I have 2 picks:
PES (yeah it was big in Latin America and Asia but never truly beat FIFA popularity worldwide except in the early 2000s), if I had to pick a specific version, is either PES 2010 or 2013, 2016 was also great.
FIFA street 1: Almost 2 decades later and still think it’s the best FIFA game ever, not even the street sequels were able to surpass it. FIFA 11 and 13 were good too but those aren’t underrated in any way.
Edit: wow y’all old lol
When PES came out and it seemed to do better that FIFA I looked it up and I was amazed to find out it was from the same publisher as the football game I loved in the early 2000 and nobody else played (ISS Pro)
Also known as goal storm… In Latin America and Asia PES went by Winning Eleven. WE3 Final Version was the first game that made it big there.