International Superstar Soccer (series)

International Superstar Soccer is the name of a series of football video games developed by Japanese company Konami, mostly by their Osaka branch, Konami Computer Entertainment Osaka. It should not be confused with KCET's Pro Evolution Soccer series (also known as Winning Eleven), which was originally developed for the PlayStation. Titles in the ISS series appeared on Super Nintendo, Mega Drive, Nintendo 64, PlayStation, PlayStation 2, Xbox, Nintendo GameCube and PC formats. The series is known as Jikkyō World Soccer in Japan.

Series
The series had its origins with the NES platform, late in 1991 with Konami Hyper Soccer, Konami's first soccer game on consoles. Although technically not a game in the series, the success of the game was enough for Konami start developing Jikkyō World Soccer: Perfect Eleven for the Japanese Super NES, released as International Superstar Soccer for the rest of the world, both in 1994. An improved version, Jikkyō World Soccer 2: Fighting Eleven (worldwide, International Superstar Soccer Deluxe) was released one year later, and saw a Mega Drive / Genesis version in 1996. These 16-bit titles, in many terms, were one step ahead from other contemporary football games, including FIFA International Soccer:
 * Instead of tiny, super deformed players on pitch, player sprites had an adult look to them;
 * The players looked all alike, only changing hair and skin color from team to team. ISS players had distinctive looks, corresponding to real-life players of the time (like the Swedish forward Magnus, a reference to Martin Dahlin, or the Argentine duo Fuerte and Capitale, reproducing Claudio Caniggia and Gabriel Batistuta);
 * This was the first football game to ever show back numbers on the jersey for each player (though the keeper's jersey always showed a number 1, independent of his assigned number);
 * The adult look given to players made their animation quite real, instead of the rather cartoonish way shown before (like the players jumping in slow-motion in FIFA IS), thus turning playability more fluid;
 * The game was the first to feature play-by-play commentary (more frequent in the Japanese versions); previously, the announcer's voice could only be heard shouting "goal", and it was not present in every game.

In 1995, the first KCET title, Winning Eleven was developed for the PlayStation (Goal Storm internationally) and in 1996, Jikkyō J-League: Perfect Striker made its debut on the Nintendo 64 (re-used worldwide in 1997 as International Superstar Soccer 64 with international teams instead of J-League).

In 1997 and 1998 there were several titles released, including the second and third versions of Winning Eleven (which included a fully-licensed release for the 1998 World Cup), but the first major in Europe since ISS Deluxe was International Superstar Soccer 98 for the Nintendo 64. It was one of the best titles for the console, and one of the highest selling third party titles.

By the turn of the century, KCET's Winning Eleven titles were improving considerably over KCEO's titles, and in 2000 ISS Pro Evolution was released worldwide. The last title for the Nintendo 64 was International Superstar Soccer 2000, based on Jikkyō J-League: Perfect Striker 2, and when ISS Pro Evolution 2 was released in 2001 and followed by the first Pro Evolution Soccer, there wasn't much room for the Jikkyou World Soccer/International Superstar Soccer series, although three ISS titles were released, the last (ISS 3, in 2003) for the first time was released for personal computers. There were also three Game Boy Advance versions, one of them based on ISS Deluxe.

Unlicensed versions
Several unlicensed hacks of International Superstar Soccer were made available in South America, especially in Brazil. All versions have poor quality portuñol, Portuguese or Spanish translations, most of international teams swapped into national clubs, and bonus teams unlocked.

ISS Pro series
The first two ISS Pro games for PlayStation were produced by KCET for the European market. ISS Pro (also known as Goal Storm 97) was followed by ISS Pro 98. The latter features former England player Paul Ince and the former Italian Fabrizio Ravanelli on its UK PAL cover, although it lacked a FIFPro license.