With FIFA 20, the 27th installment of the FIFA series is just around the corner. But let’s look back: When and how did the famous series begin? We have taken a look at the very first FIFA title.
Nowadays, photorealistic graphics with lifelike players in football games are completely normal. However, in the early 90s, things looked a bit different when “FIFA International Soccer” was released as the first part of the legendary video game series.
Then the game was released: In a year when Lothar Matthäus was still playing for FC Bayern and SV Werder Bremen became German champions, the very first FIFA title was released. The release date was December 15, 1993.
The game was initially released for Sega Mega Drive and later for Super Nintendo, PC, Game Boy, and other platforms.
Interestingly, it was only the successor FIFA 95 that received a year in the title.
This is how it looked: The simple graphics by today’s standards were top-level back then. Sports games had never looked so realistic until then.
From today’s perspective, however, the graphics no longer impress anyone. For instance, all players on a team looked the same and were hardly distinguishable from each other.
However, this did not damage the gameplay, and one cannot deny the certain charm of the isometric graphic style.
These were the game modes: A campaign or street soccer were far away in 1993. Instead, players had pure football fun and could choose from the following modes:
- Kickoff
- World Cup Tournament
- Playoffs
- Leagues
Licenses and cover stars: Don’t you know David Platt and Piotr Swierczewski? The national players from England and Poland graced the cover of the bestseller. It was already curious that there wasn’t a single licensed player in the game. The teams were entirely made up of fantasy players.
Additionally, only national teams could be played with; there were no clubs to be found.
The gameplay and the famous glitches
This is how it played: The gameplay was simple and hardly comparable to current FIFA installments. The first FIFA title was by no means a “football simulation.” Results with numerous goals were the order of the day.
The famous glitches
- Easy goals by blocking the goalkeeper – If you wanted an easy goal, you just had to stand in front of the opposing goalkeeper when he wanted to take his goal kick. If executed correctly, the ball would hit the player, who would just have to push it in.
- Running away from the referee – What was really crazy was that you could run away from the card after a foul. Skilled players could even keep this up for several minutes and try to escape the punishment. But the referee showed no mercy, the card was always received in the end.
See here how one could flee from the referee:
The huge success made the FIFA series possible
This is how successful the first FIFA title was: EA expected to sell 300,000 copies in Europe, but the expectations were far exceeded. In the first 4 weeks alone, the game was sold 500,000 times.
This made FIFA International Soccer the best-selling game in 1993, even though it was only released in December.
You can extensively test how FIFA 20 plays in the demo. All information about the FIFA 20 demo is available here.
Which FIFA installment was your first? Tell us in our Facebook group.
