Neo Geo Cup '98: The Road to the Victory

Neo Geo Cup '98: The Road to the Victory is a soccer video game based on the FIFA World Cup 1998, despite being released after the 1998 FIFA World Cup.[1][2] It features 64 teams' countries. Each team enters a "Regional Qualifying Round Final" where it plays a team it actually played in the 1998 FIFA World Cup qualification. For example: Spain would face Yugoslavia, an opponent it actually faced in its qualifying group. Or Italy would face Russia, an opponent Italy faced in the UEFA play-offs. If the player beats the opponent, it goes to a group much like the real life World Cup. In fact, the team faces opponents that were actually in its group. For example: Mexico would face the Netherlands, Belgium and South Korea. It is a re-make of Super Sidekicks 3. However, animations and designs were exactly the same. The only difference is teams to reflect the World Cup, kits again to reflect the World Cup, and players to resemble squads from the World Cup (teams that did not qualify use line-ups from friendly games and qualifiers). Its slogan is "We got the kick".

Neo Geo Cup '98: The Road to the Victory
Developer(s)SNK
Publisher(s)SNK
HAMSTER Corporation (PS4/Switch/Xbox One)
SeriesSuper Sidekicks
Platform(s)
Release
Genre(s)Sports
Mode(s)
Arcade systemNeo Geo MVS

Unlike its arcade counterpart, the Neo Geo version tries to be more of a soccer simulation game. Differences include the Neo Geo version being more slowed down, and more realism added in shooting, passing, etc. A color version of the game was released for the Neo Geo Pocket Color as Neo Geo Cup '98 Plus Color.

Playable teams

The game has 64 countries, grouped in 8 zones:

Europe (group A)
*  Italy
*  Netherlands
*   Switzerland
*  Norway
*  England
*  Turkey
*  Portugal
*  Croatia		Europe (group B)
*  Germany
*  Spain
*  Belgium
*  Romania
*  Denmark
*  Republic of Ireland
*  Scotland
*  Czech Republic		Europe (group C)
*  France
*  Bulgaria
*  Sweden
*  Russia
*  Greece
*  Hungary
*  Austria
*  FR Yugoslavia		Africa
*  Nigeria
*  Cameroon
*  Morocco
*  Egypt
*  South Africa
*  Zambia
*  Ivory Coast
*  Tunisia
North America
*  United States
*  Mexico
*  Canada
*  Costa Rica
*  Puerto Rico
*  Guatemala
*  El Salvador
*  Jamaica		South America
*  Brazil
*  Argentina
*  Colombia
*  Paraguay
*  Chile
*  Ecuador
*  Uruguay
*  Peru		Asia (group A)
*  Australia
*  China PR
*  New Zealand
*  Republic of China
*  Iran
*  Iraq
*  Vietnam
*  Singapore		Asia (Group B)
*  Saudi Arabia
*  South Korea
*  Japan
*  United Arab Emirates
*  Hong Kong
*  India
*  Thailand
*  Malaysia

Tournaments
Arcade version screenshot showcasing a match between Colombia and Puerto Rico.

The tournaments in the game are the following ones (between parenthesis, the real tournaments in which were based):

Release

Neo Geo Cup '98 Plus Color (ネオジオカップ’９８プラス) is a football videogame released by SNK in 1999 for the Neo Geo Pocket Color handheld system. It is an update of Neo Geo Cup '98: The Road to the Victory with, as its title suggests, colour graphics. There are three game modes; single- a single "exhibition" match, 2p play- an option for two players with two Neo Geo Pocket Colour systems, Neo Geo Cup '98 cartridges and a link cable to play against each other, and story mode- a career mode in which players compete in the Neo Geo Cup competition, play friendly matches, play against friends via the link cable and purchase "power-ups" at the Soccer Shop using credits gained in the Neo Geo Cup competition.

Inconsistencies

Due to failure of getting any official FIFA license (EA Sports held the license) the tournaments are all unlicensed. Also, due to lack of FIFPro license player names are fake. For Example: Ronaldo is known as Rosa, Raúl is known as Roul, Luis Hernández is known as Hernardo, Eric Wynalda is known as Wyoming and Martin Dahlin is known as Dahlgren. However, most players appearance in this game resembles their real-life appearance. Easily identical players are: Colin Hendry (blonde hair), Luis Hernández (blonde hair and caucasian skin), and Jorge Campos (goalkeeper kit) and others appear in the game. However, others appearance are inaccurate. Like Ronaldo is dark-skinned.

Though a majority of team qualifying matches are accurate, there are inconsistencies with some of the team's qualifier opponents. For example, England would face Scotland (although the player can also be paired against Italy, a team England faced in the 1998 qualifiers). Brazil would also play a qualifier against Uruguay. Brazil qualified automatically due to the rule that the winner of the last FIFA World Cup would qualify automatically.

Also, some players have incorrect numbers. For example: Hernán Crespo (Cresko in the game) has the number 11. But in reality he wore number 19, number 11 was worn by Juan Sebastián Verón.

See also

Notes

    References
    1. "Title Catalogue - NEOGEO MUSEUM". SNK Playmore. Archived from the original on 2018-08-28. Retrieved 2019-11-28.
    2. "Ficha Neo Geo Cup 98: The Road to the Victory". Cultura NeoGeo (in Spanish). Retrieved September 5, 2019.
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