International Superstar Soccer

ISS games have always had a few faults compared to EA Fifa series. Its presentation is never as slick, the commentry used to be a joke, now its bearable but again the BBC line up on Fifa is better. Though whats important in a game is how its plays and this is where ISS always shines. While ISS Evo on Playstation played a tad better this is good. Fifa player will find it frustrating you can't win every game 13-0 but thats not proper football :) Scoring can be tricky until you get used to it but persit and it becomes more rewarding. Also with practice you can play 'total' football as per previous ISS but its a little different.

Graphically its probably got the edge over Fifa on PS2 though its not perfect and some players look a little of colour! The other main failing off ISS was the lack of real name which at last they have fixed !! Some smaller countries have madeup name but most people wouldn't know...

Overall I recommend this game to football fans, kids should stick with Fifa. Once you master it even on hard its an excellent game that just plays so well but you need to learn it to get the most out of it.

KCET are working on a proper football game for PS2 called 'Winning Eleven 5' in Japan. Likely to be out around Sept 2001 in the UK will truely be the best football game on Sonys new UberConsole. You can find reviews and previews around the web, the screenshots and video looks amazing even compared to this game !


mmmm football   March 2, 2001
M@StarOne.co.uk (England)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful

If you have played any of the previous incarnations of ISS you will love this. They have always surpassed the dull Fifa games on sheer playability. The AI is a little easy to beat but playing against friends is just stunning. The only real downside is the annoying commentary which can be turned off. Shame Konami didn't leave the Japanese commentary as an option, they always sound so much more excited in Japanese. The controls are great, the diving is missing though. All the player names are there for those that care about such things. There is also a blatant abuse of DVD capacity with the Umbro ad. Apart from that the game is, as always, beautifully playable. Buy it.


Simply the best.   June 12, 2001
2 out of 2 found this review helpful

As far as ISS goes this is one of the best titles available for any console. Konami have excelled themselves with this slick title considering it is one of the first football games out on the console (apart from the average FIFA 2001).

There are plenty of options to keep the average player happy for along time. Once you have mastered the controls you will find yourself shooting from any distance with great accuracy. All the best players appear with there defining features e.g Zidanes bald patch.

I would recommend this game to anybody with a PS2.


Only Two fault's   July 20, 2001
2 out of 3 found this review helpful

Well I bought a playstation 2 and thought it's always good to have a football game. I bought this as I wanted to have a change from the Fifa series. It has a couple of cups and tournements and the gameplay is twice as good as Fifa. The reason it doesn't get 5 stars is that it is far to easy a game in 1 player mode. I could put the game on difficulty level 5 and still win comfortably. The way to get a challenge out of this is to play a mate that's good at it to. The other fault is the commentry, it's very poor with people I can't say I've heard of. One line springs to mind, "what a goal" "what a goal", boring.


International Superstar Soccer   October 30, 2000
1 out of 1 found this review helpful

This might not make any sense but ISS 2000 is not the sequal to ISS Evolution.The deal is this: ISS 2000 is an as good as could be expected port of the N64 ISS.It plays a pretty well but is radically diffrent from Evolution.The action is very arcade-y, and the diffulculty of scoring makes it a real buzz when you do stick it in the onion bag.But you can never get that trademark Evo fluidity in your build up:this is fast, rock and roll football,with challenges constantly raining in. Commentary has never been great in a ISS game and the dumb mutterings here do nothing to change that, but at least it has proper players names. Obviously it's not in the same league as Evolution.It edges out Fifa and Uefa games, but would you sign an Andy Cole if you already had a Michael Owen? Graphically it's tasty enough and the neat animation touches are quite cool, like when players shove each other after a contentious free kick.Ultimately its a let down and hardcore ISS nuts should wait for Evolution 2. ISS fans are among the most discerning in gaming. You've got to assume that despite the player name they'll save their coin for the second coming in the new year