoped, and this time released also in Germany, France and Spain fully localized and licensed for the top leagues on each country. As the FIFA series progressively assimilated (or planned to) some of the features of Stars, the later was discarded after the second title.
The game used a improved version of FIFA 99's engine, but added features that later would be used in the main title of EAs football label, such as power bars for sprints, shots and passes, chosing the spot of the ball to hit on free kicks and corners, individual kits and bonus points for performance that could be used to improve the team.
The "stars" concept of the game is slightly similar of those in the early Pro Evolution Soccer series, where the player gets points for scoring goals, not receiving cards, outcome of the match, etc. Then, the points could be used to improve the players (each player could be improved in several aspects, from speed and stamina to shooting and passing out of 15 scale, split in 3 groups, where a bronze star only costed 10 points compared to the 30 of a gold star) or buy new players from the market pool. In Stars 2001 players could also earn (or lose) points by taking part in "Stars Challenges", which required the player to fulfill a task such as scoring a number of goals.
Altough the main competition is the league, there are several other competitions, including national, european and world cups. If a player wins the world trophy, a final game against a team of all-time greats is played.
Another new feature in the final game was the ability to pitch two user teams that finished a season, the winner being able to sign players of the losers squad. Altough this feature was welcomed, it lacked a online mode to increase the public awareness of the game.
The music on both games was provided by Ministry of Sound.
Champions League (announced November 2004, set to be released in 2005).
Managing games:
- FIFA Soccer Manager (1997)
- Total Club Manager (also known as Fussball Manager) series
- Premier League Manager '99, 2000
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