FIFA: Road to World Cup 98

Not to be confused with World Cup 98 (video game).

FIFA: Road to World Cup 98
Developer(s)	EA Canada Extended Play Productions XYZ Productions (Mega Drive, SNES) Tiertex Design Studios (Game Boy)
Publisher(s)	Electronic Arts THQ (Game Boy)
Series	FIFA
Platform(s)	Sega Saturn, PC, Game Boy, SNES, Nintendo 64, PlayStation, Mega Drive/Genesis
Release date(s)	PC NA June 17, 1997 EU 1997 PlayStation NA December 1, 1997 EU November 1997 JP May 14, 1998 Nintendo 64 NA December 20, 1997 Game Boy NA December 1997 Mega Drive/Genesis EU 1997 SNES EU 1997 Sega Saturn NA December 31, 1997
Genre(s)	Sports
Mode(s)	Single player, Multiplayer, Multiplayer online
Rating(s)	ESRB: K-A ELSPA: 3+
Media/distribution	Cartridge, CD-ROM

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 includes an official soundtrack and had a refined graphics engine, team and player customisation options, 16 stadiums, improved artificial intelligence and the popular "Road to World Cup" mode, with all 173 FIFA-registered national teams. No subsequent edition of the FIFA series has attempted to replicate FIFA 98's inclusion of every FIFA national team. With the new graphical improvements, players were able to have individual faces. However, they looked more like expressions.

FIFA 98 even features many accurate team rosters, including national reserves for national call-up when playing in the round-robin qualification modes. In addition, eleven leagues were featured, containing 189 clubs. The game also featured a popular five-a-side indoor mode and was the first FIFA game to contain an in-game player/team editor.

For the first time in a FIFA game, the offside rule is properly implemented. In previous games, when a player was in an offside position doing anything except running, that player was penalised for offside even when the ball was passed backwards. The 32-bit version of FIFA 98 corrects this so that the game would only award a free kick for offside if the ball was passed roughly to where the player in the offside position was.

Soundtrack

The theme music for the game was Blur's "Song 2". Four songs from The Crystal Method were also included in the game – "More", "Now Is the Time", "Keep Hope Alive" and "Busy Child" – as well as a song by Electric Skychurch entitled Hugga Bear. Des Lynam was retained for the game introduction and John Motson and Andy Gray remained as match commentators.

• Blur - "Song 2"
• The Crystal Method - "Keep Hope Alive"
• The Crystal Method - "More"
• The Crystal Method - "Now Is the Time (Cloud 9 Remix)"
• The Crystal Method - "Busy Child"
• Electric Skychurch - "Hugga Bear"

Reviews

Play magazine in issue 29 awarded the PlayStation version of the game 88%.

External links

• Soccer Gaming FIFA 98 Site