FIFA International Soccer simulates the sport of association football. In particular, the game is based on international matches. The game utilises an isometric viewpoint, unlike other football games at the time such as Tehkan World Cup or Sensible Soccer which utilised a bird’s-eye view or Kick Off which used a top-down view. The player controls one of the eleven footballers on their team at a time, with the ability to switch players on command.
The game allows up to four human players at the same time, each controlling a different footballer. The players can choose to control a footballer on the same team or on opposing teams. The remaining footballers are controlled by the computer. Four modes of play — Exhibition, Tournament, Playoffs, and League — are available. Exhibition engages the player in a single match.
Tournament mode resembles the format of the FIFA World Cup, UEFA European Championship, with the player controlling a team of their choice through a series of matches, starting with three group games with the possibility of progressing to four further games in a knockout format. Playoffs mode takes the same form, but skips the group games and starts at the first knockout game. League consists of eight teams who contest a double round-robin tournament.
The game features 76 national teams in total, plus a team called EA All Stars. Every team has 20 players. The players are fictional (some of them, e.g. Tim Ansell of England or Joe Della-Savia of Italy, are named after people credited as the development team) and look the same, except for darker skin of certain teams’ players.