
FIFA Football The play style and control usability had finally entered a stage where it was consistently good. Most important, though, is that the ball is big enough to easily track, even when the action heats up.FIFA Football 2005 is a game where you may play soccer matches and manage your team to become a champion. The player models look slid and feature decent animation. The grass is bright green, but not garish enough to distract from the players. We tested it on an N-Gage QD, so we got the feel of a Series 60 version of the title. You approach the goal, rear back for a kick, and then choose the direction you wish to kick the ball. In addition to a regular game of soccer, FIFA 2005 includes a shootout mode that, for some people, may prove more fun than the actual main game. This gets outrageously frustrating after while, because even though you may know where you mates are off-screen, you have no clue if the opposition is nearby, waiting to swipe the kick. Faith, in many cases, though, is not good enough and leads directly to a turnover. Many of your players will not be in view when it comes time to make a pivotal pass, and you must often kick on faith. Because the screen is portrait-style, you're missing entire sections of the field.

The visual presentation doesn't offer much help in this department. If you have a solid feel for the controls, you'll do alright for the first few games - but then get ready for a slaughter, because as mentioned above, the AI shows no mercy. The tournament mode drops you into the play-offs with sixteen teams to prove yourself a champion. If you don't mind a good challenge, though, FIFA 2005 has more than enough game play to entertain your inner footie fan.

Needless to say, there is no way you will ever steal the ball as much as the computer. But with enough practice, and FIFA 2005 does include a training program and a "Friendly" mode for skill-honing, you will soon learn enough soccer skills to somewhat hold your own against the tremendous artificial intelligence. Unless you are already familiar with the world of FIFA, FIFA 2005's steep competition - which sometimes crosses over into painfully unfair - is something of a gatekeeper. What it doesn't offer, however, is much of a learning curve. FIFA 2005, however, is no grossly simplified take on a console game - it offers an incredible recreation of the bestseller soccer game, from the inclusion of real world teams to many play modes. Digital Bridges' mega-deal with Electronic Arts essentially paved the way for EA's massive catalog of games to make their way to handsets - and the first fruit of this exclusivity arrangement is the global sensation, FIFA.
