Formation Soccer 98 PS1 Review

Formation Soccer 98 would be the next entry in the series of soccer games that was developed by human entertainment that would get a release during the midpoint of 1998.

 This game would actually be released around the time that the World Cup in France during 1998 was being played out and would take many ideas and preferences from Formation Soccer 97 that would try to improve upon many aesthetics seen in the previous title which smoother graphics and overall better visuals but would still keep with the same play style and dynamics seen in the previous game in the series. 

There would be a different array of menus and options and even a few additional modes available and the character or player rosters and stats would all be updated for the 1998 season with regards to players who were playing with what country or team and so forth. 

But visually when you look at the graphics even when you look at the 97 edition, yes visually the graphics look a bit more refined and a bit smoother but it does look very very similar to that, it hasn't really changed all that much from the previous title and in general it felt a bit more in my own experience especially harder to pick up and play as there was a few tweaks from what I could find to the likes of the computer AI so they were definitely a bit more difficult to get to grips with and to play against to a certain degree to try and score goals and just general all-around play. 

The pace of the game has somewhat improved compared to that of the last game in the series so it doesn't feel somewhat as sluggish as the previous game did. I have done a previous post on formation soccer 97 which you can check out here. 

And for all intents and purposes there's not really much that I can say that makes it sound like that this game is any different because in a lot of ways it isn't it's very very similar in many ways, just the tweaked visuals and the speed of the game and like I said the updated player stats but it plays and feels very similar to that game itself. 

And for what it does offer it's not the worst soccer game I played and it does play quite well you can get into it, you can string passes together although it can be quite difficult for the absolute newbie to get into but it's not going to set the world alight in terms of what it can do because again when you compare it to the more mainstream titles with the FIFA series and ISS Pro, these games would pale in comparison to them. 

But they're a nice little side track away from the more mainstream games and clearly these games would have been popular in Japan as they did to produce a few entries in the series in total and it's just interesting to see what a lot of developers were thinking about and that's one of the reasons why I do love the likes of the PlayStation and the ideas behind the games that were being produced. 

As developers were getting involved with the various type of games and genres and they were all trying to dip their toes in the pond that was already kind of like dominated by two main series at the time but It still didn't stop other developers from wanting to get in on the mix as well and produce something and to present something that could stand out. 

While not maybe being executed as well as some of the more popular titles they do offer something unique and these games although while not considered as good have presented as many unique ideas and aesthetics for future games that you would see on later consoles as a lot of these games did gradually improve with each iteration and they would have also helped to inspire many future games that you would have seen later on the console and even later on the PS2 and so forth. 

So if you want to play something a little bit different away from your more mainstream games, the formation soccer series might be worth checking out just to let you know that it is in the most refined soccer game or series on the PlayStation but it does present something that will present somewhat of a challenge and is a little bit different although it may come across as being a bit clunky for some it really just depends on your own play style and perspective and to decide if it is something that you would find interesting, but I'll leave that up to you. 

And I would love to know your thoughts on formation soccer 98 for the PlayStation if you have played it yourself and if so what do you think of it. 

Did you enjoy this type of game or even any of the games in this series or did you even know about them at all be sure to share that in the comments below and be sure to keep watching to see more content on other games similar to formation soccer 98, 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...