This summer should have seen Euro 2020 take place across Europe with some of the continent's best international sides doing battle for supremacy culminating in a final at Wembley Stadium.
Despite the Covid-19 pandemic putting the competition on hold and to celebrate Konami's release of the official tournament DLC for PES 2020, here at the Retro Sports Games Room we're going to make a little list of the top five games that have featured the Euros.
5. Euro 2016, PES 2016 DLC pack. (XBOX 360, PS3, PS4, XBOX One, PC)
Konami's first foray into the world of licensed international tournament football (having held the Champions League and Europa League licences for a number of years) promised so much yet ultimately was as lacklustre as England's performance in the first knockout round against Iceland.
While the game itself isn't particularly bad, the DLC pack leaves little to the imagination. Of the 24 teams who qualified for the tournament, only 15 have licensed kits and the only stadium from the competition that is added is the final's venue, the Stade De France.
Perhaps we're being a little too pedantic considering the DLC was free of charge (Konami did re-release the game on PS3 and PS4 with the pack on the disc and swapped the cover star from Neymar to Gareth Bale) but I feel there could have been a little bit more on offer.
4. Euro 2000 (PS1, PC)
After the success of World Cup 98, hopes were high for EA's first crack at the European Championships, unfortunately the game played about as successful as Jaap Stam's penalty against Italy in the semi-finals.
While the company went on to use tournament games as a guinea pig for features in future FIFA games, Euro 2000 is quite simply just a Euros themed redressing of FIFA 2000 although it was the first major competition game to allow players to play through the qualification stages.
EA must be commended for their attempts at making the game action sound authentic and look as if it's a real television presentation but it feels as if the gameplay suffered as a consequence. The graphics on the PC version were criticised too, mainly as it felt as if they had again been an afterthought in the quest to make the game sound as realistic as possible.
It might have been better to keep hold of your copy of FIFA 2000 and play your own tournament on there instead of buying the standalone game.
The game was essentially a stripped back version of the popular FIFA Football 2004 from the previous November featuring all 50 teams that entered the qualifying stage for the finals in Portugal. As well as playing through the qualifiers and tournament, the game boasted the option to hold a customised tournament featuring the teams of your choosing as well as the ability to play a home and away leg of a friendly match. The PC and XBOX ports of the game also enabled users to play online.
Despite receiving favourable reviews, the game wasn't without it's faults which came mainly in terms of the graphics. As EA regularly used tournament games as a trial run for the following incarnation of FIFA, the improved graphics engine on Euro 2004 led to a slow frame rate thus rendering the game clunky and slow to keep up with the action. The licences for all teams is impressive however and the modelling of all the stadiums used during the tournament (as well as some of the bigger countries home stadia) were well rendered.
Euro 2004 wasn't a bad game (there have been many worse football games down the years) but it never seemed like one to go back and play over again.
2. Euro 96 (Sega Saturn, Windows/DOS)
As a proud England fan, I could hardly leave out the game from the year football came home.
This isn't some sort of wistful reminiscence or only putting the game this high in the list considering how far England got during the competition, this is actually a really good game it's just unfortunate that the only home console it was released on was the Saturn.
Created by Gremlin software, the game utilised the same engine as the popular Actua Soccer game that had put FIFA 95 in the shade and featured accurate line-ups and representations of the kits for all 16 qualified teams from the tournament. The gameplay was superb (as it was on Actua Soccer, one of my personal top three PS1 football titles) and the dulcet tones of Barry Davies on commentary serve as an added bonus.
The game allowed players to play friendly matches, the Euro 96 tournament itself and even the ability to practice penalty kicks. Maybe Gareth Southgate should have given it a bash...
1. Euro 2008 (PC, PS2, PS3, PSP, XBOX 360)
As previously mentioned, EA Sports were known to use tournament games as a chance to test out some features for the same year's FIFA release. It's my personal belief that the tide began to turn in FIFA's favour in the battle against Pro Evolution Soccer with the release of FIFA 09 so many fans can thank Euro 2008's role in the process.
Fortunately for us England fans, Euro 2008 allowed us to play through the qualifiers and change history (no wallies with brollies here!) as well as a tweaked version of the popular 'Be A Pro' mode from FIFA 08 that enabled the player to work their way up from bit-part player to national team captain in the mode imaginatively titled 'Captain Your Country'.
However, if you are to give Euro 2008 a retrospective reappraisal, make sure you play either the PS3 or XBOX 360 version. The PS2 version is a victim of EA's focus on the next-gen and is essentially a redressed version of FIFA 07.
Well that brings a close to our look back at some Euros video games. I hope you have enjoyed our trip back through time. What's your opinion on our list? Why not join the conversation and get involved on Twitter, you can find me @BarkerGray2.
The RSGR will be back soon when we grasp life in the fast lane and take a look at some of Formula One's attempts to speed on to our screens.
Until next time, take care.
