Battle of the Ports HD #26 (Fifa road to World Cup 98)

Fifa 98 is one of the best football/soccer games available for the original PlayStation with it's (at the time) realistic graphics & smooth gameplay. The Saturn version on the other hand was a hideous unfinished mess THE worst example of a shoddy port for the system.

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[VUZOOKA]

woah, good thing i read these comments before getting around to buying it! fifa 98 is my absolute favorite football game (on the ps1) and changing from ps1 to saturn, i thought i might as well get the game again! luckily i never got around to buying it, i'll stick to worldwide soccer 97 instead. any other footie game for the saturn recommended (that's not a bugged conversion)?

[therealbluedragon]

@VUZOOKA SWWS 97 is pretty much the best game of it's type on the system so you're fine as is but I'd recommend looking up the Saturn ports of Fifa 97 & WLS '98 as both were surprisingly good versions. Avoid Actua Soccer & Euro 96 at all costs! Those are the 2nd & 3rd worst football games after Fifa 98

[VUZOOKA]

@therealbluedragon thanks for the tips mate! i remember in an old video game magazine they actually said that euro 96 was a good one for the saturn, they were probably doped... i would not buy any of them, luckily, because of the lack of teams! no international teams in a.s. and too few international teams in euro 96! hey realbluedragon will you be taking on some golfgames? like actua golf and pga tour 97?

[therealbluedragon]

@VUZOOKA I'm allways working on new videos so I'm sure I can do something.

[therealbluedragon]

5. A super unstable frame rate. Sometimes it's ok, sometimes it's like a slide show!

6. No weather effects. The options for rain, sleet & snow are there in the menus but they were never added in!

To describe the Saturn port in one word would be "SLOPPY!"

It seems all they did was get the Saturn game to a "working" state then just shoved it out the door, unfinished.

Bad EA! Very bad EA!

[therealbluedragon]

Where do I start?

1. The game looks terrible, it looks worse than Fifa 97, In fact It looks like they just took the Fifa 97 Saturn engine & re-skinned it... badly

2. The textures are really bad & unfinished. The numbers on the players backs were never coloured in & were left black so you can barely see them

3. The player models look really chunky compared to the PS1 version, supporting my re-skin theory

4. Lot's of bugs, a couple of really bad ones too! Little testing was done on this game.

[Vendettare1]

Made sega, and EA fall out it was so bad. Sega lost massive shares there for the Dreamcast.

[keironewoodgate]

I love this!

[NeoGeoNinja]

I WAS GOING TO SAY...

the Saturn version really doesn't look anywhere near as bad as some had made out... then... the rain fell... on one pitch at least!

Also, the C64 style windows on the indoor pitch made me chuckle slightly too!

Yeah, a real shame it seems (not into footy games) but hopefully, still playable enough to enjoy...

[LoStraniero91]

@therealbluedragon Thanks, funny how GameSpot rated this one on SS with a 7.2 (or close) while obviously it looks like completely garbage on it. Well, I'm not surprised, the same thing happens to the Wii. Did you see how they butchered Need for Speed:Hot Pursuit? Just watch some PS3/Xbox 360 video then Wii and you will see. Too bad, because the Wii it's a good console, it doesn't deserve the kind of treatment EA is giving >_<

[therealbluedragon]

@LoStraniero91 Sometimes the frame rate will plummet without good reason. Crashing at the loading screen, the bar will fill up & then it'll just sit there. Occasionally when performing a goal kick & the game goes into a 3rd person view, you (as the goalie) are unable to do anything. The best one I've seen though is when the commentators repeat the same line over & over & over again without pause for the entire match.

[LoStraniero91]

@therealbluedragon Sorry for this reply but what kind of bugs had this game on Sega Saturn (apart for the never implemented weather effects, which could be considered a really huge bug).

[Bastylax86]

I remember when I was 12 playing this game over and over. It was so addictive that time.Same thing for FIFA99.

[1906Scorpion]

@VUZOOKA Victory Goal is a good one too. Is more arcade style but is a great game.

[PrtuguesePride]

@therealbluedragon do you really think that poor textures is about port?? come on... that was part of the game rendering... EA delivered in a purpose a poor game to destroy SEGA this was a conspiracy, there was payout´s for sure between sony and EA to made such thing... sony soon started to get "exclusivity", per example there wasnt tomb raider 2 in SEGA, or other interesting games, not because the console wouldnt handle it, but because most of company´s in gaming market want to kill SEGA

[PrtuguesePride]

Saturn was at minimum such good as playstation, minimal diferences, but playstation had much more games, and much more results, because it was cheaper at firts, and sega less games, because some publishers wanted to knock it out.. it was exacly the same with Dreamcast, as SEGA produce games, the other publishers had allways fear that sega dominated the market by having taking advantage of their own hardware knoledge to produce better games, compare SEGArally with other racing in 95 per example