While waiting for new competitors such as UFL, GOALS and the new FIFA proposal to take the field, it must be noted that the football simulator segment is currently dominated by a duopoly made up of EA Sports FC and eFootball. Once upon a time, however, the market was much more varied, as these two names from the beginning of the millennium testify.
Ronaldo V-Football (2000)
It arrived on PlayStation and Game Boy Color on May 20, 2000 Ronaldo V-Football, a football game published by Infogrames and developed by PAM Development. The legendary Brazilian footballer stands out in the title and on the cover Ronaldowho at the time was already the holder of a Ballon d’Or but had not yet won the World Cup.Once upon a time, gamers were more inclined to turn a blind eye to shortcomings in terms of licensing: there was certainly no shortage of content, with 176 international teams and 15 stadiums, but there were few footballers and structures with real names. Among the five game modes it stood out la V-Football Cup modeled on the basis of the World Cup, which had as its main objective to win the title with Ronaldo.
The title track was Bellini’s iconic “Samba de Janeiro”, a salsa dance remix of The Heartists’ “Belo Horizonti”. To embellish the Italian version there was instead commentary by Claudio Moneta and Marco Balzarotti, two names still well known today. The former is known for providing the voice of Commander Shepard in Mass Effect and Goku in Dragon Ball Super, while the latter voices Batman in cartoons and video games.
David Beckham Soccer (2001)
The following year another game dedicated to a single champion arrived on the market, namely David Beckham Soccer. The simulator arrived in 2001 under the Rage Software label on multiple platforms, namely PlayStation, PS2, Xbox, Game Boy Advance and Game Boy Color, but unfortunately it struggled a lot to replicate the incredible performances of the English champion in the videogame sector, which at the time he was still playing at Manchester City.Beyond the shortcomings in terms of licenses (EA Sports was already making a plunder back then), the game it also disappointed in terms of gameplay, controls and artificial intelligence. The ruthless man certifies the terrible success of the operation Meta Score of 34 which still stands out on Metacritic today.
However, it must be admitted that both David Beckham Soccer and the aforementioned Ronaldo V-Football (which wasn’t even a masterpiece) are still popular today remembered with nostalgia from those who enjoyed playing them at the time despite their flaws.