''FIFA 99'' is a

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

simulation A simulation is the imitation of the operation of a real-world process or system over time. Simulations require the use of Conceptual model, models; the model represents the key characteristics or behaviors of the selected system or proc ...

video game developed by

EA Canada EA Vancouver (formerly known as EA Burnaby, then EA Canada) is a Canadian video game developer located in Burnaby, British Columbia. The development studio opened as Distinctive Software in January 1983, and is also Electronic Arts's largest and ...

and published by

Electronic Arts Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) is an American video game company headquartered in Redwood City, California. Founded in May 1982 by Apple employee Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer game industry and promoted the d ...

under the

EA Sports EA Sports is a division of Electronic Arts that develops and publishes sports video games. Formerly a marketing gimmick of Electronic Arts, in which they tried to imitate real-life sports networks by calling themselves the "EA Sports Network" ...

label. It is the sixth game in the ''

FIFA FIFA (; stands for ''Fédération Internationale de Football Association'' ( French), meaning International Association Football Federation ) is the international governing body of association football, beach football and futsal. It was found ...

'' series and was released in 1998 for

Microsoft Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...

PlayStation is a video gaming brand that consists of five home video game consoles, two handhelds, a media center, and a smartphone, as well as an online service and multiple magazines. The brand is produced by Sony Interactive Entertainment, a divisi ...

and

Nintendo 64 The (N64) is a home video game console developed by Nintendo. The successor to the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, it was released on June 23, 1996, in Japan, on September 29, 1996, in North America, and on March 1, 1997, in Europe and Au ...

Gameplay

While the indoor mode was no longer featured, the gameplay's fluidity and responsiveness was increased. The increasing number of

website A website (also written as a web site) is a collection of web pages and related content that is identified by a common domain name and published on at least one web server. Examples of notable websites are Google Search, Google, Facebook, Amaz ...

s dedicated to the game and a larger number of leagues (the Malaysian league was removed, and on its stead came two new leagues: the

Belgian First Division The Belgian Pro League,(officially the Jupiler Pro League due to sponsorship reasons with Jupiler), is the top league competition for association football clubs in Belgium. Contested by 18 clubs since the 2020–21 season and reduced to 16 team ...

and the Portuguese

Primeira Liga The Primeira Liga (; English: Premier League, also written as Liga Portugal 1), also known as Liga Portugal Bwin for sponsorship reasons, is the top level of the Portuguese football league system. Organised and supervised by the Liga Portugal, ...

; this came to be a problem when the owners of the rights to the Primeira Liga tried to pull the game from the shelves locally). Graphically, it is a major improvement over ''FIFA '98'', with the inclusion of basic facial animations and different players' heights as well as certain other cosmetic features such as improved kits and emblems, although they are unlicensed. Gamers may also create their own custom cups and leagues and select the teams they wish to participate. ''FIFA 99'' also features an elite league called the "European Dream League" in which 20 top teams from across Europe battle it out in a league format. It was also the first game to feature a block containing teams which did not pertain to any of the main leagues (back then, it was known as "Rest of Europe" since all teams were European, the vast majority of them featured either in the 1998–99 season of the

Cup Winners' Cup The UEFA Cup Winners' Cup was a European football club competition contested annually by the winners of domestic cup competitions. The cup was, chronologically, the second seasonal inter-European club competition organised by UEFA. The tournam ...

UEFA Cup A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store Solid, solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, porcela ...

or Champions League).

Reception

The game received favorable reviews on all platforms according to the

review aggregation A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

website

GameRankings GameRankings was a video gaming review aggregator that was founded in 1999 and owned by CBS Interactive. It indexed over 315,000 articles relating to more than 14,500 video games. GameRankings was discontinued in December 2019, with its staff bei ...

. ''

Computer Games Strategy Plus ''Computer Games Magazine'' was a monthly computer and console gaming print magazine, founded in October 1988 as the United Kingdom publication ''Games International''. During its history, it was known variously as ''Strategy Plus'' (October 1 ...

'' gave the PC version four-and-a-half stars out of five, calling it "one of the best sports games you can buy." In Japan, where the PlayStation version was ported and published by

Electronic Arts Victor was a joint-venture between Electronic Arts and Victor Entertainment. They made sports games for the Family Computer, Super Famicom, and the Mega Drive. This brand name is unknown outside Japan and the emulation community (since the brand only a ...

under the name on 26 August 1999, ''

Famitsu formerly ''Famicom Tsūshin'', is a line of Japanese video game magazines published by Kadokawa Game Linkage (previously known as Gzbrain), a subsidiary of Kadokawa. ''Famitsu'' is published in both weekly and monthly formats as well as in the fo ...

'' gave it a score of 29 out of 40. The game was a bestseller in the UK, replacing ''

Tomb Raider III ''Tomb Raider III: Adventures of Lara Croft'' is an action-adventure video game developed by Core Design and published by Eidos Interactive. It was released for the PlayStation and Microsoft Windows platforms in 1998. ''Tomb Raider III'' is th ...

''. In February 1999, the PlayStation version received a "Platinum" sales award from the Verband der Unterhaltungssoftware Deutschland (VUD), indicating sales of at least 200,000 units across Germany, Austria and Switzerland. The PC version took "Gold", for 100,000 sales, at the same time. At the 1999 Milia festival in

Cannes Cannes ( , , ; oc, Canas) is a city located on the French Riviera. It is a communes of France, commune located in the Alpes-Maritimes departments of France, department, and host city of the annual Cannes Film Festival, Midem, and Cannes Lions I ...

, it took home a "Gold" prize for revenues above €50 million in the European Union during 1998. The PC version won the "Best Sports" award in ''

PC PowerPlay ''PC PowerPlay'' (''PCPP'') is Australia's only dedicated PC games magazine. ''PC PowerPlay'' focuses on news and reviews for upcoming and newly released games on the Microsoft Windows platform. The magazine also reviews computer hardware for us ...

''s Game of the Year 1999 Awards. It also won the award for "Sports Game of the Year" at

AIAS Ajax () or Aias (; grc, Αἴας, Aíās , ''Aíantos''; archaic ) is a Greek mythological hero, the son of King Telamon and Periboea, and the half-brother of Teucer. He plays an important role, and is portrayed as a towering figure an ...

' Second Interactive Achievement Awards, the Best Sports Game award at the 1998 ''

CNET Gamecenter ''CNET'' (short for "Computer Network") is an American media website that publishes reviews, news, articles, blogs, podcasts, and videos on technology and consumer electronics globally. ''CNET'' originally produced content for radio and televi ...

'' Awards, the "Best Sports" award (along with '' FIFA: Road to World Cup 98'' and ''

World Cup 98 The 1998 FIFA World Cup was the 16th FIFA World Cup, the football world championship for men's national teams. The finals tournament was held in France from 10 June to 12 July 1998. The country was chosen as the host nation by FIFA for the ...

'', collectively) at ''

Computer Gaming World ''Computer Gaming World'' (CGW) was an American computer game magazine published between 1981 and 2006. One of the few magazines of the era to survive the video game crash of 1983, it was sold to Ziff Davis in 1993. It expanded greatly through ...

''s 1999 Premier Awards, and the "Sports Game of the Year" award at ''

GameSpot ''GameSpot'' is an American video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information on video games. The site was launched on May 1, 1996, created by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady and Jon Epstein. In addition ...

''s Best & Worst of 1998 Awards, and was nominated for the "Best Sports Game of the Year" award at ''

IGN ''IGN'' (formerly ''Imagine Games Network'') is an American video game and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa distri ...

''s Best of 1998 Awards, which ultimately went to ''

NFL Blitz ''NFL Blitz'' is a series of American football themed video games originally released by Midway featuring National Football League (NFL) teams. It began as a 1997 arcade game ''NFL Blitz'' that was ported to home consoles and spawned a series of ...

''.

Notes

References

External links

* {{Football video games by Electronic Arts 1998 video games D.I.C.E. Award for Sports Game of the Year winners Electronic Arts games EA Sports games Association football video games 2 Nintendo 64 games PlayStation (console) games Tiertex Design Studios games Video games developed in Canada Windows games Video games set in 1998 Video games set in 1999