Throwback Thursday: FIFA International Soccer for 3DO

By Joe Ovies

EA Sports has an esports hit with their FIFA soccer series. Big tournaments helped push the video game into the most viewed streaming charts on Twitch and YouTube earlier this year. The English Premier League, in an attempt to catch the growing esports wave, recently announced the ePremier League tournament for FIFA 19 for fans to participate starting in January.

Not bad for a game franchise that started 25 years ago in a very crowded genre.

FIFA International Soccer was originally released in 1993 for the Sega Genesis. By the end of 1994, EA Sports ported the game to everything from the Super Nintendo Entertainment System to the Commodore Amiga. The FIFA licensing agreement gave EA Sports the most "official" looking soccer game at the time. While there was no World Cup imagery or real players, FIFA International Soccer did have a tournament mode that mimicked group stages and the elimination stage. The game also used an isometric view of the action instead of a standard sideline or overhead view.

Where the original FIFA International Soccer really showed off its innovation was on the ill-fated 3DO Interactive Multiplayer. We hooked up a Panasonic version of the 3DO console to our Bull City Gaming channel on Twitch.

FIFA International Soccer was a showcase game for the 3DO, utilizing higher quality 2D player sprites and a dynamic camera that gave the stadium a 3D feel. As a way to show off the 3DO's full motion video capabilities, the game featured "greatest moments" highlights during halftime and completed matches. In "sim" mode, the game action was broken up by amusing scoreboard vignettes (a bling mouse tripping over a soccer ball is still funny) and ads for Adidas' "Predator" shoe. The 3DO version of FIFA International Soccer was also unique in that it supported up to six players.

The 3DO Interactive Multiplayer was ahead of its time when it was released in 1993. Sega and Nintendo were in the middle of their console war, while CD-ROM based interactive software wasn't yet mainstream. The founders of 3DO didn't actually make the console, instead licensing out hardware manufacturing to consumer tech companies like Panasonic and Sanyo. Sony never signed on because they were working on bringing their own CD-ROM based platform, which would eventually debut as the Sony PlayStation. Between the competition, high price point, and scattered manufacturer setup, 3DO was doomed to fail and eventually folded. However, the sports games released for the system by EA Sports were easily the best ports in comparison to their 16-bit counterparts.

Follow Bull City Gaming on Twitch for more throwback sports games and live streams of the latest eSports.