0 to Z of Playstation 1 Games - Adidas Power Soccer 98

      

Adidas Power Soccer 98 is a football based sports game, and the last in the Psygnosis developed series, once again Shen Technologies takes over development duties of the game while Psygnosis publish the game, it was released in June of 1998 in Europe and North America to coincide with the 1998 world cup in France.

Like Adidas Power Soccer 2, this game features all the updated teams and squads for the 98 season, and has in addition a database of 10,000 players each with real attributes, the game also features many more motions captured player movements number in the mid 300s, with additional game modes added as well.

Different kinds of tournaments and cup competitions, the game also now features eleven international leagues, national team numbers have more than doubled in the 98 edition numbering 120 in total, with 30 unique stadiums to play in as well.

The classic gameplay of previous Adidas Power Soccer remains as well, with players having more moves available to them including flick pass, short dribbles and sliding tackles, in addition there is a speed button which allows your player to run at a stupidly high speed with drawbacks of course, like the previous version four player multiplayer is available via multitap.

Football game no story present

Unlike previous Adidas Power Soccer titles, there Is not one review that just out immediately with everything look average in every way, NowGamer had the highest review score with a 7.5/10, even their review was not without plenty of criticism, with the grating commentary, and a game engine that needs plenty of smoothing out, being two main points brought up by them.

Absolute Playstation who gave the game a 74/100 did praise the multitude of gameplay options however they did say graphically it is someway behind the competition and if you are looking for a game with speed and graphics like World Cup 98, you will be disappointed.

GameSpot in their 5.8/10 review did agree that the game did get some things right however its shortcomings will cause frustration and will turn most players off before the whistle blows, while German publication Video Games are quoted from their review as saying APS'98 unfortunately unfortunately failed in the last 16 against stronger competitors such as World League Soccer, 'Golden Goal '98 and above all the ball wizard France '98. The animations seem unpredictable and the whole gameplay is often questionable.

By far the most critical of the game were EGM who awarded the game a lowly 3.8/10 while Hot Games were even more brutal giving the game a dismal 0.5/5 which converts to a 1/10 or 10/100 score for the game sadly I have not been able to find the actual reviews that go with these scores, Hot Games have long since gone out of business, EGM I have managed to find their score breakdown which is 4.5, 4.5, 2.0 and 4.5 which brings an average of 3.8, but I don’t know what the individual score represent.

This is the part of 0 to Z where is visit five online retailers and see what the availability of the title is, and what price you would be looking at if you wanted to pick this title up, the sites that I will be using for this are Amazon.com,  eStarland.com, retrogames.co.uk and Gamedude.com I know the last one is very location specific, but from a podcast I listen to I’ve heard they have a huge stock of older games, I will also be including Ebay.com as well

So lets get down to business with Gamedude, where if you are looking to trade in your old copy of the game you will be looking at around $8, if on the other hand you are in the market for a copy of the game, you will be looking at an outlay of around $16.

Retrogames.co.uk sadly don’t stock this or any other titles in the Adidas Power Soccer series at the time of writing this, so we head off to eStarland.com who have two copies of the game available, the first a disc only copy of the game is available for $4.37, this is the North American version of the game, if you are looking to trade in your copy then eStarland will pay $2.25 for it.

The second copy on sale at eStarland.com is the European version of the game (cover at top of page), a used complete copy of this game will set you back $10.50, again if you are looking to trade in your copy, you are looking at a fairly low trade in value of $3.

Next we head to Amazon.com where copies of the game are limited only 8 copies on sale at the time of writing, with prices starting around the $5 mark for a good quality disc only copy, if you are wanting a better quality and complete copy of the game, you are looking at around a $10 expenditure this price is with shipping costs added in, with used very good quality copies reaching prices of up to $25.

A used like new copy of the game takes another big jump in price with the $40 mark the cheapest you will get one, likewise a new copy will set you back around $45.

Heading over to the co.uk version of the site a disc only version of the game in very good quality condition will cost you only 1p with £2.03 for UK deliver, the only other copy on the market is a used good quality complete version of the game, which is priced up at £12.99 with a £2.25 UK delivery charge.

Over on Ebay.com prices are fairly reasonable for a used complete copy of the game, one copy on sale is priced at $5.46, this comes with free international shipping as well, another complete copy which ships from Germany is priced at $6.43 the shipping costs for this are also quite reasonable the US shipping cost is $2.23, while the European shipping cost is €1.99.

A new copy of the game that ships from the UK and comes with free international shipping is priced at a reasonable $19.27 which converts to £14.96 in the UK, in the Euro zone it will cost you €16.46, while in Nicaragua it will cost you 582.57 Nicaraguan Córdoba.

Written by

P J Gibbon