''LiberoGrande'' is a 1997
arcade game
An arcade game or coin-op game is a coin-operated entertainment machine typically installed in public businesses such as restaurants, bars and amusement arcades. Most arcade games are presented as primarily games of skill and include arcade v ...
by
Namco
was a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational video game and entertainment company, headquartered in Ōta, Tokyo. It held several international branches, including Namco America in Santa Clara, California, Namco Europe in London, Na ...
. It was converted for the
Sony PlayStation in 1998.
A typical arcade
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 ...
game in its nature, ''LiberoGrande'' introduced a novelty factor previously found in Namco's ''Top Striker'' for the Nintendo Entertainment System: the ability to play as just one player, instead of controlling the whole team, always swapping for players nearer the ball. This idea was later used by Konami in ''Winning Eleven'' / ''Pro Evolution Soccer'' titles in the Become a Legend mode, and by
EA Sports in its various sports game franchises with the name
Be a Pro.
Gameplay
The player starts to choose one of the star players, and then a national team. Each star player, based on a real football player but with changed names, except for initials (
Zinedine Zidane
Zinedine Yazid Zidane (; born 23 June 1972), popularly known as Zizou, is a French professional football manager and former player who played as an attacking midfielder. He most recently coached Spanish club Real Madrid and is one of the most ...
is Zenon Zadkine, for instance) is rated in both ball skill, speed and shooting abilities.
In addition to the original arcade mode, the home release adds an International mode (basically, the
FIFA World Cup
The FIFA World Cup, often simply called the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of the ' ( FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The tournament ha ...
format), a league competition (up to eight star players/teams), which can be all human controlled and a skills mode where the player has to complete several training ground tasks such as hitting a target floating in the goal mouth or hitting an area from distance.
The player roster in the arcade version consists of:
(Hidden player)
(Hidden player)
(Hidden player)
(Hidden player)
(Hidden player)
(Hidden player)
(Hidden player)
(Hidden player)
(Hidden player)
(Hidden player)
There is a total of 48 national teams, but only 32 of them to choose from, depending on which version:
North America
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b
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South America
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*
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*
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ab
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a
Africa
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*
b
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*
b
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b
Europe
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*
*
bc
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bc
*
a
*
*
*
*
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a
*
c
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*
*
*
c
*
*
ac
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bc
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c
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bc
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ac
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c
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bc
Asia
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a
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a
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b
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a
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ab
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a Only playable in the Arcade version
b Only playable in the Japanese version
c Only playable in the PAL version
A sequel, ''LiberoGrande 2'' (known as ''LiberoGrande International'' in Europe) was released for PlayStation in
Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...
and
Japan
Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
only, but with less success than the first title.
A playable demo of the game was included in ''Ridge Racer Turbo'' (''Ridge Racer Hi-Spec'' in Europe), which was sold with ''
Ridge Racer Type 4
(''Ridge Racer Type 4'' in Europe) is a racing video game developed and published by Namco for the PlayStation. It is the fourth title in the ''Ridge Racer'' series and the last to be released for the PlayStation. It was released on December 3, ...
''. The demo includes three players (Zenon Zadkine, Alfred Shaffer and Jordan Krüger) and three teams (England, France and Italy), which a person could use to play a ten-minute game.
Reception
In Japan, ''Game Machine'' listed ''LiberoGrande'' on their February 15, 1998 issue as being the seventh most-successful arcade game of the month.
References
External links
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1997 video games
Arcade video games
Association football video games
Bandai Namco Entertainment franchises
Namco games
PlayStation (console) games
Multiplayer and single-player video games
Video games developed in Japan
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