Top 7 Worst Features on FIFA Games Ever
This blog ignores features that were criminally removed from the games, like indoor 6-a-side, Lounge Mode and Adam Johnson. Nor does it include glitches like the guaranteed goal from a chipped finish in FIFA 10 or when players look like they’re kissing – or other things, like the images above. Instead it focuses on features which were brought in, sometimes marketed as that year’s game-changer, before quickly being dropped from future titles and ignored.
Tap to sprint, FIFA ’97
This might seem like a minor one but back when fatigue was not an issue with players, having to continuously tap triangle, X or whatever keyboard button you were using on the PC was quite arduous. Your players could run at full pelt for the entire game and for you to be able to take advantage of that, you needed to be quick on the gamepad. Admittedly, most teenage boys are well practiced at fast hand movements, but that poor thumb.
After about 60 minutes of the action, the only ones suffering fatigue were those controlling the game as it became a war to see who could still bash the button as quickly as possible until you missed, hit the wrong one and accidentally put in a slide tackle from behind.
FIFA International Soccer, FIFA ’95 and FIFA ’96 all worked fine without this feature, it lasted for a couple more games before being scrapped by the early 2000’s. Thank goodness.
The dive button, FIFA ’98: Road to the World Cup
The thought of this feature now actually beggars belief. Given the coverage diving gets in football as something “nobody wants to see”, this feature would be pretty unthinkable now and not something those at FIFA Headquarters would like to glamourise.
When this game was released in June 1997 (yes they released these games in the summer – with no updates for transfers, think about that), this feature – along with intentional foul – was very much a feature and easy to pull off too. One touch of a button and your player went down like a sack of spuds. If a defending player was in close proximity, you had every chance of winning the foul too. No bookings were awarded for simulation of course, so if you were in a tight spot it was well worth the gamble. Just consider the rage nowadays playing someone online and them doing this to you.
It remained until FIFA 2001, but was removed from the 2002 game. Those dirty foreigners were too much of a plight on the game, or something.
The mid-game difficulty setting change, FIFA ’99
FIFA ’99 was fantastic. Updated AI and control of your players from the excellent FIFA ’98 made these super-fast matches a joy.
It had one flaw – which no FIFA gamer should really admit to knowing about, let alone doing. In reality, everyone did it though and would still do it now. If you were playing a tough semi-final, crucial league game or just didn’t like losing friendlies, you could pause the game and adjust the difficulty. Yes, you might have had ambitions to play it on World Class, but a little slip to Semi-Pro or Amateur for a few minutes would just give you the boost you needed.
Sure, you’re only cheating yourself and having the option is possibly good for the kids. Let’s face it, if it’s available and you can use it, the temptation will always be there.
No trophy ever awarded had an asterix showing your misdemeanour but deep down the real reason for victory would always haunt you – depending on your moral compass.
“Off The Ball”, FIFA 2004
Yes, the days of John Motson and Ally McCoist on commentary. What a strange combination.
This feature was supposed to give players the ultimate in creativity and control. In reality it was clunky, convoluted and too difficult to bother with unless you were playing the CPU on amateur mode.
To explain it simply, the system allowed you to control a second player’s movement on the field by using the second analogue stick. So when your midfielder had the ball, you’d push a button to bring up a different angle that would provide you with two or three team-mates as options for a pass. Once you’ve decided who to pass to, you can then control that player using the second analogue stick to make a devious run beyond your marker. This all took as long to perform as it did for you to read this and thus, your original player has just been tackled. It sounds great, sort of, but it didn’t work.
In multi-player it was a complete waste of time as your mate next to you was sat there watching what you were doing. Whilst you were concentrating on the wrong player making a run, your mate had nicked the ball and was on the counter-attack.
It was marketed as a big game-changing mode, but it didn’t last. They kept the feature on for FIFA 2005 but let it go after that.
Corners, FIFA 2004
To confirm, I’m not suggesting that having corner kicks is silly. All FIFA games have had them, thank goodness. This was all about the execution. Given how impossible it was to dribble past players in this game, the second instalment to this list from FIFA 2004 makes the game a bit of a write-off.
The system for corners was both unrealistic and frustrating. As your corner-taker lined up, you had just three options to pick out in the box – it was like being 1-0 up with two minutes remaining all the time – and this couldn’t be adjusted. From there, you select one option to aim at and then the duel began between your player and his marker using the right analogue stick (they were clearly determined to make sure these were utilised). If you went for the attacker nearest the goal, it was usually a test of strength where one would try and shrug the other off the ball for a few seconds. You could very often barge your marker out of the way and guarantee it would land on your head and yet, goalkeepers never came out to claim it. Otherwise you’d use one of two runners to weave in and past your marker.
This all seemed like a good idea, but the lack of options in the box for rebounds as an attacking team was not fun. It also just became a mini-game that I’d be more happy playing on Mario Party.
Like the “off the ball” feature, it was included the following year and then scrapped.
Direct free-kicks, FIFA 2005
Like corners, this isn’t a criticism of having free-kicks in the game. This was a game many remember incredibly fondly even despite the length of the pitches being the size of a small city, but it was stupendously easy to score directly from a set piece. If you were awarded a foul 18-30 yards from goal, it was bingo time.
The way it was setup meant it had three easy stages that had probably a 90% success rate. You had a radar to point to the top corner, a little football in the bottom corner of the screen which you used the right analogue stick to give it the required spin (set it to 8 o’clock) and once you’d done that, a meter bounces back and forth which was easy to land in the green zone. You could take your sweet time and none of the steps were difficult.
After a few occasions of the ball wonderfully gliding into the top bins, it got a bit boring. Sure, we all want to score a worldy, but it’s nice to work for it and these were like being awarded a penalty.
If that wasn’t bad enough, this process had an even bigger flaw. To stop your mate taking every free-kick like he was David Beckham, you could just hit pause before the player is about the strike the ball. When you un-paused, he would inexplicably blaze the ball 30 foot over the crossbar. Once everyone knew this, agreements would have to be made before kick-off, such as: ‘anyone who pauses mid-free-kick receives one wedgie from every player’. Still, if it was the last minute of a title-decider, you’ve gotta do what you’ve gotta do and take your punishment like a man/teenage boy.
Team Chemistry, FIFA ’06
This is not the same thing as the chemistry you currently build on Ultimate Team, which works very well and forces the gamer to consider players from the same league or nation in order to work well together.
When this game was released, in 2005, there was a mild obsession about how Sam Allardyce’s Bolton Wanderers could keep turning over recent “Invincibles” Arsenal. Apparently it was all down to the fact that they had great team chemistry. So EA obsessed over a rating for each team, which showed up next to your team’s overall ratings. It was basically designed to give plucky underdogs a better chance of winning. Like most new features, it sounds quite good and it’s likely to be something EA currently use in the background to aid exciting matches but at the time, a lot revolved around it. Do you select a team with better players or a bunch of cloggers with the spirit of 1980’s Wimbledon? How much is weighted to this? At the time, there seemed to be a lot weighted to it.
It was also an annoying hoop to jump through in Career Mode – if you became manager at Bolton, or any club, your chemistry would start at 39 and it would take three years to get past 60. There was no advantage to selecting a “less fashionable club” here.
All teams have different team spirit and many sides do well with a good togetherness, but all successful sides manage it with good players. Having Bolton get better whilst losing as Arsenal struggle because they have the lead was going too far. It will probably be factored in these days, but the displayed rating and overall focus was quickly dropped around the time FIFA was losing the ratings war with PES.
Was there a terrible feature missing? Loved one that was included!? Get in touch!
Richard Clark
Blog of the Net 