It’s a drastic improvement from before but the fact still remains, you can’t make a decent footy game on the SNES.

User Rating: 6 | FIFA Soccer 96 SNES
Fifa 94 sucked arse. There is no two ways about it, but I decided to take a risk and get this Fifa and see if it was any good. I was pleasantly surprised and it’s a drastic improvement from before but the fact still remains, you can’t make a decent footy game on the SNES.

You still play in the Isometric view, yet there are several new features that make this game so much better to play. First, headers. In 94 you could sort of cross it in with the shoot button but all you could do on the receiving end is to have a shot as soon as you get it. This has been fixed now and you can score with a variety of different headers and volleys. I really liked the way in which there is a different animation for each player and showed that they actually spent time with the game. Also there are real player names now and I was amazed when I scored a spectacular overhead kick with the legendary Dunga. Priceless (In retrospect, it was quite atrocious that they never had player names, they was sponsored by FIFA, the world governing body of football and basically, if your playing footy, they have control of your ass.) Another plus is that the free kicks actually work now and there are fouls in the game which is good and ……. Ba, no I think I’ve said too much.

Unfortunately, things have to go downhill some time. The graphics are the same as 94, so basically the graphics are pretty bad. I don’t really know what to say here because everything is bad about the graphics, the colours, the models, the crazy ambulance that somehow gets on the pitch when you injure yourself taking a pen (?! Its true swear down) you name it, its bad. The sound isn’t much better and while it isn’t the crazy pokemon epilepsy-like “White Noise” like on 94, a few voice clips would have helped.

Thankfully there are a lot more game modes in 96, including 8 leagues, 10 cups, English playoffs and penalty shootouts. This means that if you enjoy it you will get a lot more value out of this game. But in the end, footy on the SNES isn’t really fun due to the limitations of the system. Back then, you just couldn’t beat the 3-d action of Virtua Soccer at the arcades. Also the PS1 and the N64 were arriving quickly so even though they did try to make it better, I think this game was fortuned for doom.