FIFA: Road to World Cup 98

Basic Information

Type(s)

Video Game

Status(es)

Released

Media

Game Boy Cartridge, Game Pak, Nintendo 64 Cartridge, Mega Drive Cartridge, CD-ROM, PlayStation CD-ROM

Platform(s)

Saturn, Microsoft Windows, Game Boy, SNES, Nintendo 64, PlayStation and Mega Drive

General Features

Ratings

European Release

Microsoft Windows, Mega Drive and Super Nintendo Entertainment System
1997

North American Release

Microsoft Windows
June 17, 1997
PlayStation
December 1, 1997
Nintendo 64
December 20, 1997

PlayStation
November 1997

Game Boy
December 1997

Saturn
December 30, 1997

Japanese Release

PlayStation
May 14, 1998

FIFA: Road to World Cup 98 (commonly abbreviated to FIFA 98) is a football video game developed by EA Canada and published by Electronic Arts. It was the fifth game in the FIFA series and the second to be in 3D on the 32-bit machines. A number of different players were featured on the cover, including David Beckham in the UK, Roy Lassiter in the USA and Mexico, David Ginola on the French cover, Raúl on the Spanish cover and Andreas Möller on the German cover. FIFA 98 was the last FIFA game released for the Mega Drive in Europe.

Game features[]

The game marked the start of an upward trend in the series that marked it out as potentially the best gaming simulator for the sport in the world. The game was revolutionized, boasted an official soundtrack, had a refined graphics engine, team and player customization options, 16 stadiums, better AI and the popular "Road to World Cup" mode, with all 173 FIFA-registered national teams. The most ambitious of the entire series, it even features many accurate team rosters with even national reserves for national call-up when playing in the round robin qualification modes. In addition, 11 leagues were featured along with 189 clubs. It was also the first FIFA game to contain an in-game player/team editor.

For the first time in a FIFA game, the offside rule was properly implemented. In previous games when a player on the team was in an offside position doing anything except running saw the player of the game penalized for offside even when the ball was passed backwards. The 32-bit version of the game corrected this so only if the ball was passed roughly to where the player in the offside position was, the game would award a free kick for offside. The game also featured a five-a-side indoor mode, which was very popular with fans.

With the new graphical improvements, players were able to have recognizable faces. However, the faces looked more like expressions, as the starting elevens of Bulgaria and Ukraine could consist of "sad"-looking players, while the starting eleven of Macedonia could have "tough"-looking players.

The game included most teams from the world confederations and is thought to be the most complete and well-balanced game in the series when it comes to international play, which neither the 2002, 2006 or 2010 series have matched.