SWWS 98: The Greatest Football Game Of All Time?

First of all, we'll acknowledge the elephant in the room... the very mention of the word "football" is going to be contentious from the start. The official title is "Sega World Wide Soccer", although the commentator, the venerable Gary Bloom, welcomes us to what he hopes... "will be an exciting game of football." So that's the word I'm going to use predominantly in this article... "football". The word used to describe the game in Europe, Africa, The Middle East, Asia and South America...
Apologies to our US cousins, for whom 'football' is an excuse to dress up in crash helmet, a fancy spandex suit and enough padding to protect a kindergarten full of kids, from an oncoming freight train... in order to play a jolly good game of rugby! 😉

''Sega World Wide Soccer '98" is the follow up to the most excellent "Sega World Wide Soccer '97"... A re-skin of the "J-League" inspired football game "International Victory Goal".  The game is widely celebrated for it's instant playability and free-flowing game play. There is little to distinguish between the '98 and '97 editions in terms of game mechanics, physics or engine. The major difference between the original and it's updated counterpart, being in the ability to play as the English Premiere League teams of the time*, as well as a good variety of international squads, more of which later. The only other major difference is the addition to the 'commentary team' of ex-Ireland manager and England player, Jack Charlton, more of that later too!
* The game also allows you to play as teams from the French and Spanish top tier too.

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The playability of the game was key to it's popularity in the late nineties, and is the reason it is celebrated and lauded to this day by so many Saturn owners. It's easy to pick up, and if you put the difficulty to the hardest settings once you've mastered the controls and functionality of each pad button -in terms of passing, chipping, long shot and lobs- you should get a challenging, yet winnable match from your CGI opponents.

There are not many commands to master: 'A'- is "shoot" or "slide tackle" 'B'- is "pass" or "shoulder charge" 'C'- is a "lob" whilst 'X'- allows you to bring your goalie out... However the button press which allows for the most vital advantage, the 'quick sprint' is the right  shoulder button. That's all you need to know!

When you boot up the game, you'll get a fairly slick introduction, with the standard cheesy soft rock synthesised musical score, by no less than Sega's in house music maestro, composer Richard Jacques... CGI players shown in a variety of classic football poses and showboating skills. The players are rendered in impressive detail and the opening does it's job of getting you in the mood for the match to follow.

It's at this point that we see the wide amount of choice of tournaments, teams and leagues available. Two world competitions, one league based and one cup based, plus tournaments and play offs for the club teams. The choices of tournament are: Friendly, International World Wide Cup, International Cup Tournament, International Penalty Shoot Out, Club Exhibition and Club League. The selection of international teams allows you to select countries from Europe, Asia, The Middle East and The Americas. All three teams from the UK are represented, plus the Republic of Ireland, so no complaints there!

I won't go on about the graphics, but they are pretty great for 1997 when the game was developed... The best impression you'll get of the game is when you play a daylight game in fine weather... The weather changes from match to match, as does the time of day you play at... some games are night time games, with the stadiums floodlit... Some are in sunshine and some in rain... and a wet pitch makes for differing ball physics. The variation of time and weather conditions add to the reality of playing a league or cup competition, and can make a big difference to your success in each game.

Father K's All Time Wales 11

Being able to play as English Premier League teams must have been a big draw to consumers back in the day, however, it's here that the sands of time begin to blow into this reviewer's rosy hued vision and clog up the cogs and mechanisms of this most wondrous of gaming experiences. You see naturally, teams come and go from the upper  echelons of their respective league systems. Teams rise and fall. At the time the video game was published, my own team (Manchester City) were languishing in the lower leagues of the English game. Therefore they don't feature in SWWS 98. No amount of editing or team changing can ever bring them to play in my leagues or tournaments. It means I have to play as my Dad's Sheffield Wednesday or my brother's Liverpool... acceptable but never quite right... Still, that's not going to bother the average gamer I'm sure...

Sega didn't go to the trouble of securing a license from any of the official teams however, so you'll see no official logos, no rendering of real stadiums and no real team names. Manchester United are simply (and frustratingly) simply referred to as "Manchester". The names of the players do correspond to those of the 96/7/8 Premiership Seasons. A team editing feature allows you to change the names of the players and update them should you so wish, so it is possible to "contemporise" your teams, (as I know at least one of our correspondents at the SJY takes the time to do!) I tend to go for the "greatest players of all time" for each of the particular teams I customise... and I also put my sons into the teams for good measure, so you'll always see at least two Earlys in any of my squads.

Only the best players get to see this...

The tournaments and leagues are long and gruelling affairs. Even at the shortest match times, (which you can lengthen or shorten using the 'options' feature) log in at 6 minutes each... A world wide cup could see you playing 32 matches. Of course you can play a quick exhibition match, but there is a lot to be said for playing a league... Apart from the fact that your skills obviously improve with repeated play, you really get a feel for the game and take genuine pride in beating other teams, although you have to willingly suspend your disbelief for a moment and 'forget' that you're playing the same AI every match... Some teams definitely DO seem to perform better than others, so Sega seem to have staggered the skill set of each opponent.

The referee seems to have been paid off by each of the teams I play as... He used to be quite a consistent disciplinarian in SWWS '97 and would often send player off for reckless infractions, but these days he rarely makes an appearance. When he does, his boldest sanction is usually a yellow card. As player-manager, the onus is then on you to take that player off in case of a second yellow and an expulsion from the pitch, but in truth due to referee lenience, that is unlikely to happen to the same player in one game.

One of the very few features that make 'SWWS '98' worse than 'SWWS '97' is the addition of Jack Charlton to the commentary team. In SWWS '97, the commentator Gary Bloom was a great atmosphere builder and added to the ambience and immersion of playing a soccer game. Even though we are repeatedly hearing the same constantly recycled soundbites, they fit well into the flow of the game. Sure, some phrases are overly repeated... (e.g. every time a poor shot was saved by the goalie Gary would utter the withering riposte..."Even my old grandmother could have stopped that...") but Gary's addition to the title was a master stroke on Sega's part in 1997. The tone and timbre of his voice screams "football commentator". He has a way of speaking which is synonymous with Saturday afternoons in front of the telly.

The god-like Gary Bloom

In comes Jack Charlton, not a man given over to erudite witticisms or verbose oratory. He just completely spoils the ambience and really pisses on Gary Bloom's commentary chips... Jack's assertions are delivered in a wooden and lifeless manner, as if lazily reading from prompt sheets or cue cards. His contribution is further hampered by the fact that there are some bugs and glitches on the delivery of his lines contained on the  the disc itself... He's an unnecessary addition, one which Sega presumably thought would lend a little footballing credibility to the game, but the move backfired. I'm sorry to go on about this, but Gary's commentary is such an integral part of the whole experience, that putting Jack in there, just means we get less of Gary... and that's a very bad thing.

Another bad move on Sega's part was removing the cheesy score board videos that used to appear to herald a great goal in SWWS '97... This was a great feature that should have been retained and developed in the 98 edition. It gave '97 an arcade fun feel, that Sega were often able to somehow, shoehorn into their sports titles... 

One of the best things about Sega World Wide Soccer 98, in 2017, is it's cheapness and availability. It sold shed loads at the time and as you can see it cost me less than a pound when I bought it back in the mid 2000s. Nowadays, you can pick it up for less than £10, and for about half that if you're lucky. It's one of the cheapest games available for the Saturn, but I'll wager I've sunk as much time into this game as I have with any other on the Saturn. It has a longevity and playability which allows the game to have as much appeal in 2017 as it did 20 years before...

I paid the princely sum of 99p for this beauty...

One of the greatest pleasures I've had from the Saturn leaflets and advertising junk that occasionally reside within the boxes of newly acquired games was this lovely selection of SWWS '98 merchandise that was once available to the discerning Sega consumer! Footballs, wallets, tote bags, jackets and hats... I've searched and searched for any of this promotional guff online, but with no success... How I'd love to walk down the road, wearing my SWWS '98 sports jacket and baseball cap, my SWWS '98 wallet in my back pocket and my Saturn in my tote bag, whilst doing kick ups with my SWWS '98 football, but alas, it has yet to pass...

Apart from the Jack Charlton debacle, SWWS '98 is one of the best games available for the Saturn. If you're an RPG fiend or a Shmup addict, this might not be for you. But if you love the beautiful game, or if you have an appreciation of sports games on the Saturn, then I can't recommend this game highly enough. There's no excuse not to own it!

Jack Charlton... No Gary Bloom!

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