Adidas Power Soccer 98

Well this was certainly an interesting experience. The original Adidas was always the "relaxed" member of the PS soccer family. Apparently the same treatment has been made here, but the net result is that the game is a bit poor. The presentation is all very nice--if you like the Adidas TV ads, but the game mechanics seem a bit odd. Even in Simulation Mode it does the most ridiculous things. In a two-player game we managed to get a player to keep up with the guy he was marking by doing a permanent sliding tackle. In fact, at one point he moved faster than the guy with the ball by sliding along on his bum. The commentary is also worth noting. Because the game is so loaded with players and teams, the commentary seems to have given up on saying anything meaningful and Fust waffles on about any old crap. The animation, although motion-captured, runs at a slow frame rate and there are some bizarre ball contact incidents. Slide into the ball and it can end up being kicked in the opposite direction--without any apparent overhead kick being made. I like the fact that the player selection icon "moves" from player to player rather than just switching though--it makes keeping track of the action easier than in most games. It's just a shame the players themselves are so unpredictable.

The programmers must approve of steroid use because all of the players in Adidas Power Soccer '98 are little Supermen. The Turbo button gives you inhuman speed, slide tackles go 20 feet.... This, and the sloppy animation (you know the kind--where the ball seems to jump all over the place) makes playing the game a very disappointing experience. Too bad, because with the numerous combos, the game had potential.

This is easily one of the worst soccer games I've played. The frame rate is choppy, the player intelligence is nonexistent, the controls are unintuitive, the ball physics are all wrong, and the player animations are really bad. Need I go on? The only reason anyone would want this game is if they like the cheesy Adidas shoe commercials shamelessly scattered throughout the game. Psygnosis did manage to do those really well.

I'm not impressed with this new edition of Power Soccer. Primarily the gameplay just feels sloppy and unresponsive which consequently kills the whole title for me. Other letdowns include a floating camera that zooms at the wrong moments, weird ball mechanics, and herky-jerky player animations. I'm not fond of the sound or commentary either. Sure there are zillions of teams and stats but what's the point with poor gameplay?