The history of a video game series can get messy sometimes. Different names for different regions is one source of confusion, and subtitles launching an off-shoot series is another. ISS Pro Evolution manages to hit that special place of everything at once.
Originally released on the SNES, International Superstar Soccer would get sequel after sequel over the years. Eventually, it spawned a Pro line, at the time running separately to the main ISS line. This Pro version of the title would play more realistically than it's arcadey origins and would be a game for the smarter footballer, you might argue. ISS Pro Evolution is the evolution of that Pro line, and as the name suggests, it would ultimately lead to further separation from ISS series when it becomes the Pro Evolution Soccer series.
But that's in the future and this is in the distant past. Not the first 3D football title to arrive on home consoles, but supposedly one of the best. Indeed, as the intro outright tells us:
Fun Times
After an inspirational introduction movie that seems to suggest that kids can grow up to become goalkeepers, and then get beaten by better professional footballers, ISS Pro Evo dumps us into the menus where we can enter a number of game modes.
The first to catch my eye is the Master League, where you take a rag-tag team to the top of the table season after season, buying better players and selling off the weak links in your squad. It's the first to catch my eye because I didn't expect it to be present in a game as old as this, but it won't be the first mode I'm going to play.
Quickly checking the release dates, the nearest World Cup was France '98, so what better way to get used to the way ISS Pro Evo plays than taking England to the Quarter-finals?
Each time I play a football game, I have to find my footing. I've played so many of them over the years that once one system of play is in my head, changing to a competing series or, in this case, going back in time, can often lead to matches full of 'can I do this? Nope. How do I do that? Ah, ok', rather than matches full of actual football.
So, instead of the training mode (because that's not how we really learn, is it?), it's a World Cup on Easy mode, with commentary by Martin Williams and former England International, Terry Butcher. Not that he says much.
The teams are on the angular side, but they look like football players from a distance, and it's from a distance that you should be playing ISS Pro Evo. A number of viewing angles are available, but the more I can see, the better.
I'm emulating this PlayStation title, and there are some issues of players popping out of nowhere at the screen edges, which may or may not be present in the original game, I don't know. It's not going to affect you, because they're screenshots. What might bother you is that the player indicator is often offset from the head of the player it's indicating. Again, maybe an emulation issue, but for the most part, not a problem.
Frustrations
There are some problems, though. They're not big problems, just my problems. The players aren't slow, so much as weighty, and trying to accurately pass the ball amongst them can be tricky. A switch to using the analogue stick was much better for me, but the likelihood of threading a nice through ball for a forward to run onto and stick it in the net was nigh on impossible unless they were already in acres of space.
As it happens, that's how I scored the first goal against Romania.
There wasn't a lot of finesse involved. One on one, Owen vs Stelea, only one winner. I suppose I could have held down the shoot button for too long and ballooned it over the bar, but no. In it goes. I don't think I had any control over where it ended up, but I'm not going to complain - it crossed the line, that's all that matters.
It looks alright. Better in motion, granted, but they've really gone for that TV look that later games in the series will improve upon again and again. Shame licensing gets in the way of player names.
Owenn, Bekham, Andarton... you know who they are, Konami know who they are, but FIFA actually knows who they are, and FIFA has the pointy stick to make sure everyone follows the rules. It's a minor inconvenience at best, and fully editable should you have the time to edit them all.
I don't. Mostly because I couldn't remember how to spell Keown. And then got stumped as to who the hell Sharewood was. We're going to rewrite World Cup history anyway, what does it matter that the names are all wrong?
Further Fun Times
Goals have short, controllable replays, allowing you to see exactly which defender 'did an England' and passed the ball to the Romanian forwards on the edge of the box, making it 1-1. I think I have some things to learn about the way ISS Pro Evo does football.
And yet I can see many things that I'm familiar with from modern games. The indicator for where the ball will land is present. The strategy scale is there, showing you whether you're in all-out attack or playing it more defensively. The individual tactics are shown too, so long as you can remember what strategy Triangle or X is.
At half time, things were looking good. I was getting more comfortable with the controls, and seeing what the best strategies were. These were simpler times. We're not playing for intricate set pieces here - just get it to Owenn and let him run.
It didn't really work out that way in the second half. In need of an inspired substitution, Redknapp came on for Scholes and hit the ground running.
Missed his one and only shot on goal, but England ran out comfortable winners. On to Columbia.
Further Frustrations
Yeah, this is the problem with Easy mode. There comes a time where you know the system enough that you can exploit its weaknesses. Shot-feints were devastating here, putting the keeper on the floor in no time at all, allowing you to round him and shoot into an empty net.
While 8-1 scorelines are not impossible in the World Cup, I know that an England team couldn't hope to get 8 goals in an entire competition, let alone a single match. Will Tunisia be a tougher match?
Yeeeaaahhh... event against a weakened England team, I think it's clear that I've got the hang of Easy mode. At this point, the World Cup is no challenge at all, even when we're up against the dreaded Argentinians.
I'm not in the mood to put umpteen goals past international opponents anymore. It's time to explore the birth of the Master League - on Normal difficulty.
Further Fun Times
The Master League is the mode for Pro Evolution fans. It would grow and grow as the series went on, but back here in ISS Pro Evo, you can already see how it would capture attention from players who were only used to international tournaments.
No matter who you pick, whether a real team or a subtle nod to one or not (I'm surprised Liverpool aren't called Merseyside Red here, because they sure will be in future games), your squad will be stuffed to the gills with nameless nobodies. That's not quite true - some of them would become fan favourites over time, but I don't recognise any from this bunch. It's been a while since I've played Master League in any Pro Evo game, to be honest.
Anyway, these guys will go on to greatness, climbing the table and standing on top of the footballing world. Or that's the plan.
Have I learned enough about the game to play well on Normal difficulty?
The game was, pleasingly, much closer to call. A bunch of generic redmen versus whatever Roma could field in the late 1990s in a back and forth scuffle.
It wasn't to last.
A more respectable scoreline. I think I may well have found my comfort level in this games difficulty settings. As a reward for my efforts, I got some points to spend making Liverpool into a better team. These points can be spent on transfers, and knowing that a bunch of Liverpool players are already in the game, I might as well spend them on recreating the team. Not all of the team. Just the good ones. I think Fouler might turn into someone memorable. Maybe even someone Godly...
I should have edited the names... Ah well. Let's see how Fowler fits into our formation against Ajax.
Uh... well, he scored on his debut, I guess...
Final Word
ISS Pro Evolution is, for me, more of an eye-opener into the history of the football series I gravitated towards when I really cared about playing football games. I was that gamer who rightly chose Pro Evo over FIFA (before, rightly again, switching to FIFA in later years), and while I was aware that it ultimately came from games I had in my childhood, like ISS Deluxe, I had no real idea of its existence between those 2D games and the PlayStation 2 games I was familiar with - and I was late to those PS2 titles. They churn out a sports title each year, don't you know...
I don't know whether I can call this an absolute must play title - I would have thought that FIFA: Road to World Cup 98 would have nabbed this spot, because it's FIFA '98 for goodness sake, but perhaps brand names aren't enough for the 1001 list. Perhaps the fact that Konami was trying to get professional football across to the masses, rather than just a kick about, is why ISS Pro Evo makes it to the list.
Whatever the reason, on the list or not, I think this is an important milestone in its series' history. Football is changing. It's evolving. Are you going to play with the team, or against it?
Fun Facts
The Master League mode loops like a New Game + mode. You can keep your transfers from one season to the next and upgrade your squad over multiple, identically formatted seasons. It's such a closed loop that I actually couldn't find a way to return to the main menu from inside it...
ISS Pro Evolution, developed by Konami Computer Entertainment Tokyo, first released in 1999.
Version played: PlayStation, 1999, via emulation.