Konami has been a strong force in sports titles for the PlayStation this year. It has dominated the basketball market with ITZ 2 and soon set out to conquer the Soccer lovers as well. Goal Storm 97 is not the best soccer game of all time, but its definitely better than Fifa 97.
Graphically, this game looks phenomenal. Beautifully texture-mapped players look exceptionally well and move fairly fluent. The fields look nice as well, especially at night. In addition to the cool announcer, another impressive bell is the sound quality. Just hearing the roar of the crowd makes the soccer experience even more realistic.
Now sim lovers, don t hold your breath. Konami has always been notorious for catching the arcade type gamers. On top of its two play modes, exhibition and tournament play, a P.K. mode has been added as well. This allows you to practice your goal kicks. Beside that, there just isn t much you can do. Like most Konami games, gameplay has always been a strong point, but it's weak spot seems to be in the lack of options.
It does however play fast, and that is the feel Konami is supposedly trying to capture. The game plays great in 1-player mode and exceptionally well in 2-player mode. Unfortunately, Goal Storm 97 doesn t have a multi-tap option. This is another small feature that we would ve wanted to see in the game.
So if you like to edit teams, trade players, stat track - this isn t the game. It may not possess all the cool options that make a standard Soccer game, but Goal Storm 97 is definitely pure fun.