Popular sports games have a reputation for being highly expendable and ending up on the bottom racks of second-hand stores, selling for mere pennies. This is a pretty fair judgment of the genre, since people want the games to reflect new team signings, the current strip/jersey, and perhaps even expect a few additional features to the gameplay (though that’s not so important). Heck, FIFA 17 even added a story mode, so it makes even more sense to fling your copy of FIFA 16 in the bin.
But what about football*, American football, etc. games as retro games? Can they still provide an enjoyable experience? Or is it a poundstore pick-up that you’ll regret, and that’s best left on the shelf to gather dust? A very kind Twitter follower of mine procured me a copy of a sports game that I have very fond memories of – World Cup 98 – and two entire decades later, I decided to give it a whirl.
Putting aside my nostalgia for the game, sitting down with World Cup 98 still felt like sitting down for a cup of tea, a choccy biscuit and a natter with an old friend. Sure, there were hiccups, but it was still a thoroughly entertaining experience that had me giggling and whooping, and probably had my roommate wondering what in tarnation was going on in my room. You might want to have eBay open as you read this, to find a copy of that long-forgotten sports game you used to play as a kid. I promise reopening that door to the past won’t be a disappointment.
*Football being used to refer to the gentleman’s pastime of association football, or “soccer”, and not to that strange bastardisation of rugby where the ball gets passed in the wrong direction.
Source: Destructoid I played a 20-year-old FIFA World Cup game and maybe you should, too