| International Superstar Soccer 98 | |
| Developer: | Konami Computer Entertainment Osaka |
| Publisher: | Konami |
| Producer: | Katsuya Nagae |
| Director: | Yasuo Okuda |
| Series: | International Superstar Soccer FIFA World Cup |
| Genre: | Sports |
| Modes: | Single-player, multiplayer |
| Platforms: | Nintendo 64 |
International Superstar Soccer 98 (officially abbreviated as ISS 98 and known as in Japan) is a soccer video game developed by Konami Computer Entertainment Osaka which was released exclusively for the Nintendo 64. It was released at the same time as International Superstar Soccer Pro 98, developed by Konami Computer Entertainment Tokyo (KCET) for the PlayStation.
Although it lacked a FIFPro licence, it featured Italian striker Fabrizio Ravanelli along with German goalkeeper Andreas Koepke (on German release) and Paul Ince (on British release) on the cover. The cover of the North American version featured Colombian player Carlos Valderrama, and the game featured licence from Reebok to use their logos in adboards and the Chile national football team kits.
Due to the date of release, the game focuses on 1998 FIFA World Cup and includes each qualified team plus more. Every team which participated in tournament has home, away and goalkeeper World Cup official kits featuring manufacturer logos and national emblems (with the exception of the United States, whose main uniform is the red-and-white striped kit from the 1994 tournament) and the rest has those used in qualifications. In the European version, the squads are in accordance with official 1998 FIFA World Cup squads as well. Teams that did not qualify have line-ups from the qualifiers (in the North American version, all teams have lineups from the qualifiers). However the players' names are misspelled due to the lack of a FIFPro license, though they have their actual numbers, appearance, age, height, weight and abilities. In the European version, the game has more sponsors other than Reebok, such as Apple and Continental AG, which appear in adboards.
The Japanese version was an officially licensed World Cup product and also included unlicensed player names, save for the Japanese squad.
International Superstar Soccer 98 featured 6 different game modes:
52 national teams (48 in the Japanese version; Ireland, Northern Ireland, Wales and Greece are absent from it) are featured in the game, in addition to six All-Star teams, only accessible through a cheat code or by winning the 'World League' on level 5.
The game received "universal acclaim" according to the review aggregation website Metacritic. Cubed3 praised the game's "ridiculously addictive" gameplay, create-a-player, six various modes (which have an option of 64 teams, nine stadiums, four weather conditions and a choice of night or day) and the ability to play multiplayer with up to three players.[1] GamePro, however, said, "Soccer fans will find little reason to kick off with ISS '98."[2] In Japan, Famitsu gave it a score of 33 out of 40.
Next Generation said in its August 1998 issue, "After a few hours of play, you'll forgive the apparent lack of improvement and realize that subtlety is everything in the most popular sport on Earth. The only thing that could really improve this series would be the inclusion of real players' names and correct uniforms. Until that happens, Superstar Soccer is just a shade short of perfect." Six issues later, the magazine ranked it at #50 in its list of the Fifty Best Games of All Time, saying that the game "simply represents one of the finest examples of the genre. Although soccer in the U.S. enjoys nowhere near the popularity of other sports, the quality of this simulation should ensure its place on every serious gamer's shelf."[3]