FIFA: Road To World Cup '98 (FIFA: RTWC '98) is the fourth of the line of FIFA games from EA Sports. Starting from FIFA International Soccer in 1995, then FIFA 96 & FIFA 97. FIFA: RTWC '98 is special because it contains the entire qualifying portion of the World Cup plus the World Cup with all the qualified teams. FIFA also returns the leagues from most every portion of the world.
With FIFA: RTWC '98, there are a lot of teams. You can be any international team you want to qualify. I've loved playing as Sri Lanka, Aruba, and Trinidad and Tobago. You can always play as the great teams of Brazil, England, and Italy, but it doesn't bring players a challenge. It's lots of fun to play as really bad teams and seeing if you can take them all the way to the World Cup finals. There are also around 15 leagues that you can play in. From the really good leagues of England, Italy, France, and Germany, to the poor leagues from the US (not the MLS) and the Malaysian, you have a wide selection to choose from. Fortunately, you can edit the leagues and download new leagues off the internet.
Along with the leagues and the World Cup, there is also the typical friendly match, training, and new this year, the penalty shootout. The penalty shootout lets you practice for when you have to do it in the World Cup. In the friendly match, you can play as any team against any other team, and you can play in any stadium, including the indoor stadium. Unfortunately, there is no indoor league, which would be really cool.
There are a few downpoints of FIFA: RTWC '98. One is a poor ending to winning the World Cup and any league. It just has a small cutscene showing Footix (the WC '98 mascot) holding the World Cup. After putting in a lot of time playing, we should get more than that. But as I said with Age of Empires, the gameplay is what matters. The tournament setting from FIFA '96 and FIFA '97 are gone, too. I loved playing tournaments in the English Premier League, but now I can't. FIFA is also unrealistic compared to real soccer, but for the game to be realistic, players would have to play a full 90-minute game. Most people don't have the patience to sit down and play a full game. It is also unrealistic in its simulation. I've seen teams like Qatar and France reach the World Cup finals. This probably will never happen (well, maybe France, but it's not likely). FIFA: RTWC '98 has improved the player AI a lot from '96 and '97, but it's still very beatable. It would really nice to have all the UEFA cups in the game, too.
There is a lot to like about FIFA: RTWC '98. The leagues, the graphics, the improved AI, and the entire World Cup. But there are a lot of minor downpoints that bring it down. I really like this game because I'm a soccer buff. But there is just too much missing to make this an excellent game.
