FIFA Soccer 96

Referee

It's actually possible to run straight through the ref in FIFA 96. Although a good referee should try to avoid being too dominant and visible, making him invulnerable is probably a bit drastic...

References

The Mega Drive/Genesis is the only console to have player creation and trading. However, as teams are limited to 16 players and trades are done by swapping players between a team and the reserves, there are some free players. And who are those? Amongst the top rated (skill 89 or above), there's some unknown players such as B. Plank, S. Taras, N. Wlodyka , T. Sylka and R. Kaill. While unknown in the footballing world, they are no less than some of the game developers!

SEGA 32X version

A North American 32X version was planned, but ultimately cancelled. At the end of 1995, support for the 32X was dropping rapidly and Electronic Arts decided only to release it in Europe, where soccer is much more popular. This makes it one of the two unique European 32X releases. The other one is DarXide.

Stadium

For the first time in the series (and one of the first in the genre to do so), the game used a 3D stadium, and EA quickly hyped this naming the Saturn version FIFA 96: Virtual Stadium Soccer in-game. Players, however, are still sprites. Anyone who played both 32 and 16-bit versions will find that most movements use the same sprites, although obviously they take a hit on quality in the Mega Drive and the SNES.

Awards

• GameStar (Germany)
  • Issue 01/2007 - One of the "Ten Most Influential PC-Games" ( It is one of the first games which used aggressive and exclusive licensing without neglecting the quality of the game. It is the start for Electronic Art's monopoly of yearly updated sports games which suppress almost all other sport series.)
• Power Play
  • Issue 02/1996 – Best Sports Game in 1995

Information also contributed by Luis Silva and Sciere