Nintendo World Cup
Game Boy
Developer: Technos Publisher: Nintendo
By: GammaBetaAlpha
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Table of Contents
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How To Play [HWTP]
General Strategy [GENS]
Arenas [AREN]
Super Shots [SUPS]
Teams/Stats [TEAM]
Passwords [PASS]
Donations/Amazon [DONT]
Contact Info [CONT]
Credits [CRED]
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How to Play
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[HWTP]
Obviously, Nintendo World Cup is a game about soccer/football (the term
used throughout this guide will be soccer). As such, the general purpose of the
game is to play as one team, and guide the soccer ball down into the opponent's
side of the field, and to get the ball into the opposing team's net, and end the
game with more goals scored than goals against.
The most important thing to realise is that (mainly due to technical
limitations), Nintendo World Cup's soccer matches do not resemble a real soccer
match. Each side only has five players and a goalkeeper. Offsides do not exist
(although out-of-bounds still do), and there are no fouls, which means you can
attack whichever player on the team that has the ball in his possession and not
get fouled. Each game is made up of two halves consisting of four minutes each.
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Controls
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A: (Offense, Player has Ball Possession) Passes Ball to a Teammate
(Offense, Teammate has Ball Possession) Passes Ball to the Player
(Defense) Team member in pursuit of opposing ball possessor does a shoulder
tackle
B: (Offense, Player has Ball Possession) Shoots Ball at Net, Requires Close
Proximity to the Net
(Offense, Teammate has Ball Possession) Shoots Ball at Net, Requires Close
Proximity to the Net
(Defense) Team member in pursuit of opposing ball possessor slides into the
opponent, knocking him over
A + B: (Standing Still) Player-character does a bicycle kick shot (basically a
somersault using momentum to hit the ball)
(Moving) Player-character does a special head-butt
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On-Field Control and the Player-Character
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During the game, you have total control of a single character, who is
number 4 in the positions you assign before the start of a game. If you are
using the U.S. Team, I recommend you use either Chris or Fred, as they have the
highest speed ratings on that team. On every other team, it does not matter.
This single character, the player-character, can be moved around the
field at any point in the game. In the lower right corner there is a mini-map
that indicates where the player is on the overall field: to move him, you use
the diagonal pad.
However, as I noted, the player-character is the only player you can
control FULLY. However, you can also control all other players on your team to a
limited degree, but only when they are chasing an opposing player who has the
ball, or if he has the ball himself.
When one of your players being controlled by the A.I. has the ball, you
can press the A Button to have the player pass the ball to the controlled
player, or press the B Button to have the player shoot the ball at the opposing
net (this only works when on the opposite's half of the pitch, and the ball-
possessor is close to the net: otherwise, the player shall ignore the command).
Only the player-character can do certain things, such as using the
special bicycle kick shot and headbutt with an A + B button combination.
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Super Shots (Kicks)
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The normal kick into a net is overall weak, and the chances of getting a
goal depend on kicking quick and sharp enough so the goalie cannot catch or
block the ball. However, the player-character can execute a special kick that is
stronger than the normal kick, sometimes referred to as the Super Shot. The
effect varies depending on which team you are using (and if you are playing the
U.S. team, which player).
There are three ways to pull off a special kick, and you must be
sufficiently close to the enemy net to do any of the three methods. Each team
can only perform five of these per half: after, the regular kick will do a
stronger, faster shot, but the other two methods will lose their power.
1. Regular Kick
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Each person you play as can perform a Super Shot in lieu of a regular
kick. To do so, you need to take a certain amount of 'steps' before
kicking the ball, without stopping, or changing directions. Each U.S.
member needs to take a different number of steps, while other
countries the number is the same for each player.
2. A + B Bicycle Kick
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When a teammate has the ball and passes it to you or another player,
the ball sometimes goes into the air thanks to the distance. When
this happens, the player-character can use the Bicycle Kick (A + B
while standing still) to jump in the air and kick the ball. You can
also use the D-Pad while in the air to control the angle your ball
is kicked at (to an extent).
3. A + B + Left/Right Headbutt
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When the ball is on the ground, whether static or being controlled by
another player, you can perform a headbutt on the ball to 'kick' it.
You also need to be moving and pressing the Left or Right button to
'kick' the ball.
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Teams
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Unlike what may be expected, the teams in Nintendo World Cup have
terrible balance. Italy, Argentina, and Germany are significantly stronger than
all the other teams with ridiculous speed in comparison to the previous teams.
The strength of the teams largely reflects what order they are faced in when
playing a World Cup (the U.S. is generally between Italy and Brazil in prowess,
and when playing a team other than the U.S., will generally face the U.S. in
Match 8 or after).
Match 1 - Cameroon
Match 2 - Japan
Match 3 - France
Match 4 - Russia
Match 5 - Spain
Match 6 - England
Match 7 - Mexico
Match 8 - Holland
Match 9 - Brazil
Match 10 - Italy
Match 11 - Argentina
Match 12 - Germany
In general, picking one of the last three teams makes for a far easier
game than any of the previous nine countries or the U.S.A.
Furthermore, the U.S.A. is special in comparison to all other teams:
while all the other countries have players who are uniform in their stats, each
player on the U.S.A. team has a different speed rating, health rating, Shot
Step rating and different Super Shot. Bearing this in mind, should you choose
to use the U.S.A. to play the game, you can switch the players up strategically.
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Planning Set-Up
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Before the start of each game, you are given three management
strategies that you can choose from.
•Change Positions
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This option essentially allows you to change the positioning of your
eight players into the six positions of the team (goalkeeper, two defenders,
two attackers, and the center/player-character). However, as noted under the
subsection 'Teams', every team except for the U.S.A. has identical stats
between each player. If you are using the U.S.A., however, you should manually
change the positioning every match. My personal recommendations are to have
Don at Goalkeeping, Mark and Phil at Defense, and either Chris or Fred at
Center, with the remainder of those two and Tony making up the two Forwards.
•Offensive Strategy
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The offensive strategy allows you to choose between whether your two
forwards will dribble the ball up the field, or if they will pass back and
forth between each other when moving upfield. PASS THE BALL is a definite
must, as it is far too easy to get ambushed and picked off by an opposing
player, losing the ball, if the two forwards should dribble.
•Should your teammates shoot?
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This option basically decides whether your teammates should shoot at
the net when they are within striking distance or not. This usually boils down
to a matter of preference: my recommendation, however, is to go with YES,
FREQUENTLY, when you are fighting lower teams, where it is quite easy to make
goals. Once you get to Italy, Argentina, and Germany (and possibly even
Brazil), go with NO, NOT AT ALL - having your teammate pass to you (and taking
a bicycle kick or performing a Step Super Shot) is more likely to net you a
goal as the odds of them scoring dwindles drastically against the big three
countries.
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Health
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Each player on each team has a hidden statistic of health, or HP. Only
the U.S.A. team has different HP for each player: every other team, each player
has an identical amount of HP.
HP has two uses. The first relates to the shoulder tackle: when one
person uses a shoulder tackle against another person, whoever has the lower HP
is the one to fall to the ground (as opposed to the defender always falling to
the ground). Secondly, if someone should run out of HP due to losing it to
attacks from the other team, he will fall down to the ground, and not be able
to play for the rest of the half, except for a throw in or a corner kick, or
after a goal is scored (being hit again will put him down once more). HP
totals are restored to total after the half.
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General Strategy
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[GENS]
To win a game, you need to end up with more goals than your opponent.
The first few teams will be easy to score goals on: after, however, they will
get faster and stronger (but in particular, faster). The best way to beat
higher-tier teams such as Italy and Brazil is to be aggressive in the
beginning, and score at least a couple of goals using Super Shots.
Once you are at least a goal ahead, preferably two, take your own
player-character (the person you have movement control over), and move back
into your own zone (there are no offsides in Nintendo World Cup, so you do not
need to worry about that). Move the ball back and forth to waste time, and
when a player from the opposing team finally comes after you, dump the ball
back into the opponent's half of the field with a long pass. This will all
work to whittle down time.
If you are playing using a weaker team, use the slide tackle over the
shoulder tackle. This is because the shoulder tackle is dependent on how much
HP you have, whereas the slide tackle will always work in your favour when you
use it.
Argentina is probably the best team in the games, hands down. They have
superior speed to anybody else, plus with their super shot, you can do a
special kick from most part of the opponent's half of the soccer pitch, thanks
to their 'curving' Super Shot (the Boomerang) which is nigh upon unstoppable
when used with the A + B Bicycle Kick Shot.
Each team has a different arena that you must play on when facing them.
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Grass
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The prototypical arena and the one you will play on most often, grass
is fairly quick to move around on., with no obstacles.
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Soil
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Soil is slower than grass, with higher amounts of traction.
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Rocky
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A rocky field is slightly slower to play on than grass, but also has
the added obstacle of rocks littered around the field. Should you trip over a
rock, then you will lose HP and temporarily be dazed before you can get up.
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Concrete
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Although a rare field type, concrete is by far the fastest field to
play on, with less traction than even grass.
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Super Shots
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[SUPS]
Each team (and each player on the U.S.) has a different Super Shot,
which is a powerful version of the kick with a quirk added to it. Refer to the
Teams/Stats section for which team has which kick. Credits to Gokuma for
coming up with the name for each of the different types of kicks.
It should also be noted that some of these types of Super Shots CAN be
aimed to a degree (up-right, right, and down-right), depending on which
combination of the up, right and down buttons you are holding when performing
a Super Shot.
Blaster
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The ball shoots straight forward with a significant amount of power
behind it.
Boomerang
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The ball flies through the air up and down in an arc (or a cosine/sine
wave) before going down at a fast speed at the net, very powerful when used
with a Bicycle Kick Shot.
Bouncer
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The ball sails through the air, bounces on the ground once, and then
goes up into the air again before sinking into the net or goalie's hands.
Psycho
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The ball bounces up and down in a dribbling motion much like a
basketball, before it fires straight forward somewhat faster than a Blaster.
Pulse
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The ball will initially fly straight through the air like a Blaster.
However, if there the Pulse flies a sufficient amount of distance, it will
stop for a second, before flying again through the air.
Spinner
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The ball spins in one spot in the air for a second after being kicked,
before moving straight forward at a speed slightly faster than the Blaster.
Stinger
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A variant of the Blaster which moves much the same, but has a
different animation while spinning.
Credit to Silk's and Gokuma's Nintendo World Cup FAQs for the NES.
After doing some checking, the stats appear to be exactly the same when ported
over to the GameBoy for each team and U.S. player (and of course, what data
they had missing is also missing here), barring a few Super Shots that appear
to have been stripped out.
'Shot Steps' are the amount of steps a player must take to execute a
Super Shot in a game.
'G.K. Defense' is the likelihood of a player being able to defend or
block a Super Shot.
The password system in Nintendo World Cup (you can enter the password
right after selecting 1P mode - if you enter an incorrect password, it takes
you right to the country selection screen) is rather convenient. You must
enter a five digit password, where the first three digits tell what match
number you are playing, and the last two digits tell what country you play as.
13: Germany 17: USSR 26: France 31: USA 33: Italy
38: Spain 41: Holland 45: England 51: Brazil 54: Cameroon
59: Japan 62: Argentina 72: Mexico
Match 02 224xx
Match 03 033xx
Match 04 530xx
Match 05 363xx
Match 06 172xx
Match 07 429xx
Match 08 561xx
Match 09 513xx
Match 10 971xx
Match 11 086xx
Match 12 016xx
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Contact Info
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[CONT]
Please note that due to a lack of resources (namely, a second copy of
the game), I cannot write on the 2Player or Versus modes. If anyone has any
information on the modes that they wish to contribute, feel free to email me
about it 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
Although nobody has (of yet) contributed to this FAQ, there are a few
sources I must thank that I derived information off of.
In particular, there is Silk's FAQ for Nintendo World Cup for the NES
for specific character and team stats that hold true in the GameBoy port, as
well as extra information on the Super Shots I did not know beforehand.
Gokuma's FAQ also had some extra info I did not know, such as what character
health affected.
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
