There are shots, ground passes, chest-high passes, lobs, volleys, headers, bicycle kicks, and you can sprint with the ball by tapping the pass button and “passing to yourself” to make a run down the field. This is key for soccer, where the subtleties make all the difference. EA got pretty resourceful at this point in the series, utilizing double-button presses, and the velocity on passes responds well to how long you hold the button. The controls are easy to manage while giving you a nice array of moves. Like other early EA games, the graphics won’t blow you away, but the animations have an effective simplicity to them. The diagonal viewpoint gives the action a sense of open space, but it’s also too zoomed-in. Unlike soccer, there’s no benefit to passing back and forth forever. Like soccer, it requires some patience and lots of nifty passing. This games attempts to strike a balance between real soccer and something that would make for a fun video game.

Whatever, my dork meter has to hit the limit at some point. I was shocked to find YouTube videos of FIFA in 16 bits, but as far as I can tell, these are either for mobile phones or specific to Brazil.

It’s the second of five FIFA games on Genesis, and it’s often regarded as the best. This is about as good as soccer can get with 16 bits and three buttons, so it’s, you know, decent.

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