FIFA 2002, by ZIO
Interactive $29.95
Reviewed June 2002
How would you like to play soccer as Rivaldo
or Beckham or London Donovan? Well, you can do just that
in ZIO's newest Pocket PC title FIFA Soccer 2002! Personally
I enjoy it more when a sports game has stars for players.
This game has all the stars from 32 countries and over 100
soccer clubs from 6 regions, and they are world class! Ported
from the EA Sports' title, FIFA 2002 for Pocket PC is easily
one of the best soccer titles on Pocket PC.
FIFA 2002 lets you design each game the
way you want to play it. Not only can you select a team or
a club and a player you wish to be, you can also choose your
language (English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Dutch,
Japanese and Korean), a pitch condition (wet, soggy, normal,
hard or random), wind, half length (1-8 minutes), CPU and
GK skill levels, goal replay and more. There are three types
of game you can play in FIFA 2002. The Practice game has
only an opposing goalie, no other opponent players. You can
hone your passing, formation, attacking skills in this game.
Single Game mode has two teams playing a real match. In the
World Cup Qualifying mode, you will need to select a team,
which will be in a bracket. If you won you advance. Before
the Single game and World Cup game, you will have a chance
to select a playing style: Defensive+, Defensive, Moderate,
Attacking and Attacking+.
The game is played in aerial view.
When the a game begins, you'll see the teams running on
to the field, and their names are displayed in the bottom
left and right corners. You control the players with the
stylus and pass or shoot the ball by either using stylus
or the A and B hardware buttons. There is an instruction
file to show you the controls. I find the controls very
easy to learn and get used to. The stylus and hardware
button combo works the best for me. Anytime in the game,
you can change the tactics or put in subs, just like the
real game by clicking on the EA icon on the top right hand
side. You can look at your game stats any time during the
game, including: possession and territory percentages,
number of shots, free kicks, corners and passes. This is
a very nifty feature that gives you a realtime game play
feeling. The only thing I couldn't get it to do is to get
a yellow card.
The graphics are very nice and the
movements are smooth. You can see the audience in the first
few rolls, though in a very rough outline. The ball movements
are very smooth and clear, which makes the game play fun.
The music is upbeat to compliment the game play. You can
hear the cheers from the audience, but you won't hear anyone
shouting "GOAL" when you score.
FIFA 2002 is a worthy port of the
EA title, adding a good sports game with great depth to
the Pocket PC platform. While it is probably flying off
the shelf in Asia and Europe right now (especially during
the World Cup), the US market is still among the soccer
enthusiasts for this game. While I enjoy the world-class
star power, fun game play and nice graphics, I wish that
there were a landscape display mode. When I set up my 5-3-2
formations, I can't see the wing players. The game runs
nicely on the Toshiba e310, and it takes up 1.6MB space.
Playing Hints and Tips
Practice the control before playing
matches. I find that using the stylus to control player
movements and hardware button to control the ball movements
work excellent.
My favorite soccer players: Beckham, Donovan,
Mia Ham (she isn't in this game, though). |
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