Soccer, or Football as our European and South American cousins call it, is hands down one of the biggest sports in the world. Played by millions of people around the globe and watched by hundreds of millions more, the "world game" is not only a fantastic and engaging sport to watch but just as enjoyable to play, especially from the comfort of your own home. There's nothing better than grabbing some mates, ordering pizza, knocking back a few drinks, and having a late night FIFA session.
While FIFA and Pro Evolution Soccer are the best two soccer games on the market and have battled for the throne for a number of years, it hasn't always been the case. When consoles and PC gaming was first introduced in the 80s there were dozens of different soccer titles, with many endorsed by current and former players. While today's younger generation are spoiled with FIFA, the most successful soccer franchise, those of us older enough to remember soccer games from t🧔he🔴 90s and early 2000s didn't have the luxury.
While there was certainly more variety in games on offer, the majority of them were absolute trash. Games such as Sega Soccer Slam on the Super NES and the woeful Three Lions on the original PlayStation are just two examples of awful soccer games, with this article delving into 25 of the worst soccer adaptions of all time. From the Commodore 64 aberration, Emlyn Hughes International Soccer, through to more recent releases such as FIFA Street 2 on the Nintendo DS and Kids Sports: International Soccer 2008 on the Wii, this list will help you stay away from the worst soc꧂cer gꦏames available.
25 🍒 Glen Hoddle Soccer (Amstrad CPC) 🌠
It's never a good sign when a game is endorsed by a player and his name is spelled wrong, so expectations were already low when Glen Hoddle Soccer hit the shelves. Named after the former Tottenham, Monaco, Swindon Town, and Chelsea player, Glenn Hoddle, who went on to manage England, Glen Hoddle Soccer was a side-scrolling socc🧸er game that was pretty standard in terms of gameplay and graphics for that time.
The biggest problem with the game was the method of choosing your player.
Instead of automatically picking the player closest to the ball you were required to hit a button to change player. This sounds all well and good but more often than not the player furthermost away from the ball would be selected, allowing the computer controlled opponents to grab the ball a🧜nd score.
24 UEFA Champio𝄹ns League 2001/2002 (PlayStation 2)
It's generally agreed by many soccer fans the UEFA Champions League 2001/2002 video g൩ame was one of the worst in the series. The game was stripped back to the basics and featured only teams playing in the Champions League that season.
It was very much FIFA but without all the teams and added options.
The gameplay was abysmal and it was one of those games where shooting wasn't an important skill, with players able to take shots from ridiculous angles and score without any drama. The good news was the game improved over time and became one of the better soccer simulations, although the focus on the Champions League teams always meant it was still better to spend your money on FIFA as it featured 🌠almost every ꧃team and country squad in the world.
23 Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 🤡(PS3)
Konami's Pro Evolution Soccer has been FIFA's biggest challenger to the best soccer game crown. It has always been seen as a more realistic take on the sport than FIFA but without all the officially licensed teams and players, although that has improved over the years. Much like FIFA 13, PES 2008 was the first of the franc🎃hise to be released on the next generation of consoles. Instead of being an enthralling game demonstrating why the series was so good, it ended up being a terrible conversion people avoided in droves.
It's commonly referred to as the worst PES game of all time.
The graphics were laboring, 💜the game engine struggled, and the A.I. was appalling. The soundtrack was almost unlistenable and the ability to change the text of⛦ teams and players was a feature taken away from the game. The PS3 version was especially buggy, with glitches and slow frame rate a major problem upon release.
22 FIFA Street 3 (Xbox 360)🐽 𝓡
The first FIFA Street was an exciting experience, taking the round ball game to the streets and giving fans a chance to play in an urban environment. The sequel improved on the original, with better graphics and gameplay but things went downhill with the third release. FIFA Street 3 took all the good things that made the previous games great and threw them out with the kitchen sink. First off, the players were redesigned as Slenderman lookalikes and just appeared plain weird. The gameplay was also altered, with more attention being paid to offense than defense, meaning it was much easier to score than defend. Th🥀e exotic locations used throughout the game were great to look at but not even they could help improve this one. It's almost as if the actual soccer takes a backseat to the tricks and unique skills your player possesses, with styleও over substance being a key factor in the game's failure.
21 Emlyn Hughes Interna🧸tional Soccer (Commodore 64)
The majority of people purchased this game because it came with an official endorsement from Question of Sport’s Emlyn Hughes. The former world-class footballer was best known for his stint at Liverpool where he captained the team to a host of domestic and European trophies. Unfortunately, unlike the silky skills he displayed on the pitch, Emlyn Hughes International Soccer was a dog's breakfast.
The view of the pitch from the sideline meant you often couldn't see what was ahead of you on the field, with almost every tackle resulting in a foul, something familiar with many soccer games released in the early 90s. Scoring a goal was unbelievably difficult with games often ending 0-0 or 1-0. One of the game's redeeming features was the use of crowd noise, with EHIS being one of the first soccer game�🅷�s to try this out.
20 🎐 FIFA 08 (Wii)
FIFA is widely regarded as the best soccer simulation on the market, unless you're a Pro Evolution fan. Released annually ꦯby EA Sports, it's one of the few fully-licensed Soccer game's depicting real leagues, teams, and players, from all across the world.
FIFA 08 was the first game to be released on the new generation of consoles with a new game engine.
The PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and Nintendo Wii, all got versions of the Soccer game, with all three generally being praised by game critics and players. The graphics were much better and the gameplay improved, but FIFA 08 also included a bunch of new features and systems that didn't all work well. EA Sports used the game as a training ground for future releases, with the following year's FIFA 09 taking all the best things about FIFA 08 and turning it into one of the franchises best releas🃏es ever.
19 Actua Soccer 3 (♏PlayStation) 𓄧
Actua Soccer was the first sports game released by Gremlin Interactive in 1995. The original was such a success that England striker Alan Shearer endorsed the game and allowed his image to be used on subsequent releases. Unfortunately, by the time Actua Soccer 3 hit shelves in 1998, other soccer simulations were taking over the market. Despite improved graphics and a wider range of club teams available, Actua Soccer 3 was a fairly dull incarnation. Martin O'Neil's addition to the commentary team wasn't as exciting as many imagined and the fact the fully licensed FIFA franchise was finally taking off meant Actua Soccer 3 was left in the dust. It's a recurring theme that FIFA acted asಞ a dagger to take most of these franchises out🤡.
18 G🐼azza's 💃Super Soccer (Atari)
Few soccer players have had as interesting of careers as the one and only Paul Gascoigne. The man was super talented on the pitch and bled white and red for his country, but off the field, his life was plagued by controversial incidents. This didn't stop Gazza from scoring his own video game in 1989. Gazza's Super Soccer was ꦆquite a different type of soccer🐟 simulation, much like Gazza himself.
The game wasn't side scrolling, instead split into three different screens.
The midfield was still a side view of the pitch but when the ball was played towards the goals a new screen would appear with the goal at the top of the screen instead of the side, l𒅌ike the accompanying picture above. This made things bloody hard to keep track of where the ball was going.
17 🀅 𝓀 Three Lions (PlayStation)
There was much hype around England's chances of winning the World Cup in 1998. David Beckham, Alan Shearer, Paul Scholes, and Paul Ince, were just some of the players involved in what proved to be another disappointing campaign. Looking to cash in on the event, the Football Association - the governing body of association football in England - released their own game in the lead up to the tournament. The result was Three Lions, or Alexi Lalas International Soccer, as it was known across the globe.
Fully endorsed by the FA, it include♍d all the players suiting up for England but suffered from a poor ꩲgame engine. While playing it was quick to see not much time or effort had been put into developing the game. The graphics weren't great and it was sometimes hard to identify the real-life faces of the players in the game.
16 Kidz Sports: International Soccer 2008 (Wi🍌i)
The Wii was Nintendo's way of creating a console aimed squarely at children. The games developed for the system were meant to be fun and exciting, with the Kidz Sports franchise a light-hearted series of sports games for the kids. Kidz Sports: International Soccer 2008 was the third game released in ꦍthe series and quite possibly the worst.
It's hard to articulate just how horrible this game was.
The graphics and gameplay are unbelievably bad for a game made in 2008, the frames often skip making it hard to play, and the control system is challenging and unresponsive. The goalkeepers are so poor at saving goals you could shoot with your eyes closed and still score. The game is so bad gave it the lowly score of 1/10, saying, "Kidz Sports International Soccer is, like its Z-branded shove♎lware companions, a digital turd." Enough saiꦕd.