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Ah, the rich pageantry that is the World Cup. Every 4 years, in between the
Olympics, the World Cup comes to center stage, and some country gets a whole lot
of strange visitors. This year, Japan and Korea split World Cup hosting duties,
and opened their homes to their guests from the rest of the world. Well, at
least Japan did. As far as Korea goes, I'll let you draw your own conclusions
but, *cough* cheaters *cough*, I've got my own opinions on the matter.
I was really glad with the way most of this World Cup turned out. There were
lots of surprises, underdogs carrying their teams farther than they had ever
gotten before, first time qualifiers, and the most rewarding thing of all was
staying up to 4am here on the West Coast to watch France fall to Senegal, the
very same team they said they wouldn't play a friendly against, because they
didn't have enough talent to 1-0 to pave the way for France to exit the Cup with
no victories and no goals! Oh yeah!
So long after the imitation jerseys stopped being sold, and the Fevernovas
stopped flying, I decided to rent a copy of this from my local Blockbuster, and
see how it matched up with how I remembered the scene from Japan/Korea 2002.
Outdated Rosters
I found out to my dismay, that this game was released
well ahead of the actual World Cup. As a result the rosters for the teams I
chose were WAYYY off. Hidetoshi Nakata, listed as Japan's star player, and the
only one the announcers have any commentary about, is listed as a sub! Alex
Santos isn't even on the team, and Kawaguchi, Japan's starting goalie for the
entire tournament isn't even with the subs. On top of that, the game didn't come
out late enough to capture the signature hairstyles that emerged during the cup,
so you won't recognize most of the teams as you remember them. No fiery red 'do
for Toda, no peroxide for Inamoto...and no Batman at the back!
Anyway, as a result of the game getting made well before the World Cup, you
don't have any of the people emerging as stars that shone in the Cup. I'm not
saying there should be a whole new list of star players, but it'd be nice if
their stats were a bit higher, and if they didn't have things like me playing
China in the first match of elimination when China was clearly the weakest team
in the tournament. For basketball games and seasonal yearly installments, I
understand releasing the game early...but since the World Cup is only every 4
years, and you make a new FIFA game every year, why not wait until after the
Cup, EA? You'd have a much better product.
Graphics & Sound
Graphics are a little bit lacking. None of the players
on the Japan side are recognizable by looking at their computer counterparts,
save for Nakata. Everyone else doesn't look anything like their human partners.
It's sadly, not limited to Japan, as I had a hard time picking nearly anyone out
after a foul or after a goal score.
The stadiums are done rather nicely, and they're pretty dead on when it comes to
matching the venues I was watching during the broadcasts on Univision. (Was I
the only one up watching the Cup, or were other people noticing that there were
weird time delays on every channels? ESPN was WAY behind, like 10 seconds, and
Univision was a little behind the Asian channel, my brother was saying.)
Sound is rather bland, with Andy Gray and the other guy providing the blandest
commentary I've heard in a FIFA game in a long time. They're clearly tired of
doing this.
Controls
Controls are fairly simple. Which is good because Blockbuster no
longer deems it necessary to print them on the box anywhere...and they keep all
the blasted manuals. I haven't played a FIFA game since FIFA 2000, so I don't
know if some of the features are "new" or just "new to me". In either case,
there's now a power meter on everything you do with the ball. Hold down Square
to launch a long lob. X will send passes with more pace as you hold down the
button longer, and O will shoot harder, and consequently, less accurately. it's
a good system, but kind of frustrating ,too.
Another thing that's kind of frustrating is the foul system. I enjoy giving a
good hard foul in a videogame just as much as everyone else. But if I miss,
there shouldn't be anything called. So many of these weenie computer guys are
taking dives, and in the actual World Cup, you'd get red carded...oh wait, I
mean, you'd get red carded for it, if you were playing the Koreans. But it does
allow for you to engage in spirited discussions like, "Oh come on! What do you
mean I can't clip through his leg! My leg can be in that same space! We're
sharing!"
Replays
Ah, glorious replays. There's nothing better than watching slow
motion footage of your skillfully crafted handiwork. I'm talking of course,
about good hard fouls. Watching people overact in slow motion used to be my
favorite part of the World Cup. I've seen people get shot more gracefully than
most of these soccer players. And it's always funny how a little spray and time
on the sideline will heal career ending injuries that happen at least 8 times a
game. The EA replay system is great, allowing you many different cameras to view
your action from, even free the camera to roam about wherever, so you can set
the best camera angles to see the opponent flying into a somersault of pain, or
diving to just miss your ball as it sails into the net.
Overall
I'd say that the controls make for a good, not great soccer game.
I think you score a bit too much, but I also don't think that your average gamer
is going to want to play through a 1-0 victory in extra time. The game pales in
comparison to the actual World Cup, and isn't a very good representation of it.
I wished that this game would have just waited till 1-2 weeks after the Cup
ended to set everyone's stats again, or ideally 1-2 months to touch up the
players unique looks. So, a minor disappointment, but easily one of the better
soccer game experiences I've had. If you want to feel all inspired, check out
the nice Bonus Materials and find out what soccer (or football) means to people
around the world. Good stuff.
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