Genre: Sports
Developer: EA Sports
Publisher: Electronic Arts

In 1994, the FIFA franchise essentially had three versions: the Sega Genesis version, the PC version, and the 3DO version. The Genesis iteration focused on looking as nice as it could on limited hardware. The PC iteration focused on crispness and resolution. The 3DO version's emphasis was on full-out multimedia; dynamically rotating camera, sprites with dozens of frames of animation, and full-motion video sequences at half-time and after each match. While it couldn't match the PC version in terms of sharpness, it had the graphical pizazz that all the other versions lacked, and was a rather pretty 3DO game all told.

With the PC version of FIFA, if you had 8 meg of RAM, you got real-time, voice commentary. How did the 3DO version compete in this area? The answer lies with the crowd noises and chants, which are actually better and more elaborate and varied than the crowd sounds in any modern sports game! There were team-specific chants, air horns, and drum beats galore. The music in the game, like all FIFA games up until the past few years, was some nice, hoppy light techno tunes, which seem to fit the sport and the game well. Even without commentary, this title has marvelous audio quality to this day!

I always preferred the gameplay of the PC version of FIFA over the 3DO iteration because of how passing is handled; in the 3DO version, lob passes always get directed towards a teammate, but the same cannot be said of normal passes, which head to the opposition as often as they do towards one of your own team mates. There are several play modes and two difficulty levels to compliment over 40 teams, and if you can get the hang of the sometimes quirky passing, the gameplay functions pretty well, even if it isn't an accurate representation of the actual sport.

You can play FIFA 3DO with up to 8 players, an amazing total. Few things light up a party like starting up an 8-player season of FIFA 3DO! With things like tweakable weather, time of day, difficulty, match length, and a whole slew of in-game adjustments, such as strategy, formation, and the range in which players of each position can traverse, this version of FIFA is very impressive. The Sega Genesis version of FIFA cannot hold a candle to the 3DO version in any way, and I would even say that, depending on who you are, the glitz and multiplayer appeal of the 3DO version might make it the best FIFA of any platform.