Genre: Sports
Developer: Major A
Publisher: Konami

ISS 64, as it's colloquially known, is one of those early 3D football titles, and its ultra colorful, low-poly visuals are very appealing. The players themselves are detailed enough, and the animation is very smooth but not overwrought; feedback is as responsive as in a 2D game. The stadia have some nice geometry on display, and the crowds are a texture which moves up and down, to great illusory effect. Menus are smooth and vibrant, with a clean font and lovely icons for each of the myriad selections on offer.

There are only a handful of songs in the title, with two of them heard in the bulk of the menus. It's all a mix of Jazz Fusion with some Merengue elements; lots of horns and punchy bass lines-- it's the kind of corny Japanese pop stuff familiar to everyone from series such as "Gran Turismo", or the successor to this very title "Pro Evolution Soccer". There is a British match announcer, and he's serviceable albeit not amazing-- ditto for the stadium noises, the variety of which were no doubt restricted by cartridge space.

ISS 64 takes practically all of the gameplay elements known in the later "PES" titles, but makes them available on the Nintendo 64, in 1997. The player can pass, lob pass, shoot, and sprint; he can play different kinds of through balls; he can even play a one-two. The player can not only set one hundred percent custom formations, but can save those settings, per team, along with assigning markers, changing player roles, and setting strategies which can be employed on the fly with button combinations during play. Phenomenal! All it's missing is "Master League", which hadn't been invented yet-- but it does have a 70-odd game global league mode, with stat tracking.

This is the best playing arcade-style football release this reviewer has ever laid hands on. The action is fast and frenetic; it compromises some realism in exchange for fun gameplay, while simultaneously allowing for intricate passing movements via a cursor which shows the player to whom the pass will go if the button is pressed, making it possible to circulate the ball. The AI is extremely challenging, and it's worth turning it down to difficulty level two, along with flipping the camera settings to "High" and "Far". Like the later "PES" games, ISS 64 is highly dynamic, and the same goal is hardly scored twice. For a release from 1997 especially, this title is out of this world.