Genre : Sports
Developer : EA Canada-Team Fusion
Publisher : Electronic Arts
Release Date April 25, 2005

Buy 'FIFA SOCCER': PSP

Soccer is no doubt one of the world’s most popular sports. In fact, it may be the most popular sport in the world. It’s hard to believe it, especially if you’re living in the United States, but most everyone else in the world happens to love the game that they call “the real football.” It makes perfect sense to make a video game about the world’s most popular sport, and EA’s FIFA series has done an incredible job of popularizing the video game version of the sport throughout the world. FIFA Soccer attempts to continue that tradition on the Sony PSP.

EA is king when it comes down to presentation in video games. From their licensed music, to their licensed franchises, players, and just about anything else that can be licensed, they’ve got it down. There are absolutely tons of real teams and players to use in the game, providing an option for everyone. Whether you want to play as an unpopular MLS team from the United States or as an obscure team from Bulgaria, your bases are covered. Of course all the big names in soccer are represented as well. In total, there are over 350 teams included, an eye-popping number. Each one has the respective logo for the team, and accurate rosters.

Unfortunately, navigating the menu systems can be a bit of a chore. Starting from the initial bootup, lengthy load times plague this game from start to finish. Moving from menu to menu, bringing up the stats for each player and team, and just generally moving around in the menuing system is like trudging through molasses in January. It can take upwards of 5 minutes to even jump into a game if you’re setting up each aspect of the game how you want it, and odds are that you’ll want to. The weather, stadium, time of day, uniform, just about everything about a soccer match can be planned out thanks to the extensive options presented. It’s just too bad that it’s so tough to maneuver through the menus.

Once you’ve finally navigated your way to the actual game, things stay ordinary. The field and stadium are represented well, but the non-famous players all look fairly similar. There is some major ghosting on players at certain times, and sometimes when the camera focuses in on a player, their hair seems to have yellow trails that come off of it. The game moves at a brisk pace as long as the action is going, but kick the ball out of bounds or take a shot that misses, and the game will abruptly pause for a second while a replay loads or while the game sets up the inbound throw. These pauses are sprinkled throughout the game; from scoring a goal to committing a foul, you’re likely to run into some sort of a loading pause. That’s not to say that the game doesn’t look good. It does indeed. While you’re playing, you’ll be engrossed as your players run across the field, well animated. The replays can be stunning at times, as you watch the ball sail wide of the net or bounce off the keeper’s hands. In general though, the game is pretty rough looking and doesn’t have the high quality looks of some of the PSP’s other titles.

Playing and winning a game is pretty difficult, and most matches play out in a similar manner to real-life soccer matches: low, low scores, sometimes ending the 90 minutes with a score of zero to zero. It’s definitely difficult to score a goal in the game, thanks to some decent AI, but also due to some questionable game mechanics. Taken at face value, the PSP version of FIFA is basically a trimmed down version of FIFA for the major consoles. Unfortunately, the PSP doesn’t have a second analog nub, so certain controls need to be remapped and relocated. One of these features, the “First Touch” control, has been moved to the d-pad, which as we all know is located directly above the analog nub. This feature allows you to direct a ball that has been passed to your player and keep it away from the defenders more easily. Unfortunately, switching your thumb from d-pad to analog nub in the amount of time necessary to pull this off well is nigh impossible, and totally uncomfortable. I chose to neglect this feature altogether after just a few tries. It’s unfortunate, as it could’ve undoubtedly made my experience much better, but it was just too uncomfortable and unwieldy.

Controlling your players on the field is also a bit cumbersome. There is often delay between your command input and the player’s reaction on the field, which can lead to some unfortunate screw ups and steals. However, most of the other controls are really simple to operate and get the hang of. From lob passes to shooting, it’s all here and it accurately represents real soccer in a dutiful manner. Sliding into your opponents will allow you to steal the ball, but can sometimes lead to a yellow flag and a confrontation with the referee, represented on-screen just as it might occur in a real match. Players can get injured, the game can run over 90 minutes to account for stoppage, and everything else about the on-field action is a dead-on representation of real soccer.

Speaking of a real soccer match, the announcers are what really add to the excitement and drama as the game unfolds. You can watch a soccer match with the volume muted, but the excitement and ebullience of the announcers is what really makes the sport come alive. The announcers for the PSP version of FIFA do an adequate job of describing the on-screen action as well as uttering the requisite “Goooooooaaaallllll!” when a point is scored. The crowd sounds suitably excited, but not rambunctious to the point of rioting (although that certainly would’ve been something to see!) Of course, the EA Trax make an appearance, either making your ears bleed or making you bob your head in time with the music, depending upon your tastes.

There are scads of gameplay elements to explore, leading to an abundance of play time. There are challenges to be met, scenarios to play through, and seasons to complete. If you’re a true soccer fanatic, who has several favorite teams, or even who wants to create their own players, you’ll find lots of stuff to keep you busy in FIFA. There is also a multiplayer option, but with the tons of loading and pauses throughout the game, it becomes an even bigger mess when multiplying the factors of the single player mode by two. Still, it can lead to some fun, like seeing who can get the most red-carded players due to slide-tackling.

FIFA Soccer for PSP is a decent initial effort on the PSP hardware. I have no doubts that Electronic Arts will take their initial effort, polish it to a high sheen, and release it again next year as a much better iteration of what we’ve already seen. If they can reduce the load times, clean up the graphics, and iron out the little mechanical issues in the game, they’ll have themselves a solid soccer game. Right now, it’s just an average title that true soccer fanatics will enjoy, but everyone else will likely abandon after just a few matches.

Score: 7.1/10