14 DAY TRIAL // 
Why do men or women go nuts all of a sudden? Why do they trash their TV sets? Why are some apparently normal men considered gods? Why do millions of people pay to watch twenty two players running around? Why do you cry in front of the TV and it's not the ending of a movie? Why do you wave a huge flag outside your window? I have one word for you: FOOTBALL.
Story In the last two years there's been a refreshing new series of young players, talents to be uncovered. The old stars have started to retire and the new ambitious kids started showing off and now we see more stunts than ever on the battlefield we like to call stadium. Football has changed and there's no need to remember "the good old days". We're living and playing the "good present days".
Concept This chapter of the review won't be some chronological list of things to do in FIFA 06. The first thing that I noticed in the menu was the Juggling option. It's all about ball juggling. At first I was surprised to see the indication that showed me a picture of the PSP that must be held vertically in order to play this game. Juggling means choosing one of the great and famous players that we all know from deodorant commercials and using them to play this fun minigame. You're one on one with the ball and you must keep it in the air as long as possible. Touch it with the tip of your shoe, lift it, hit it slowly with your head, but never let it fall down.
The Challenge mode reminded me of a game I had played a week earlier. It had nothing to do with football, it was all about reliving the great boxing finals and changing history. This can be applied on football as well and EA knows best. You can choose between three challenge modes: the comeback, the rout and the custom challenge. Comeback is a very cool concept that allows you to relive the historic matches that great teams had in the last two years. The comeback notion can refer to recovering from a one-goal deficit and winning, or trying to get a tie, or scoring in the last ten minutes of a game that was nil to nil for 80 minutes.
There's also the Rout, another type of challenge that implies following the original story and achieving the scoreline given in the beginning of the match. One of them meant scoring 6 goals while being three down against Hertha Berlin. Now that's a titanic amount of goals (or maybe a fixed match). One thing that bothered me was that you can't navigate between challenges and play right away the one you like. You must first win each of them to unlock the next and sweat for the final challenge. After finishing both the Rout and the Comeback, you'll unlock the custom challenge where the event will be set according to your preferences. Maybe you're the kind of guy that needs the adrenaline of being 2 goals down in the last ten minutes.
Points are basically what you get with each win, draw or achievement. They can be used in the FIFA store to unlock stadiums, kits or new songs. Don't worry about the Juggling and Challenge mode, there's also a play now mode, for the rushed players. Pick a team, a stadium, an opponent and go!You can play a whole Premier League season... No, don't put your running shoes, you won't ever be bought by Chelsea. Instead turn on the PSP and start the Season Mode. Pick a team, set it up and start climbing up the hierarchy of football clubs. Tournament mode is also available and you can select events like the Swedish Cup, the British LDV Trophy, the Brazilian Copa and many other competitions. Also you'll be able to create you own tournament and select the progression method for the teams (group stage, knockout).
Gameplay Match facts are available at any time in the game menu brought up with a push of the Start button. You'll see the number of goals, who kept the ball more, the goal chances, the injuries and many more. I was expecting the PSP to host fewer competitions than the acclaimed PS 2 version. Here's some of the challenges I had to face: come back with Juventus in the match against Lecce recovering from a 2-1 lead, take Chelsea to victory against Manchester United being one down or recovering from a one goal handicap with Bayern Munchen on Chelsea's homeground.
You'll be very actively involved in team management and the menu will be easy to find in the game's options. Choose a player and you'll see his points, his rating in stars, any injuries and the age. Change formation, choose a player from the bench and experiment different strategies. Get injured, get booked, make an offside, everything happens like in the real matches. I think that the referee tends to be a little bit harsh regarding the tackling subject. Any of my tackles from behind got a red or yellow card. You must know that this is the PSP version of the original PS 2 game, with the same title. Also those who played the PS 2 version will notice that the Career mode was not implemented and will surely miss it. This being a portable console I'm sure you'll be satisfied with choosing the duration of a match, the options ranging from 4 to 20 minutes.
Analog control will be the mother and father of all your movements. The directional pad might seem useless, but it will be responsible for setting up defensive or offensive strategies by picking one of them during the play. The AI is pretty tough and bear in mind that there are four difficulty levels to toy with. FIFA 06 is not an easy game! I wanted to start the game in a cocky way defeating everything on the highest level of difficulty and then I got smashed by some lower league team. Even if you select the Amateur level, the AI won't be as poor as you'd expect it to be. Play in any great stadium you know, plus some unlockables. Here are the arenas where glory awaits you: Azetka, Anfield, Delle Alpi, Camp Nou, each with their unique architectural style and size. You'll notice the differences between a large square arena, and a narrow rectangular one. That will even affect the team's strategy because it involves a different placing of midfielders and attackers.
Video In FIFA 06 I finally had the chance to watch some quality replays of the beautiful goals I scored. Barcelona surely looks like Barcelona especially if Ronaldinho is made exactly like the real one, skills included. Quality can be noticed from the first cutscene, an aggressive one, that tries to tell the gamer that EA doesn't take prisoners when talking about football games. Player animations are well done and EA took their time with designing the stadiums, each with their unique features that makes a football fan guess what arena it is Weather effects are pretty cool, although the rain comes suddenly and if you're a fierce and passionate player you won't notice it.
The grass and players look pretty realistic. Kits are well drawn and I tried all the camera views in order to find something out of order with them. Nope, nothing wrong, even the shoes are OK, everything is branded, licensed and paid for. The public continues to be spooky, a great mass of ghosts, or big pictures moving around the background. Especially in replays, the public gets horribly poor from a graphical point of view. The net also tends to get pixeled sometimes and I'm not quite satisfied with its reaction to the goal. One thing that I noticed was the shadow effects and the way the light is reflected. While playing, the gamer will see the shadow of the stadium's roof on the grass.
Sound We've heard all the commentary that one man can say in the previous FIFA games. The same British accent will accompany footballers throwing in jokes, commenting upon the player's performances or criticizing them. EA Pocket Trax will allow you to listen to 38 songs and watch two videos, but you might already know that more are available for the download. You'll hear artists like Paul Oakenfold, The Gipsys or Jamiroquai and watch the videos for Soobax and Ashes. The crowd that let us down visually will do a better job with the audio, sounding just like the fanatic mob that supports the beloved team. Whistles, the sound of tackles, the sound of hitting the bar, put them in a pot and mix them to get FIFA 06's audio experience. Made me want to put on my team's official T-shirt and go cheering while playing.
Multiplayer If you're feeling lonely while playing FIFA on your PSP, there's the good old online play. Play the game wireless and in an Ad-hoc session or test you skills in the FIFA 06 online rooms. It surprised me to see that there's no lag when playing other guys from abroad. However, the controls don't respond quite well while playing online, but it's not a horrible setback.
If the gamer keeps browsing, he'll find the squad download option and import all the players he wants. Keep an eye on the stats and hall of fame as you browse through the FIFA room and challenge or get challenged. 4 players can connect via Ad hoc and play a friendly match, or they can each select and play the Head to Head mode. Get online and go against whomever you choose, create you own games or join the already created game. It's up to you!
Conclusion FIFA is a name that rings many bells for the football aficionados. Some of us may even prefer playing FIFA and forget the good old physical exercise. I have to mention that this game is not an easy one. It's not arcade, it's not quite a simulator, because EA did not forget that the PSP's primary purpose is to deliver a unique experience in small doses, but it's a pretty good title.
