The History Of Football Games – Subbuteo, Sensible Soccer and FIFA
The upcoming FIFA 21, from EA Sports, is the 28th game in the series. Alongside the popular Pro Evolution Soccer (PES) series, it’s the most popular football game. Both series have managed to last through the various console generations. We take a look at the most icon football games ever released.
First Football Computer Game?
The first dedicated interpretation of football in video game form was NASL (North American Soccer League) Soccer from Intellivision.
What Did People Play Before?
Before Video Games were around, people recreated their favourite football moments with Subbuteo. This was invented by Peter Adolph and is a group of tabletop games simulating team sports such as association football, cricket, both codes of rugby and hockey. The name is most associated with the football game.
What Was The First FIFA Game Released?
The first version of FIFA was called ‘FIFA International Soccer’ and released in 1993. The game only featured International teams and real names of players were not used. FIFA 95 was the first to feature clubs within eight national leagues.
FIFA 21 will have over 30 leagues and competitions, including a host of the world’s biggest tournaments, such as the Champions League and the Premier League. This perhaps shows how the series has developed over the last quarter of a century.
When Was The First PES Game Released?
The first version of PES from Konami came out in November 2001. The PlayStation 2 version of the game received widespread praise from video game critics. The main difference between FIFA and PES has always been that Konami’s effort has had significantly less licensed teams. Still, the game and its dedicated players have traditionally tried to make it up for it with the in-depth editor mode.
The game is now branded as eFootball PES, and the last edition was eFootball PES 2020. There will not be a new version out this year, with Konami focusing their efforts on building a new game for the next generation of consoles. They have instead released a major update for last year’s game which features all the latest signings and league changes.
What About Sensible Soccer?
Sensible Soccer is a series which was highly popular in the early 1990s and still retains a cult following. Often known affectionately as Sensi, the first few entries in the series received rave reviews. The first release in the series sold around 200,000 copies. By 2002, it was estimated that the series overall had sold over 2 million copies.
How Will Football Games Look On Xbox Series X and PS5?
The next generation of consoles from Microsoft and Sony are more powerful than the current generation and this will no doubt have a huge impact on future versions of FIFA and PES. Microsoft claims the Xbox Series X is four times more powerful than the Xbox One.
It remains to be seen if other companies will provide a challenge to the established pair and release a game of their own.
Other Football Games
Football Manager
Football Manager is a football management simulation developed by British developer Sports Interactive and published by Sega. The game began its life in 1992 as Championship Manager. The series takes on a more strategic and in-depth look at football, with many managers using the game to run the rule over potential new signings.
The earlier entries of the Championship Manager series are still popular within online communities. Some players are still spoken about due to their performance in the game, as opposed to their performance in real life.
LMA Manager
Another management sim. This series of games were released between 1999 and 2007 and had a cult following at the time. Unlike Football Manager, it was a game more geared towards the management novice.
This Is Football
This Is Football was a series on various generations of the PlayStation between 1999 and 2010. It first appeared on PlayStation in 1999, but it was not until its debut on PS2 in 2001 that it started to shine and was genuinely competing with FIFA and PES for the title of best football game.
David Beckham Soccer
This played a solid game of football back in 2001 but was never really good enough to challenge FIFA and PES in terms of gameplay. A review in Gamespot said: “It lacks some of the more interesting mechanics introduced by the FIFA series.”
Club Football
Club Football was a series of games produced by Codemasters in 2003 and 2004 for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox. Each version of the game focused on a specific club with their official replica stadium, shirt, and players.
Less Serious Football Games
Mario Strikers
The Mario Strikers series of games puts the footballing focus on Mario and Luigi rather than Ronaldo and Messi.
Disney Sports Soccer
This is another football game that swaps real life players for fictional characters. Real Madrid and Manchester United are replaced by The Superstars, captained by Mickey Mouse, and The Seaducks, captained by Donald Duck.
Disney Sports Soccer gameplay https://youtu.be/tdBDkEntUhI
Football Mania
This was a Lego-themed football game which features a simplified version of the sport. There were six players per side with no offsides, throw-ins, or fouls.
Red Card Soccer
The game follows most of the rules of football but allows for heavy tackles. Players can also activate special moves once they have charged up a special meter.
Virtua Soccer
This was a series of arcade-style football games, developed by Sega. Aside from being present in arcades, the games were exclusive to the Sega Dreamcast.
FIFA Street
FIFA Street is a spin-off franchise which was first introduced in 2005. The games focus on flair, style, and trickery, reflecting the cultures of street football and freestyle football played on streets and back alleys across the world.
Rocket League
This game is described as “soccer, but with rocket-powered cars.” Rocket League has a strange premise but has become something of a phenomenon since its release in 2015. The game earned several industry awards and saw over 10 million sales and 40 million players by the beginning of 2018.
Virtual Reality Football (VR)
Many experts still see VR as the future of video games. ‘PSVR2’ will most probably be out in 2021 and will be used on Sony’s new PS5 which will be released towards the end of 2020.
However, Microsoft has confirmed that the Xbox Series X will not support VR at launch. They do believe that it will eventually be brought to the console, describing it as a ‘no brainer’.
The big question for fans of FIFA and PES is how VR could be used to enhance their gaming experience. One YouTuber created a concept trailer for how he believes FIFA VR could look.
It is easy to see how the technology could be used for these games but remains to be seen if EA Sports and Konami will pursue it as a key feature for any future versions of their games.
