FIFA 99

Cartridge limitations

The cartridge versions of FIFA 99 suffer from many of the same limitations and quality issues as its predecessor. Compared to their CD-ROM PlayStation counterpart, they perform poorly and are lacking some of the more refined details and graphics.

Amazon's product description for the game includes the line: "Plus, the Nintendo 64 can handle only one in-game announcer who speaks in clipped phrases, rather than the two-man banter in the PlayStation version. The otherwise decent music also takes a drop in quality because of cartridge limitations."

Portugal lawsuit

Similar to Actua Soccer 3, Electronic Arts faced a possible lawsuit in Portugal for using player and team names without authorization from FutePro, the legal owner of them. While Gremlin's product was pulled from the stores, FIFA (which for the first time had a localized cover featuring national team and Fiorentina midfielder Rui Costa) continued to be sold as long as stores wanted to. There was no news of an agreement between both parts, but either EA paid compensation or FutePro decided to let the issue die fearing long and expensive legal procedures.

Awards

• Computer Gaming World
  • April 1999 (Issue #177) – Best Sports Game of the Year (together with FIFA 98: Road to World Cup and World Cup 98)
• Power Play
  • Issue 02/1999 – Best Sports Game in 1998
• Total! (Germany)
  • Issue 01/2000 – Best N64 Soccer Game in 1999