FIFA Soccer '96
Game Boy
Developer: Black Pearl Publisher: EA Sports
By: GammaBetaAlpha
~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-
Table of Contents
-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~
How To Play [HELP]
Donations/Amazon [DONT]
Contact Info [CONT]
~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-
How to Play
-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~
[HELP]
FIFA '96 is a traditional football/soccer game with the FIFA license.
Unlike most other soccer games on the Game Boy, such as Nintendo World Cup or
International Superstar Soccer, the FIFA series plays with a diagonal
(isometric) view screen and playing field.
Another big difference from the other games present on the Game Boy is
that the playing fields on FIFA '96 are immense: it can take a great deal of
time to move the ball downfield, simply because it stretches for the length of
several screens from goal to goal.
Further unlike those games, play is considerably less automated, and you
will have to take active control of a player on the field at all times if you
wish to make any decent headway. Goals are also considerably more difficult to
score in the FIFA series present on the Game Boy than for the other, more
arcadey-style games. This usually borders on being hideously impossible to
score.
Other than that, basically all the regular football rules are present in
FIFA '96, including having 10 players, penalties, yellow and red cards, and so
forth. Fouls and offsides can be toggled on and off in the options menu.
The game has the real names and logos of the country and club teams at
the time, but does not have the names of the players themselves, instead
resulting in generic names.
FIFA '96 also makes use of the Super Game Boy, having enhanced graphics
including colour when utilised.
Controls
--------
A - Kick the ball towards the opponent's net (Use left, right on D-Pad to aim)
Throw in ball (Throw in)
B - Change your active player (when on defense)
Pass the Ball (Press and hold the B button, Aim with one or two D-Pad
buttons, release the B button)
Throw in ball (Throw in)
Kick the ball behind you (Press one D-Pad button, then the B button,
then release all buttons while pushing the
opposite D-Pad button)
A + B - Strike an opposing player who is in possession of the ball
D-Pad - Move your active player character around
Aim kicks and passes
Aim where the ball will approximately land on throw-ins
Start - Pause, Unpause the Game
Passing and Kicking
-------------------
In this game, kicking on the opponent's net is controlled by the A
button. Even if you are at the opposite end of the field, pressing the A button
will see the player possessing the ball kick the ball towards the opposing
team's net.
When you get in closer to the net, you can exert some control over the
general direction of your kick through use of the D-Pad button while holding the
A button and before releasing it. This aim is not entirely perfect, but it is
relatively passable.
The technique for passing is a bit more sloppy. You have to be moving to
pass the ball, and while there is some leeway for the direction to pass to
another player, sometimes you will get some absurdly slow passes, and at other
times it will just completely skip by the player you intend to pass to.
There are a couple of nifty things you can do, however: for example, by
moving in one direction, then pressing the B button, releasing, and suddenly
changing directions on the D-Pad, you can kick the ball behind you.
Stealing the Ball
-----------------
When a member of the opposite possesses the ball and is dribbling it
around, you can steal the ball (and possibly also knock over the opposite
player) by moving up to him and pressing both the A + B button at the same time.
This will always cause the ball carrier to lose the ball, but instead of
successfully stealing it, sometimes it will just dribble out from your grasp and
you must go grab it instead.
Goalie Kick/Corner Kick Ball/Throw-In Targeting
-----------------------------------------------
When making a kick from the corner or as a goalie, or a throw-in, you
can move the highlighted box around on the field to direct where you want your
kick to land. Note that if you move it too far, your kick will not land here,
but it will go in the general direction of where you highlight the cursor.
Teams
-----
These are the teams present in the game. While each team has a make-up
of (generically named) players with unique stats, the teams also have their own
stats list represented by bars on the team select team.
World Teams
-----------
Algeria Egypt Luxembourg Saudi Arabia
Argentina England Mexico Scotland
Australia Finland Morocco South Africa
Austria France Netherlands South Korea
Belgium Germany New Zealands Spain
Bolivia Greece Nigeria Sweden
Brazil Hong Kong N. Ireland Switzerland
Bulgaria Hungary Norway Turkey
Cameroon India Peru Ukraine
Canada Iraq Portugal UAE
Chile Israel Poland USA
China Italy Qatar Uruguay
Columbia Ivory Coast Eire Wales
Czech Rep. Japan Romania
Denmark Kenya Russia
Africa All-Stars
Asia All-Stars
European All-Stars
Middle-East Stars
Of the Worlds teams, Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Germany,
Italy, Netherlands, Romania, Spain, Sweden, the African Stars and the European
Stars are the strongest overall.
Brazil League English League French League
------------- -------------- -------------
Amer-RJ Arsenal Angers
Bangu Aston Villa Auxere
Botafogo Blackburn Bordeaux
Bragan. Chelsea Caen
Corin. Coventry Cannes
Ferrov. C. Palace Le Havre
Flamengo Everton R.C. Lens
Fluminense Ipswich Lille
Guarani Leeds Lyonnais
Inter. Leics. C. Marseille
Palmeiras Liverpool Martigues
P. Preta Man. City F.C. Metz
Portug. Man. United Monaco
Santos Newcastle Montpel.
Sao Paulo Norwich Nantes
V. da Gama Notts. F Paris S.G.
Q.P.R. St. Etienne
Shef. Weds. Sochaux
S'hampton Stras.
Tottenham Toulouse
West Ham
Wimbledon
German League Italian League Dutch League
------------- -------------- ------------
B. Munich Atalanta Ajax
Cologne Cagliari NAC Breda
Dortmund Cremon. Cambuur
Dresden Foggia PSV Eind.
Duisburg Genoa Feyenoord
Frankfurt Juventus GA Eagles
Freiburg Lazio Groningen
Hamburg Lecce Heeren.
Kaisers. AC Milan MVV
Karls. Inter Milan Roda JC
Leipzig Napoli Sparta
Leverk. Parma FC Twente
Bor. MG Piacenza FC Utr.
Nurnberg Reggiana Vitesse
Schalke Roma FC Vol.
Stuttgart Sampdoria Venlo
Wattens. Torino RKC Waal.
W. Bremen Udinese Willem II
American League Spanish League
--------------- --------------
Atlanta Albacete
Boston Barcelona
Chicago Bilbao
Dallas Celta
Denver Deportivo
Detroit Gijon
Ft. Laud. Lleida
Guadal. Logrons
L.A. Atl. Madrid
Mexico C. R. Madrid
Montreal Osasuna
New York Oviedo
Phoenix Santander
Portland Sevilla
St. Louis Sociedad
San Diego Tenerife
San Jose Valencia
Seattle Valladolid
Tampa Bay Vallecano
Toronto Zaragoza
Vancouver
Wash. DC
---------
MAIN MENU
---------
Here are the numerous options of gameplay and other odds and ends to go
over when entering the menu upon starting up your game.
Friendly
--------
Play a single match between two teams of your choice, with the team you
play as on the left side of the selection screen.
Tournament
----------
Not entirely sure what Tournament does, but you play a randomly selected
team from the league of the team you choose to play as.
Playoffs
--------
Playoffs does a bracket of either 8 or 16 teams playing for a
championship trophy, with the number of teams depending on which League you are
playing for (ie. the Brazilian league, which has fewer teams, only does 3
rounds, while the U.K., with more teams, does 4 rounds with 16 teams).
Options
-------
Options gives you nine things you can change in your games.
You can toggle the language setting between English, German, French and
Spanish.
Change the Game Type between action and simulation, with Action being
the default. In Simulation, as the game drags on, players purportedly get tired
and move faster to simulate fatigue in real-life, but this does not occur in
Action.
You can toggle Fouls, and with them, Penalty Kicks, Yellow Cards and Red
Cards on and off. They are by default off.
You can toggle Injuries on and off. They are by default off.
You can toggle Offsides on and off. They are by default off.
Toggle the Weather Type between Dry, Damp, Drenched or Hot. Drier
conditions are conducive to the ball moving more quickly and having higher
bounce. Hot presumably only affects you during Simulation Game Type mode.
You can change between a grass pitch and an artificial pitch. Game play
moves faster on an artificial pitch.
The clock during game play can be changed between always running or
stopping during out of play events.
You can change the lengths of game halfs to be 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 15, 20,
30 or 45 minutes each.
------------------
PRE-GAME/GAME MENU
------------------
Prior to the start of a game, or during a game and entering the menu by
pressing the Start button, you can go through a few more options.
Controller
----------
This option allows you to change which team you are controlling. You can
also place the Gameboy icon in between the two teams to have a completely
automatic game with no control over the players.
In this menu, by pressing the B button, you can also toggle how your D-
Pad moves your characters and aim. When the arrow on the screen of the Game Boy
is pointing up, you have to press left and down or right and up to move along
the field. If you toggle the arrow to point to the upper right, it changes your
control perspective so just pressing the up button makes you move up AND right
along the isometric perspective of the field (and down goes down and left).
Team Coverage
-------------
This allows you to toggle the length of the field that will be covered
by your defence, your midfielders, and your attackers when the ball is within
the zone.
Team Strategy
-------------
Team Strategy lets you change the behaviour of the A.I. of your
teammates. Automatic is the regular all-around A.I., Longball I _believe_ is
concerned about getting the ball upfield constantly, Defend is self-explanatory,
All-out Defend focuses your players tightly around your own net, Attack is self
-explanatory, and All-out Attack focuses your players tightly around the
opponent's net.
Team Formation
--------------
Here, you can move between a 3-5-2, 4-4-2, 4-2-4, 4-3-3, and a Sweeper
formation (5-3-2).
Player Selection
----------------
Here, you can select new players to replace those already assigned to
play. Roster players are on the top list with the eleven players (Goalie
included). To select a new player, scroll down to the roster reserve list at the
bottom, press A to pick him, then scroll up and select the player you want to
replace with the A button again.
Game Stats
----------
Give some in-depth stats on shots, saves, etc., and time of possession
of the ball.
Score Summary
-------------
A more detailed version of Score where the scoring player and time score
are also listed.
Foul Summary
------------
Lists all the yellow and red cards assigned to players on both team, if
any, during the game.
I don't really care too much about donations, but if you are feeling
generous, feel free to send one via PayPal to gammabetaalphafaqs AT gmail DOT
com
Alternatively, if you ever order any items from Amazon.com, go to the
link below. You do not have to buy anything right away, but (if you do not clear
browser cookies often) any items you buy within the next 90 days will count as a
'referral order' to me, meaning I get anywhere from 4-6% as a referral/affiliate
payment of what you ordered (ie. order $100 worth of stuff, I get $4-6 from
Amazon.com)
Other than that, considering this FAQ is for an obscure old game, if you
have any other obscure old games that you do not play anymore, consider sending
them to me (I will even pay the shipping cost!). I write FAQs for plenty of
obscure old games with no FAQs, and having a physical copy of the game (and even
better, a manual) is superior to not. You can email me if interested at
gammabetaalphafaqs AT gmail DOT com
~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-
Contact Info
-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~
[CONT]
Although I believe I have found everything there is to find in this
game, there is occasionally the possibility of some super secret level in an
obscure game that was never found because it was too obscure, or the like. If
you have anything that you feel needs to be includes, feel free to email me at
gammabetaalphafaqs AT gmail DOT com
If you have any other information to contribute or notice any errors,
again, shoot me a notice at gammabetaalphafaqs AT gmail DOT com
If you wish to host this guide, or use information from it, consider the
FAQ semi-public domain: you can host it without asking and derive information
from it word-for-word if you wish, but keep the document unchanged if hosting it
and give credit where due if using information
