International Superstar Soccer Pro 98

International Superstar Soccer Pro 98 (officially abbreviated as ISS Pro 98 and released in Japan in three editions: J.League Jikkyou Winning Eleven 3, World Soccer Jikkyou Winning Eleven 3: World Cup France '98 and World Soccer Jikkyou Winning Eleven 3 Final Ver.) is a football video game which follows International Superstar Soccer Pro developed by Konami Computer Entertainment Tokyo. The Japanese version was re-released in 1999 as Winning Eleven 3: Final Version with some slight improvements. The English commentary for the game is provided by Tony Gubba.

Not to be confused with International Superstar Soccer 98.
International Superstar Soccer Pro 98
Cover art featuring Carlos Valderrama
Developer(s)Konami Computer Entertainment Tokyo
Publisher(s)Konami
Director(s)Shingo Takatsuka
Producer(s)Kazuhisa Hashimoto
Composer(s)Shinji Enomoto
Kosuke Soeda
Nobuhiko Matsufuji
Hideki Kasai
Akira Yamaoka
Platform(s)PlayStation
Release
  • EU: October 2, 1998
  • NA: August 11, 1998
  • JP: November 12, 1998
Genre(s)Sports
Mode(s)Single-player, multiplayer

Although it lacked FIFPro licence, the European releases featured Italian striker Fabrizio Ravanelli along with German goalkeeper Andreas Koepke (on German, French and Spanish releases) or English midfielder Paul Ince (on British and Italian releases) on the cover, and the North American release featured Colombian player Carlos Valderrama. The game shares the same cover arts with the Nintendo 64 game International Superstar Soccer 98 but they are individual iterations of different game franchises, only released with similar name. This is a characteristic also shared with the previous game, ISS Pro.

Game modes

The features six different game modes. Modes existing in previous version have been developed and the two new have been added.

  • Exhibition Mode: a friendly match game against computer or another player with a choice of difficulty, stadium, weather and match length and time of a match. It was also possible to play with another player or with computer against computer. Computer versus computer option was available as well.
  • League Mode: 16 international teams participate in league playing either half or full season with a free choice of teams.
  • Cup Mode: mainly focused on emulation of FIFA World Cup with the real group draw as in the 1998 FIFA World Cup. This mode also included local cups like European Cup, Asian Cup, African Cup, North American Cup and South American Cup, each based on knockout-stage conditions. Konami Cup was the one with the more adjustable settings like the number of teams and tournament basis. It is also possible to try to qualify for the World Cup.
  • All Star Match: a friendly match game between the World Stars Players and European Stars Players.
  • Penalty Kick Mode: two teams take a five penalty kicks to select the winner. In case of a draw, they undergo sudden death round.
  • Training: practice of shooting free kicks and corner kicks with a selected team.

Teams

Although team line-ups were to reflect 1998 FIFA World Cup squads there are some inconsistencies. For example, players named 'Rabanilli' (representing Fabrizio Ravanelli for Italy), 'Romedio' (representing Romario for Brazil), 'Zabie' (representing Luis Roberto Alves "Zague" for Mexico) or 'Ber' (representing Ibrahim Ba for France) did not participate in the final tournament. Some players in the game of both qualified and non-qualified teams had initially retired for their team one year before the 1998 World Cup. For example, Carlos Hermosillo ('Hermoss') of Mexico had retired from international football in 1997.

Europe

Africa

South America

North America

Asia

Oceania

Others

Winning Eleven 3: Final Ver.

The Japanese release, Winning Eleven 3 was re-released in 1999 as Winning Eleven 3: Final Ver.. The major changes and improvements have been focused on graphic and statistical updates rather than on engine itself. The most significant differences from the original are:

  • Whole look of the game is less vivid in order to increase the level of realism.
  • Some home, away and goalkeepers kits have been updated (including the All Star teams).
  • The appearance of goals and nets has been changed.
  • Squads have been updated to exactly reflect 1998 FIFA World Cup squads, the number of players in line-ups has been extended to 22 as well.
  • Three difficulty levels instead of five: easy, medium and hard.
  • The choice of match length has been widen to 30 minutes in spaces of 5.
  • Match settings in Exhibition Mode now include the choice of uniforms, extended period, penalty shoot-out and golden goal.
  • During the Cup Mode the statistics of scores and assists have been added.
  • The imitation of Stade de France, the venue of 1998 FIFA World Cup final, has been added as a new stadium.
  • The immediate replays after most interesting moments like missed shots, fouls or offsides have been implemented during the match.
  • The most noticeable changes during play covered improved shoot system and added power slide bar during corner kicks.
  • A new one-two pass method is added, allowing the first player to pass and run without the second player having to return the ball immediately. This new move added much more variety to the game.

Reception

The game was a bestseller in the UK[1] and Japan.[2]

  • GameRankings - 87.33%[3]
  • Absolute PlayStation - 87 out of 100
  • Electric Playground - 9.5 out of 10
  • Electronic Gaming Monthly - 8 out of 10

See also

References
  1. UK Playstation sales chart, December 1998, published in Official UK PlayStation Magazine issue 39.
  2. Dengeki Playstation sales chart, February 1999, published in Official UK PlayStation Magazine issue 42
  3. "International Superstar Soccer Pro '98". GameRankings. CBS Interactive. Retrieved 2018-01-08.
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