Indicative of being themost-watched sport in the world, numerous gaming companies have looked to cash in with soccer video games. Even Nintendo got in on the act in 2007 withMario Strikers Charged,one of Mario’s better sports outings. It is EA who has dominated the soccer game market though. Their first title,FIFA International Soccerwas released in December 1994. Despite releasing at the very end of 1993, it incredibly became the year’s best-selling game. The impressive sales were predominantly due to it being the sport’s first isometric game.FIFAInternational Socceralso had a very positive critical reception.
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Today, the FIFA series is no longer considered a source of innovation. The series had a high-point withFIFA 10, scoring 91 onMetacritic. But there have been minimal improvements in the decade of FIFA games that have followed. The disappointment of recent FIFA entries shouldn’t deter gamers from some amazing soccer games released over the years though.
10Pro Evolution Soccer 2017 (87)
For those looking to jump ship from therecent disappointment of FIFA, there was no better time than late 2016.PES 2017,like most Konami games,suffered from a severe lack of licensed teams. Teams were given fake names and generic, unlicensed shirts. However, the game boasted official licensing of the sports European competitions. The UEFA Europa League, and more importantly UEFA Champions League were both fully licensed, giving the game a much-needed brand boost.
PES 2017differentiated itself from the FIFA series with its more realistic gameplay and impressive passing mechanics.
9Football Manager 2010 (87)
Sega’sFootball Managerseries has provided a worthy alternative to FIFA since the series began in late 2004. The series doesn’t allow gamers to control the players, but instead the manager. The game offers have a whole host of decisions to make from transfers, to training routines, to tactics, to staff recruitment, and much more. Much like FIFA, the series had a peak in late 2009 with its 2010 release.
EA did have their own management series. AlthoughFIFA Manager 2014was EA’s final outing, as the games were unable to compete with Sega’sFootball Manager. Interestingly,Football Manager 2010was the first time in the series that the North American version of the game wasn’t titledWorldwide Soccer Manager.
8Worldwide Soccer Manager 2005 (89)
Speaking ofWorldwide Soccer Manager,the aforementioned first game released in late 2004 is the series highest-rated entry. Sports Interactive was able to hit the ground running as they had been developing the popularChampionship Managerseries up until that point.
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Sports Interactive had a bad break-up with Championship Manager’s publishers Eidos at the time, and Eidos teaming up with Beautiful Game Studios meant that the two companies would be competing head to head. The subsequent market competition clearly lit a fire under Sports Interactive as their game was not only superior to Beautiful Game Studios' buggy release but is the highest-rated soccer management game ever on Metacritic.
7World Soccer Winning Eleven 9 (89)
TheWorld Soccer Winning Elevenseries was the North American and Japanese name forPro Evolution Soccer. North America adopted the PES brand in 2014, although Japan is still keeping with theWinning Elvenname.
Winning Eleven 9is considered to be the penultimate entry in Konami’s golden era of soccer games. Konami didn’t offer players many innovations, with snow physics being one of the few new additions. However, the game was universally praised as the gameplay was still the best on offer at the time. Interestingly, the PES games were considered the superior soccer series in the 2000s,but EA’s FIFA consistently outsold them.
6First Touch Soccer (90)
The first entry into theFirst Touch Soccerseries, now known asDream League Soccer.First Touch Soccersticks out like a sore thumb for being the only IOS & Android game on this list.
Mobile gaming may sound like an inferior way to play the sport, but X2 Games managed to find an addictive gameplay formula. The series has had multiple sequels since this original entry. The latest isDream League Soccer 2020that follows the popular free-to-play model of mobile gaming.
5International Superstar Soccer ‘98 (91)
Impressively, from this point onwards all of the entries are (spoiler alert) published and developed by Konami.ISS ‘98was based on the 1998 World Cup, the first under controversial FIFA president Sepp Blatter. As expected with a Konami soccer game, the gameplay was excellent but handicapped by a lack of official licensing.
Even the player name’s had to be fake. Meaning gamers not only had to work out their tactics but also decipher who exactly was on their team. Beckham and Sheringham, for example, were named Decham and Serigham. The Japanese version of the game was by far superior to Europe and North America’s iterations as it had official licensing.
4World Soccer Winning Eleven 8 International (91)
Konami certainly wasn’t afraid to cram as many words as possible into the North American iterations of their game. Wary that the sport isn’t as popular in NA as the rest of the world, they perhaps hoped that picking some of the sport’s buzz words out of a hat and putting them into a title would get their attention.World Soccer Winning Eleven 8 Internationalexpanded on the series’ popular Master League mode. More teams were added and a new training feature rewarded players for developing youth talents. Young players would have ability increases if they were played often over multiple years. This feature may seem standard today but was revolutionary at the time.
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The corresponding releases under the PES name are known for featuring referee Pierluigi Collina on the front cover. It’s not often that referees make it onto the front cover of a sports game. But the Italian, considered to be the sport’s greatest ever referee, managed to do it two years running.
3World Soccer Winning Eleven 7 International (93)
Following the previous entry is the game’s predecessor.World Soccer Winning Eleven 7had the crown jewel ofimprovements to yearly sports games, a new and improved engine. The engine improved upon the game’s graphics, balanced the gameplay, and improved opponent AI.
Impressively, Konami managed to secure licensing for some of Italy’s top teams. Roma, Juventus, and A.C. Milan, who were at the height of their powers at the time, were all officially licensed. Furthermore, it was the series first game to allow 3 or 4 players to play together.
2World Soccer Winning Eleven 6 International (93)
Again, the previous entry is followed by its predecessor.Winning Eleven 7may have improved upon the game’s engine, but could still only matchWinning Eleven 6’s score of 93.Winning Eleven 6is not the optimal game to revisit retrospectively, but it deserves its spot on the list for kicking off (no pun intended) the golden age of Konami soccer games.
The game is remembered fondly for its iconic opening cinematic that featured Queen’sWe Will Rock You.
1ISS Pro Evolution (94)
ISS Pro Evolutioncould have been one of Metacritic’s highest-rated rated games ever, if it wasn’t forIGN’s review. IGN gave the game a 5.1 as they felt there were already enough soccer games and ironically suggested that gamers buy FIFA instead.
Despite this setback, the game is still among the highest-rated video games ever scored on the site. Fitting with Konami’s confusing titles,ISS Pro Evolutionis the companies fourth soccer game. The PlayStation exclusive surpassed its predecessor’s for featuring club teams for the first time and introducing the iconic Master League mode.
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