Formation Soccer ’97: The Road to France

Formation Soccer ’97: The Road to France is a Sports game, developed and published by Human Entertainment, which was released in Japan in 1997. The game consists of exhibition games and tournament games. In exhibition, one can choose to play either a game or a shootout. In tournament mode, one plays until one beats all other teams. At the end of the tournament, the player must play one final team, Nintendo. The game features the qualify rounds of national teams that wants to enter the World Cup ’98.

The game is innovative because of its viewing perspective, to this day unique in soccer video games: the field is shown plainly on a vertical view, and the opposite goal can be seen from anywhere in the field. Extremely responsive controls for both the goal-keeper and the kicker produced a penalty simulation which some argue is still the best version available on any game system.