Formation Soccer 97 PS1 Review

Formation Soccer 97 was developed and published by human entertainment for the PlayStation that was only seen in Japan around the midpoint of 1997 and it follows off the back of many types of soccer games that were being released on the PlayStation at that time. 

As many developers from various different regions were all trying to get involved with the sports genre where they were all trying to strive for dominance but there was only a handful of developers that really saw any sort of significant progress in terms of popularity and mainly with the likes of Konami and Electronic Arts that would become the two dominant forces with the FIFA series and the International Superstar Soccer series on the PlayStation. 

But there would be many other unique soccer titles that would be released during the early days and even the midpoint of the PlayStation's lifespan that would cater to a specific audience. 

You had the likes of Adidas Power Soccer that would prove to be quite popular during the early days of the PlayStation among many other titles.

 And in Japan you had Dynamite soccer that would be released in 1998 that were going to span four entries during the franchise's lifespan and then you had formation soccer that originally started back with an early title back in 1995 with hyper formation soccer. 

So this would be the spiritual successor to it and there would be a later entry to this with formation soccer 98 a year later that would be used as a way to try and build hype towards the World Cup in France at the time. 

So this is a very different type of soccer game straight away from the get-go, it has very different visuals from what you would see in your typical 3D football game.

A lot of developers were still trying to find their feet basically with trying to create sports games as they'd use different game engines and graphics engines so the visuals were always quite different and this game definitely stands out from many other soccer games seen on the system. 

It tries to have a simulation kind of approach but it does feel more like an arcade style of soccer game and although it does play quite decently it has some decent graphics although when you do compare it to other types of soccer games it wouldn't probably fair as well in the looks department compared to other soccer games. 

But for an early enough soccer game on the PlayStation and in Japan it does stand out. 

Now the controls can be quite clunky and the gameplay at times can seem a bit on the sluggish side and it can be tricky to maintain possession with the ball as the controls wouldn't be as fluent or as easily adaptable or easy to use when you compare them to more mainstream soccer game. 

But I'm sure that it has its own unique preferences because with companies developing these games and the factors that we're developing multiple entries proves that they were popular within those regions. 

So it has some unique traits and having spent time playing with it like in my own personal opinion it's never going to compete against the likes of ISS Pro or the FIFA series but it does have some unique quirks and traits that does help it to stand out somewhat. 

Graphically it is not as good compared to other types of games but I do like the graphical style in it. 

There's a unique charm to this game, that you don't really see you definitely know that it's different from other soccer games out there but that's what I love about the PlayStation in general is the fact is that for the amount of games that are out there the PlayStation does have some very unique games. 

Although even the more mainstream games don't have some of these subtle kind of aesthetics that a lot of these lower quality games if you will would have. 

They definitely do stand out in their own respects there's just something about them that really is appealing to the masses. 

But what does it feel like to play overall even aside from the visuals? 

Right the controls from having spent time playing the game it does feel a little bit on the clunky side but I found that the more I got into it the more you gradually started to get a feel for the controls and I was able to start scoring goals in the game so it definitely started to improve so just it you genuinely started to enjoy the experience an awful lot more. 

While these early type of games are never going to be perfect it is what you really make of them at the end of the day there's people out there that like these type of games but there's people out there that probably won't but I'm sure there's also a lot of people out there that don't even know anything about these type of soccer games especially from Japan. 

So it is interesting to go and try them out because even when you do compare them to the likes of even later or game seen even on the PS2 the funny thing about the PS2 soccer games that I've played over the years yes there's many different versions and sequels but there's also a lot of different games that were released obviously in other regions but sometimes they're just rehashes of the same game. 

They've literally just used the same game engine they might have tweaked a few things the game plays and feels exactly the same as an ISS Pro game or a different type of soccer game and they just slap a different logo or badge on it and that's pretty much it. 

But the PS1 has a lot more individual and unique titles, yes even the ones that do have their own sequels they still feel somewhat different in their own way that's the crazy thing about the PS1 is for the amount of soccer games and sports games that are available there's no two of them that really feel or look the same as such, they're all somewhat different in their own way which does help them to stand out. 

The only ones that would really see or be noticeable would be the likes of the ISS Pro Series because in Japan they would have been known as the J League Series so or even likes of goal storm which would have been developed by Konami which is also considered to be an early J League game on the PlayStation. 

If you played those games back to back from the different regions you'd know the similarities straight away they play almost identical but other franchises with the likes of Formation Soccer and other ones they play and feel very very different to each other which definitely helps it to stand out. 

So if you definitely are looking for something I think that is different there's a plethora of different types of soccer titles that will pique your interest on the PlayStation and this is but one of them. 

And I would love to know your thoughts on Formation Soccer 97 for the PlayStation if you have played this game or even any games in the series at all and if so what do you think of them or did you even know that they even existed?

I'd love to hear whatever thoughts you have of these games so be sure to share them in the comments below and be sure to keep watching to see more content on other games similar to Formation Soccer 97, you can check out the blog where we will be diving into the iconic elements of these classic video games and as always keep those gaming memories alive...