A soccer/football game from the 90s that is not FIFA, but is in full 3D.

Release Date:

March 1996.

Pros:

There are eight camera angles to choose from. Some views can be zoomed in and out and some can also be moved around.

Cons:

There is commentary, but it sounds quite poor. I remember the commentary in FIFA 96 was smooth and continuous like watching a game on television. In VR Soccer ’96, the commentary is on and off, which does not give the watching TV feeling.

When you are defending sometimes the player selected will automatically change, which is very annoying in my opinion. What is worse is half the time, it will select a player in a worse position than the one you were controlling originally.

The AI controlling your team mates is completely crap when you are defending. The goal keeper is the only person that seems to do anything and even he is stupid sometimes. All your team mates will do nothing to get the ball. Sometimes they would even run away from the ball. So it is up to you and you alone to pick the right player and control him to get the ball.

When I run a player towards the ball I expect the player to get the ball. Half the time in VR Soccer ’96, the ball just bounces off the player. Why did the player not get the ball? In FIFA 96 it was so easy to get the ball.

The goal keepers act inconsistently and it does not matter which team it is. Sometimes they will do their job and jump all over the place defending the goal. Other times they just stand there and let the ball roll in. Very strange when you see it happen.

There is no manual for the GOG.com version of the game, but you can get the manual for Actua Soccer which some people say is the same game with a different name. The screen shots in the Actua Soccer manual looks the same as VR Soccer ’96, but half the things the manual says you can do, cannot be done in VR Soccer ’96. In the end I only learnt how to shoot, pass and slide tackle. Besides slide tackling, the only other way to get the ball from the opposition, is to run into them and pray.

You can set the formation before the match. It is a pity that when you start the match, the formation is reset to 4-4-2 every time. So you have to waste time setting the formation again for each and every match.

There is a bug where you see the goalie catch the ball, but the game declares a point is scored. Then the ball disappears from the goal keeper’s hands and appear like it just came out from the net.

Other Points:

The graphics look old, but is in full 3D and does show the action OK.

Music has been fixed for the GOG.com version of the game. It doesn’t sound bad either.

You can change the names of the players, but it is quite pointless since the commentary still says their original names.

There are the usual options like whether to have offside, bookings, free kicks, substitutions and the choice of game time length from five to ninety minutes. You can also choose whether to have wind affect on the ball.

Only the international teams are available with forty-four countries available to pick from in friendly and league games and thrity-two contries in the cup game.

There is multiplayer, but I did not try it out.

Each player of a team has their own statistics. I am not sure if they affect the game though. So far no matter which team I pick, which players I use and what formation I use, I still lose matches big time.

Overall the game is very difficult to play. Part of the difficulty is due to the bad AI of your team and the strange ball getting behaviour.

I played both arcade and simulation modes. Apart from slowly clicking through all the other teams’ results in simulation mode, I did not notice any difference between the two modes. I still lose games big time in either mode.

If you fancy a challenging football/soccer game and you do not get frustrated by the very bad AI of your team mates, then VR Soccer ’96 is your game. As for me, I wish I still had FIFA 96, or RTWC 98.

Biases:

Reviewed GOG.com version of the game.

I really liked FIFA International Soccer, FIFA 96 and FIFA RTWC 98. After those I only played the odd multiplayer game of the newer FIFA games, of which I still thoroughly enjoyed.

I do not follow football/soccer in real life and do not really know which teams are good or which players are good.

Despite all the cons I still play this now and then. Probably because I do not know what other soccer game to get and I have not found any free giveaways yet.

DRM:

The game is DRM free from GOG.com

Minimum Requirements (as stated on GOG.com):

Windows XP or Windows Vista
1.8 GHz Processor
512MB RAM (1 GB recommended)
3D graphics card compatible with DirectX 7 (compatible with DirectX 9 recommended)
4GB HDD (I have no idea where GOG.com got 4GB from. On my PC the game is around 170MB installed.)
Mouse, Keyboard.

Computer Played On:

Windows 7 64 bit.
Intel Core i5 2.3GHz
4Gb RAM
NVIDIA GeForce GT 525M 1Gb RAM
Conexant SmartAudio with egg speakers or earphones. Or Logitech G35.
Keyboard or Thrustmaster Firestorm Digital 3 gamepad.
Graphics settings are set to whatever I feel comfortable with playing on this PC. They are usually not set to the highest settings. All screenshots are taken with my settings.