International Superstar Soccer 64

International Superstar Soccer 64 is the successor to the SNES International Superstar Soccer (Deluxe) and the first Nintendo 64 entry in the ISS series. It's also very famous on the Internet thanks to a Portuguese-language (sort of; no text is translated and the modified match commentary is a mix of Portuguese and Spanish) bootleg.

Regional Differences#

Unlike with previous games, this version of Jikkyou World Soccer is the one that was adapted from International Superstar Soccer rather than the other way around, due to ISS 64 being built over Jikkyou J.League: Perfect Striker, a game based on the Japanese football/soccer league. As such, it keeps the soundtrack from the latter game, while Jikkyou World Soccer 3 uses a completely different soundtrack.

Opening#

The intro movie is largely the same across regions. The only difference is which teams are playing in it: in the European version, it's Germany and France; in the US version, Brazil and Italy; and in the Japanese version, Japan and Korea.

Europe	US	Japan

Title Screen#

US/Europe	Japan

Differences mostly aesthetic: the players' kit colors and the background changing from the middle of the pitch at night to near the goal during the daytime. And once more, the Japanese version omits the "Licensed by Nintendo" notice.

Game Settings#

US/Europe	Japan

Off the bat, you get the Memory Pak notice in both versions - there is more parity this time around, as both versions use it to save your progress, ditching the password system for good. The difference is that the Japanese version isn't quite as generous with the space it demands of your Pak to save data, requiring 71 pages versus ISS 64's 61.

No differences in the Options, except for some default settings: difficulty level (3 in the West, 2 in Japan), extra time format (regular in ISS 64, golden goal in JWS 3) and the default referee.

Teams#

Once again, the lineup of teams in different between versions. In the Western versions, between ISS Deluxe and 64, the only change was the replacement of Morocco with South Africa, while Japan saw a few other new inclusions while keeping the same overall structure from Fighting Eleven - and actually putting Turkey in its appropriate place.

As a result, the groupings for the International Cup qualifiers are also changed between versions, which actually makes a fairer distribution of continental slots in the Japanese version considering the best two of each group qualify.

Scenarios#

The 16 scenarios are organized differently; in the Western versions, they are spread out over two pages, while the Japanese version crams them all in one screen.

US/Europe	Japan

12 of them are the same between both versions, with two of them (#6 and #14) having slight differences in how much time you have left (the time shown in the description indicates how much has passed from the start of the 2nd half, meaning the Japanese version of Scenario #14 is ever-so-slightly easier by giving you more time to turn a 1-4 loss around).

The four different scenarios between versions are as follows:

US/Europe	Japan	Translation of Japanese scenario
		Yugoslavia 0-1 Spain 4:02 of 2nd half Starts at free kick for Yugoslavia Even though they had been out of the international stage, Yugoslavia cannot allow themselves to hesitate. They hope to take down powerful rivals Spain with this free kick.
		Japan 0-1 South Korea 4:39 of 2nd half Starts at free kick for Japan Despite going into this match with the advantage, Japan regretfully conceded the first goal from a corner kick. Seize victory with this set piece.
		Argentina 1-2 Bolivia 4:22 of 2nd half Starts at corner kick for Argentina In a match that has become unpredictable, Argentina is out of options and needs to win, even with fewer players.
		Mexico 0-2 Brazil 0:53 of 2nd half Starts at corner kick for Mexico The power gap is evident, and Brazil are doing as they please, but if there's an opportunity for a goal, it'll come from this set piece. Make the best of this chance.

Others#

Due to the international version coming out first this time, the Japanese game uses mostly the Western player names, with one or other of their own, rather than using the same names from the Super Famicom games.

Europe/US	Japan

What are different, though, are the looks of certain players, which in the Japanese version tend to be closer to some real-life players who were active at the time, such as Brazil's goalkeeper here, who in the Japanese version is altered to look more like their main keeper at the time, Claudio Taffarel.

Europe/US	Japan

We added two pictures for the Japanese version in this case to illustrate the two changes made to Gomez: the actual player named Gomez in the Japanese version, which was remanded to the defensive midfield (the position occupied by Roca in ISS 64) and his replacement in the team, the no. 11 forward named Muller, who indeed looks closer to Romario than his Western counterpart.

In addition, both games now have full play-by-play commentary, but while the Western commentator is uncredited, the Japanese version gives the proper credit to TOMG, a.k.a. Tomofumi Isa, from Kobe radio Kiss-FM. Like in Perfect Eleven, he gets credited at the start of the matches.

Not only that, but Kiss-FM also gets exclusive advertising space in Jikkyou World Soccer 3 with their own adboard, replacing the "C.S. GO-KEN" board from ISS 64.

Japan	Europe/US

Finally, between the European and American releases, one of those small bits of spelling in one of the stadium names.

Europe	US

References#