Have we ever had two really good football games released in the same year?

[JamieH]

Fifa road to the word cup 98
ISS98

FIFA 13
PES 2013

FIFA 17
PES 2017

Those are the only options I can really think of and I'm not sure whether any truly meet the crIteria

What led me to this thought was reading through the FIFA 08 thread here on evoweb (I was J79 back then). I remember the anticipation for that game as soon as the demo was released, it really seemed like that was the year that EA would legitimately challenge Konami and we'd have two great football games to divide our time with, little did we know that would also be the year that PES would start it's downwards trajectory (on the next gen consoles at least).

I think we all assumed that Konami would really hit their stride with PES 2008 after the limited 360 release of PES 6 with returning features and improved gameplay. How wrong we were.

Anyway, just some random musings in between world cup matches and wondering if anyone else had any better candidates or other thoughts

If we conclude that we never had two great football games at the same time, do we think we ever will? Considering i don't think we currently have even one I think the odds are slim (sorry to end on a pessimistic note)

 

[bsmaff]

Depends on the generations we are talking.

If you go back to the 90s then there are plenty of years there has been great games released.
Although people would turn round now and say those games are now dated and s**t.

1992:
Sensible Soccer
Premier Manager - The first football manager game which was decent and put absolute hours into.

1993:
On The Ball - World Cup Edition
Championship Manager

1994: The big year.. 3 top games which got better the following year.
P.S. The only reason games were so good this year is because they based the gameplay on 1993 Ballon D'Or Winner Roberto Baggio.
International Superstar Soccer (Snes)
Sensible World of Soccer (Amiga)
FIFA Soccer (Megadrive) - Although technically December 1993, classing it as 1994

The list goes on, however if you discard management games then you would struggle.

But like I discuss with Chris we are all grumpy old men now and remember the days when games were trying to be made more of a simulation.
FIFA, PES Geoff Crammonds Grand Prix games - They chased simulation and realism- They absolutely pushed what could be achieved at the time.
It is embarrassing today that GP4 has better AI than F1 25.

All sports games now are about eSports and how to cater to the ones who have made the game popular online, they no longer care about the little man who wants a simulation (realistic) game.
Everything has to be street fighter fast taps and who can move the controller quickest, otherwise where is the skill gap - Why should someone not so good at a game be able to play 11 men behind the ball and play for penalties? This isn't fun??? Although in reality every other team is doing this at the WC.

 

[JamieH]

i wasn't thinking management games, sorry I should have specified that

94 is a really good shout though

 

[bsmaff]

If you are just including non management - Then there has only been 2 football games in the last 15 years and neither have been great.

 

[steff]

Mid to late 90's, there was so much variety, I felt like I played loads of different games, Ronaldo V football, actua soccer, Red card soccer, adidas power soccer, codemasters club soccer, PES, FIFA, Sensi, granted I was in my teens and never critiqued games, I just loved playing them.

 

[PES4eva]

Pretty much every version of Winning and Eleven and PES got released in the same year on PS2. Because of the gameplay differences between the versions I guess you could count them as different games entirely in some instances.

If you're taking about different company releases then to add to your list, Football Kingdom by Namco and Winning Eleven 8 by Konami got released the same year.

 

[JamieH]

maybe not from a quality point of view but from a variety of choice point of view what we had in the ps1 and ps2 generations is sorely lacking in the last couple of decades

It's mad to think that at one point we had konami working on two different competing football games for the same systems at the same time

 

[JamieH]

Pretty much every version of Winning and Eleven and PES got released in the same year on PS2. Because of the gameplay differences between the versions I guess you could count them as different games entirely in some instances.

If you're taking about different company releases then to add to your list, Football Kingdom by Namco and Winning Eleven 8 by Konami got released the same year.

is football kingdom really great though or is it just held in high regard because it came out of nowhere and was a japan exclusive? I'm not saying it wasn't good but I'd say the sequel that never came was the one that could have been great

 

[PES4eva]

is football kingdom really great though or is it just held in high regard because it came out of nowhere and was a japan exclusive? I'm not saying it wasn't good but I'd say the sequel that never came was the one that could have been great

I think it's a great game, played it for hours and hours.
I personally don't like FIFA games so I wouldn't say they are great games that you've mentioned anyway but there's probably lots of people that do think the FIFA games were great. So it's subjective. Id probably say there are more great football games that got released at the same time during the PS2, PS1 era and even before that than the PS3 era and beyond. I think this is to do with the fact only two major players remained during the PS3 and onwards.

 

[JamieH]

I think it's a great game, played it for hours and hours.
I personally don't like FIFA games so I wouldn't say they are great games that you've mentioned anyway but there's probably lots of people that do think the FIFA games were great. So it's subjective. Id probably say there are more great football games that got released at the same time during the PS2, PS1 era and even before that than the PS3 era and beyond. I think this is to do with the fact only two major players remained during the PS3 and onwards.

to be fair i never played it at the time, i first played it about 5 years ago so maybe my opinion would be different if i played it at release

I do remember at the time people on here going crazy about the net physics though

 

[PES4eva]

to be fair i never played it at the time, i first played it about 5 years ago so maybe my opinion would be different if i played it at release

I do remember at the time people on here going crazy about the net physics though

Hah yeah the net physics are great. I don't recall another game being able to replicate it to this day. I really love the crossing in football Kingdom too.

 

[Chris Davies]

Hah yeah the net physics are great. I don't recall another game being able to replicate it to this day. I really love the crossing in football Kingdom too.

100% agree on the crossing. Weirdly, I think the two best games for crosses are Football Kingdom, and UEFA Striker from the PS1/Dreamcast.

The ball feels like a separate entity, and it feels like anything can happen - timing your run/jump with a hanging ball on UEFA Striker is so unbelievably satisfying. You feel like you've earnt it.

(It also has some of my favourite non-licensed-music football game soundtrack of all time - alongside Sensible Soccer, Ultimate Soccer Manager and the original This is Football.)

 

[PES4eva]

100% agree on the crossing. Weirdly, I think the two best games for crosses are Football Kingdom, and UEFA Striker from the PS1/Dreamcast.

The ball feels like a separate entity, and it feels like anything can happen - timing your run/jump with a hanging ball on UEFA Striker is so unbelievably satisfying. You feel like you've earnt it.

(It also has some of my favourite non-licensed-music football game soundtrack of all time - alongside Sensible Soccer, Ultimate Soccer Manager and the original This is Football.)

Never played Uefa Striker. I didn't own a Dreamcast back in the day and to me the only football games on my radar were ISS/PES/Winning Eleven on the PS1 at the time.
Back to the Dreamcast I hear Uefa Dream Soccer is supposed to be good too.
SWOS96/97 is about as good as it gets for pure football multiplayer fun. They still update the teams and play it online at:

https://www.sensiblesoccer.de/

I used to play online about 5 years ago or something but it became a bit too addictive and time consuming for me.

 

[Chris Davies]

Never played Uefa Striker. I didn't own a Dreamcast back in the day and to me the only football games on my radar were ISS/PES/Winning Eleven on the PS1 at the time.
Back to the Dreamcast I hear Uefa Dream Soccer is supposed to be good too.

I have never played UEFA Dream Soccer, but after watching some clips and reading some reviews, it sounds like an upgraded version of UEFA Striker - and one reviewer even calls out crossing / heading specifically as I did above (source here):

"A remnant from the days of World League Soccer is the timing based approach to aerial play. [...] If you press an action button before the ball arrives then the player will carry out that action [too early] and miss the ball.

In time you learn to anticipate headers and volleys as the ball approaches and once you nail it, you're in for some spectacular moments. Overhead kicks, screaming volleys, useful little headed passes - it becomes second nature and when it clicks you really start to appreciate just how good UEFA Dream Soccer feels to play."

The idea of timing is all but gone from modern football games. I'm going to have to download a Dreamcast emulator and try this out... Thanks for bringing it to my attention!

 

[JamieH]

I have never played UEFA Dream Soccer, but after watching some clips and reading some reviews, it sounds like an upgraded version of UEFA Striker - and one reviewer even calls out crossing / heading specifically as I did above (source here):

"A remnant from the days of World League Soccer is the timing based approach to aerial play. [...] If you press an action button before the ball arrives then the player will carry out that action [too early] and miss the ball.

In time you learn to anticipate headers and volleys as the ball approaches and once you nail it, you're in for some spectacular moments. Overhead kicks, screaming volleys, useful little headed passes - it becomes second nature and when it clicks you really start to appreciate just how good UEFA Dream Soccer feels to play."

The idea of timing is all but gone from modern football games. I'm going to have to download a Dreamcast emulator and try this out... Thanks for bringing it to my attention!

let us know what you think of it when you've tried it. The japanese game J League spectacle soccer is worth trying on dreamcast too if you can navigate the menus. I use the google app on my phone, choose translate and point your camera at the tv screen

My biggest disappointment on the dreamcast was the lack of decent football games on it, the fact we never got an iss, fifa or 2k football game on there was criminal. I remember my biggest hope at the time was a game call european super league but it didn't turn out great