“Hello there, football fanatics” – ISS Pro Evolution 2

ISS Pro Evo 2 has one of those names which is a story into itself. It goes like this: there was a series called International Superstar Soccer, or ISS for short. When it came to 1997’s editions, Konami gave the Nintendo 64 got its own version (ISS 64) and did the same for the PlayStation (ISS Pro). A couple of years later, they got a separate division of Konami to redo ISS Pro from scratch, and to highlight the change, they added Evolution to the end of the name: ISS Pro Evolution. Then it got a sequel.

It’s not surprising that Konami would soon simplify all of that a little, before eventually getting back into confusing strings and whatever eFootball is, but the name fits the game well. It is concerned about presenting a lot of technical detail, and it is not slick in terms of presentation. 

There’s the licence issue, of course. EA were gobbling up exclusivity left, right and centre, leaving ISSPE2 with a handful of real names and a lot of fractured-mirror versions of players. Roberto Carlos became R. Larcos. (Gabriel) Batistuta became Batustita. They’re not exactly hard puzzles to be solved, but they’re awkward (though if you were playing the beautiful slow build of the Master League mode, having completely made-up players was part of the point).

Then there’s the audio commentary. Chris James has never been a household name like FIFA’s John Motson, and partly as a result it’s harder to hear his sparse mutterings as any kind of relation to television commentary on real football. At one point I scored a golden goal in extra time, immediately winning the match, and he said “that could be the winning strike”.

And the thing was that despite all its limitations, despite its frumpiness and foreignness and complete lack of famous cover stars or current pop hits, the series was a big success here and was loved more deeply by more people than FIFA could ever achieve at the time. It produced a very different football experience, and one different from what had gone before. The arcade edges of the original ISS are now completely gone, even the gliding feeling of ISS64. ISSPE2 feels weighty throughout, the ball subject to almost too much gravity, exertion felt in every action. It’s as well-balanced as it is heavy, though. The result is not just to slow it down, but to make every bit of skill, every smart move, feel more real and more rewarding. It’s players might not have the right names, or the flashest moves, but they have the right moves.

If that all sounds a bit hipster football fan, it’s only fitting. Perhaps the strength of Pro Evolution’s following came partly because of its underdog status, the loyalty born of feeling like you were consciously making the outsider choice (I never did make that choice back then, but do I ever know of it by reputation). ISS wasn’t exactly set up as a challenger to the hegemonic FIFA in reality, since in Japan ISS, or rather Jikkyo World Soccer, was the leading football series, with the national team licence to show for it. But Konami’s series was defined in the role of challenger here, and it was about to step up its giant-killing.

---

Top of the charts for week ending 24 March 2001:

• 

• 

• 

• 

•