The game included an official soundtrack and had a refined graphics engine, team and player customisation options, 16 stadiums, improved artificial intelligence and the popular "Road to World Cup" mode, with all 173 FIFA-registered national teams. It even featured many accurate team rosters, including national reserves for national call-up when playing in the round robin qualification modes. In addition, eleven leagues were featured, containing 189 clubs. It was also the first FIFA game to contain an in-game player/team editor.

For the first time in a FIFA game, the offside rule was properly implemented. In previous games, when a player was in an offside position doing anything except running, that player was penalised for offside even when the ball was passed backwards. The 32-bit version of the game corrected this so only if the ball was passed roughly to where the player in the offside position was, the game would award a free kick for offside. The game also featured a five-a-side indoor mode.

With the new graphical improvements, players were able to have individual faces. However, they looked more like expressions, as the starting elevens of Bulgaria and Ukraine could consist of "sad"-looking players, while the starting eleven of Macedonia could have "tough"-looking players.

No subsequent edition of the FIFA series has attempted to replicated FIFA 98's inclusion of every FIFA national team.