LiberoGrande is a 1997 association football video game developed and published by Namco for arcades. It was converted for the PlayStation in 1998.

A typical arcade football game in its nature, LiberoGrande introduced a novelty factor previously found in Namco's Top Striker for the Nintendo Entertainment System: the ability to play as just one player, instead of controlling the whole team, always swapping for players nearer the ball. This idea was later used by Konami in Winning Eleven / Pro Evolution Soccer titles in the Become a Legend mode, and by EA Sports in its various sports game franchises with the name Be a Pro.

Gameplay

The player starts to choose one of the star players, and then a national team. Each star player, based on a real football player but with changed names, except for initials (Zinedine Zidane is Zenon Zadkine, for instance) is rated in both ball skill, speed and shooting abilities.

In addition to the original arcade mode, the home release adds an International mode (basically, the FIFA World Cup format), a league competition (up to eight star players/teams), which can be all human controlled and a skills mode where the player has to complete several training ground tasks such as hitting a target floating in the goal mouth or hitting an area from distance.

The player roster in the arcade version consists of: Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No.Pos.NationPlayer
No. Pos. Nation Player — BRA Raimundo — NED Rudolf de Buys — ITA Antonio Del Pacino — FRA Zenon Zadkine — JPN Naoki Hidaka — CMR Philippe Empson — ENG Alfred Shaffer — ARG Gaston Balmaceda — COL Cornelio Valencia — GER Jordan Krüger — ITA Raffaello Balbo — NED Dirk Berlarge — GER Oswald Bismarck — ITA Patrizio Mazzini — BRA Richard Castro — GER Ajax MöbiusNo. Pos. Nation Player — ROU Godwin Hasdeu — ESP Renato Gallegos — CRO Deron Slojacek — WAL Robin Garrick — SRB Dorman Smixolovic — ITA Gregorio Zonaras (Hidden player) — USA Arnold Lang (Hidden player) — BRA Roland (Hidden player) — JPN Minoru Kai (Hidden player) — FRA Edgard Cailaux (Hidden player) — ENG Powel Gardner (Hidden player) — LBR Gerald Wells (Hidden player) — NED Ruprech Goes (Hidden player) — ARG David Magellan (Hidden player) — FRA Maurice Poulenc (Hidden player)
—BRARaimundo
—NEDRudolf de Buys
—ITAAntonio Del Pacino
—FRAZenon Zadkine
—JPNNaoki Hidaka
—CMRPhilippe Empson
—ENGAlfred Shaffer
—ARGGaston Balmaceda
—COLCornelio Valencia
—GERJordan Krüger
—ITARaffaello Balbo
—NEDDirk Berlarge
—GEROswald Bismarck
—ITAPatrizio Mazzini
—BRARichard Castro
—GERAjax Möbius
No.Pos.NationPlayer
—ROUGodwin Hasdeu
—ESPRenato Gallegos
—CRODeron Slojacek
—WALRobin Garrick
—SRBDorman Smixolovic
—ITAGregorio Zonaras (Hidden player)
—USAArnold Lang (Hidden player)
—BRARoland (Hidden player)
—JPNMinoru Kai (Hidden player)
—FRAEdgard Cailaux (Hidden player)
—ENGPowel Gardner (Hidden player)
—LBRGerald Wells (Hidden player)
—NEDRuprech Goes (Hidden player)
—ARGDavid Magellan (Hidden player)
—FRAMaurice Poulenc (Hidden player)

There is a total of 48 national teams, but only 32 of them to choose from, depending on which version:

North America Canadaa Jamaicab Mexico United StatesSouth America Argentina Brazil Chile Colombia Paraguayab UruguayaAfrica Cameroon Moroccob Nigeria South Africab TunisiabEurope Austria Belgium Bulgariabc Croatiabc Czech Republica Denmark England France Germany Greecea Hungaryc Italy Netherlands Norway Polandc Portugal Republic of Irelandac Romaniabc Russiac Scotlandbc Spain Swedenac Switzerlandc YugoslaviabcAsia Chinese Taipeia Hong Konga Iranb Japan Malaysiaa Saudi Arabiaab South Korea

a Only playable in the Arcade version b Only playable in the Japanese version c Only playable in the PAL version

A sequel, LiberoGrande 2 (known as LiberoGrande International in Europe) was released for PlayStation in Europe and Japan only, but with less success than the first title.

A playable demo of the game was included in Ridge Racer Turbo (Ridge Racer Hi-Spec in Europe), which was sold with Ridge Racer Type 4. The demo includes three players (Zenon Zadkine, Alfred Shaffer and Jordan Krüger) and three teams (England, France and Italy), which a person could use to play a ten-minute game.

Reception

Aggregate score
AggregatorScore
GameRankings81%
Review score
PublicationScore
GameSpot8.1/10

In Japan, Game Machine listed LiberoGrande on their February 15, 1998 issue as being the seventh most-successful arcade game of the month.

External links