The king sport also has a great presence in the world of video games. Although today the options go through the FIFA and the PES on duty, a few years ago we could choose a large number of football games with an extensive number of proposals to each more striking. Today, simulation, realism and precise control predominate accompanied by flourishes with the ball. But what made soccer games fun before?
The best (and most striking) football video games
Since its origins, video games have managed to entertain millions of users around the world, and with the improvements in technology, games have become increasingly realistic. But in addition to getting closer to realism, the secret of success was also in knowing how to entertain, and there we can find many soccer games that have fallen in love with many.
This list of the best football games ever could be endless, but we will try to cite the games that have most marked us in recent years, whether for their graphic quality, their playability or their originality when it comes to representing 22 players on a grass pitch.
Sensible Soccer
Let’s start with a classic. In Sensible Soccer we played with a zenith camera in which we could see the players as small ants on a playing field. This view was quite original, and made special sense when we discovered that we could take control of the ball’s effect.
The game gained special importance among the public for its addictive gameplay, and although it did not have the teams license, it filled the numbers with similar names that were quite funny.
FIFA
The benchmark, the titan, the monster of sales. Electronics Arts created its first FIFA in 1993 , and from there it became a franchise that was not going to forgive any year. With a few ups and downs while competing with its eternal rival PES, some of the deliveries left us with legendary games such as FIFA 98 (which included a futsal modality, the World Cup mode and an unforgettable one), FIFA 12 with the new engine of Physical or FIFA 94, the first to include the official licenses that allowed the real names of the players and teams to be displayed.
PES / Winning Eleven
For many years now, either you play FIFA, or you play PES. The Konami- branded soccer option was born in 1994, and thanks to its success on 16-bit consoles, it continued to grow into what we know today as eFootball PES 2020 . He has been the strongest opponent of FIFA in the last decade, and editions such as PES 6 (with an Adriano who turned out to be the most cheated player in the game), ISS Pro Evolution or PES 5 , guaranteed hours and hours of play between friends who got make all kinds of plays without looking artificial.
Such was the fanaticism of the game, that many went so far as to acquire imported versions from Japan of the well-known Winning Eleven, the Japanese version of the game that was updated every six months and that included several improvements compared to the European one. Too bad the lack of licenses and the drop in the level of the game, which have toppled it to a second position below FIFA according to general criticism (although many still think that it is the best soccer game).
Libero Grande
PlayStation was a console that saw a large number of soccer games land, and among them was the presence of Libero Grande , a game in which we could only manage a single player on the field. The proposal was of course incredibly original, since it gave us the leading role in a single person, forcing us to pay attention to the game and maintain our position on the field.
Originating from arcade games, the PlayStation version arrived in 1998 and accumulated good sales that encouraged Namco to release the second version, Libero Grande International. Unfortunately the thing ended there and we did not know more about the game, although curiously years later FIFA 08 released the Be a Pro mode, which allowed to play in the same way as Libero Grande.
Virtua Striker
SEGA did not want to miss the soccer party either, and for this they developed an AM2-based arcade with the Virtua Striker game. The arcades of 1994 had a jewel with which to play soccer with some amazing textures and graphics. The control system was very arcade, which guaranteed a lot of fun in duels with friends.
Four Virtua Striker installments were released, with Virtua Striker 4 being the last and hitting arcades in 2006. One of the games that has collected the most coins with challenges between friends.
PC Soccer
But in addition to playing, running and shooting on goal, there were other players who especially liked working behind the scenes. We are talking about those in charge of managing the team, fans of transfers and especially observers of the evolution of other players in the league. For them PC Fútbol was born , a soccer manager developed in Spain by Dinamic Multimedia that, thanks to a distribution as simple as publication on kiosks and a price of 2,000 pesetas, allowed it to sneak into many homes.
With the image of Michael Robinson and a spectacular database, the game grew to unsuspected levels, to such an extent that there are anecdotes of professional players who called the offices of Dinamic Multimedia requesting the change of their stats. A preview of what we know today as Ultimate Team in FIFA. Unfortunately PC Soccer disappeared after version 7, and although more modern versions have been released (including a 2018 version for mobile), the game was no longer the jewel it used to be in the era of floppy disks and CDs.
Football manager
PC Fútbol found a perfect balance between the simulator and the management of the manager, but those players who did not want to know anything about green and only wanted to focus on dispatches, have Football Manager (formerly Chapionship Manager) the ideal solution. Here there is no possibility to play football, but you will have to lead the team in all its tactical and business aspects to take it to the top, The franchise continues to release new versions on current platforms, so to this day it remains possible to play team managers with millionaire budgets.
Score! Hero
Today mobile platforms are the ones that reign in all kinds of markets, so if we talk about video games, a soccer game could not be missing from the catalog. Exist, there are many, and even mobile versions of some that we have mentioned above, but there is one in particular that draws attention for having known how to take advantage of the platform. We talk about Score! Hero , who takes advantage of the touch screens to propose a game of set-piece throws in which to link a series of plays until the goal is achieved.
It is a tremendously addictive game that has achieved thousands and thousands of downloads and positive comments, so we couldn’t let it go due to the gameplay it offers us in our pocket.
Do you think any other games are missing from the list? Do not hesitate to leave us a comment with any other soccer game that has marked your childhood or you think it is advisable to recommend. We are all ears!
