World Cup '98
Game Boy
Developer: THQ Publisher: EA Sports
By: GammaBetaAlpha
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Table of Contents
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How To Play [HELP]
Donations/Amazon [DONT]
Contact Info [CONT]
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How to Play
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[HELP]
World Cup '98 is a traditional football/soccer game with the FIFA
license, though it does not actually hold the FIFA name in the game title.
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 World Cup '98 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
World Cup '98, including having 10 players, penalties, yellow and red cards, and
so forth, with the possible exception of offsides (it might be there, but I did
not ever get any offsides). Fouls 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. All 32 teams from World Cup '98 are represented,
along with another 20 teams on top of that, 19 countries and a developer's team
called the Torados.
World Cup '98 also makes use of the Super Game Boy, having enhanced
graphics including colour when utilised.
Controls
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A - Change your active player (when on defense)
Slide (when on defense)
Pass (pressing a D-Pad button for aim)
Dribble the ball slightly ahead of yourself (when not aiming)
B - Kick the Ball towards the opposing net
Aim the general location of where the ball will land on a corner kick or a
goal kick
Dash (Defense only)
Throw in ball (Throw in)
A + B - Strike an opposing player who is in possession of the ball
Do a flat kick pass (press both buttons while aiming)
D-Pad - Move your active player character around
Aim kicks and passes (use one D-Pad button only, not two)
Start - Pause, Unpause the Game
Passing and Kicking
-------------------
In this game, kicking on the opponent's net is controlled by the B
button. Even if you are at the opposite end of the field, pressing the B 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 a single (not two) D-Pad button
while holding the B 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, or else the ball will just kick ahead of you. If you are not
aiming properly at a teammate, this results in the ball being dribbled ahead
just a little bit.
Stealing the Ball
-----------------
When a member of the opposite possesses the ball and is dribbling it
around, you can steal the ball by moving up to him with an active player. You
can also press both the A + B button at the same time to knock the opposing
player over. 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.
Argentina Denmark Morocco Spain
Australia England Netherlands Sweden
Austria France Nigeria Switzerland
Belgium Germany N. Ireland Tunisia
Bolivia Greece Norway Turkey
Brazil Hungary Paraguay U.S.A.
Bulgaria Iran Poland Ukraine
Cameroon Israel Portugal Wales
Canada Italy Rep. Ireland Yugoslavia
Chile Jamaica Romania Tornados
China Japan Russia
Columbia Korea Rep, South Africa
Croatia Macedonia Saudi Arabia
Czech Rep. Mexico Scotland
Italy, Brazil, Germany, the Netherlands and the 'Tornados' team
(presumably a developers special team?) have the best stats, with the Tornados
having top stats in everything.
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MAIN MENU
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Here are the numerous options of gameplay and other odds and ends to go
over when entering the menu upon starting up your game.
Exhibition
----------
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
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The Tournament setting follows the FIFA format. Select your team to play
as and you will be put into a randomly selected group of 4 teams, and play each
team once. The best two teams from group plus a few of the better third-place
teams will advance to a round of 16, where it then moves into a single-loss
elimination tournament.
Playoffs
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Playoffs skips the initial qualifying round of the Tournament setting,
moving straight to the round-of-16 single-loss elimination bracket.
League
------
League allows you to select one team and play every other team in an
eight-team league twice to determine who is the best team in the league.
Restore
-------
This allows you to go resume where you may have left off in a
tournament, playoffs or league setting, using passwords the game gives you to go
back to where you last finished up.
Options
-------
Options gives you five things you can change in your games.
You can change the lengths of game halfs to be 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 15, 20,
30 or 45 minutes each.
You can toggle Fouls, and with them, Penalty Kicks, Yellow Cards and Red
Cards on and off. They are by default off.
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.
Toggle the Field Type between Dry, Muddy, Damp or Random. Drier
conditions are conducive to the ball moving more quickly and having higher
bounce.
Sound allows you to toggle between having Music and Sound Effects, Music
only, Sound Effects only, and no sound or music whatsoever during a game.
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PRE-GAME
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Prior to the start of a game, you can go through a few more options.
Team Coverage
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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
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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, a Sweeper
formation (5-3-2), and a Wingers formation (4-2-4 with staggered attackers).
Player Selection
----------------
Here, you can select new players to replace those already assigned to
play. Roster players who are going to play have an X flashing on the field map.
To select a new player, press B to pick him, then scroll up and select the
player you want to replace with the B button again.
Control Set-Up
--------------
In this menu, you can toggle how your D-Pad moves your characters and
aim. When the arrow on the D-Pad of the Game Boy is pointing right, 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).
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MATCH MENU
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During a match, you can open up a menu where you can do sevveral things.
Team Coverage, Team Strategy and Team Formation are covered above.
Score
-----
Check the score and time.
Substitutions
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Slot in a replacement player to any of the on-field players.
Game Stats
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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.
Bookings
--------
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
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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
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better, a manual) is superior to not. You can email me if interested at
gammabetaalphafaqs AT gmail DOT com
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Contact Info
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[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
