ISS Pro

Despite the fact that I found it difficult to recall all of the PSOne games that used to be in my collection, there was one game I could never forget - International Superstar Soccer Pro (ISS Pro). At the time I had to wait a good while before an ISS game was available on the PSOne and in the meantime had to make do with games like Actua Soccer or Adidas Power Soccer. You see, I had grown up playing the original ISS and the sequel ISS Deluxe on the SNES and so its arrival on the PSOne was a big deal. It would, I had hoped in some way validate my decision to move from the Mega Drive to the next generation of consoles.

I'm pretty sure that my initial feelings were one of mild disappointment that the game was not as big a leap as I had hoped, a feeling that would return with PES 6 on the Xbox 360. There a few things about the game that stick out in my mind about this game. Firstly, the pace of the game was a good deal slower than the earlier versions on the SNES which was not entirely a bad thing as it helped to develop a more style of play with more emphasis on passing. It was also a harder game to score in. The old trick of taking it around the keeper to slot into an empty net every time was no longer an option. This made for a better experience as you could no longer fall back into that lazy, cheap way to get a quick goal. The funny thing I remember about this game is that I used to select Norway quite a lot. I'm thinking about it now to understand why Norway would have been my default team choice. I suppose back then the team had a high profile for a time plus there was also the Ole Gunnar Solskjaer factor. In the game itself the team probably had a default formation that suited me and they had a striker called Flink (I think that was the name) that was a bit of a goal machine. I must put it on the PS3 and pick Norway to see if my memory has been playing tricks on me.

The copy that I've acquired was sourced from eBay and is in very good condition, despite the ubiquitous crack on the PSOne jewel case. At the time of writing this I have just realised that I still have to track down the other PSOne entries in the ISS Pro catalogue.