FIFA Soccer Hands-On

LAS VEGAS--EA Sports is throwing its support behind the PlayStation Portable this spring with handheld versions of nearly all of its major existing franchises. Of course, FIFA Soccer is one of the developer's big guns, and the series will find its own representation on Sony's new handheld around the time that the system launches in late March. EA has released new details on FIFA Soccer for the PSP, and we were fortunate to go hands-on with a work-in-progress version of the game in a meeting with the developer at the Consumer Electronics Show.

In addition to the requisite quick play, FIFA Soccer for the PSP will feature the standard season and tournament modes, which players of the series have come to expect, and which will re-create the full season of soccer (or at least its most exciting moments, in the case of the tournament mode) for those who wish to see a series of games played through from beginning to end. Fans of the console FIFA series should feel right at home with these basic modes, which has all the same customization options that have been present in previous games. Hardcore soccer fans will be able to jump into the '04/'05 season with the midseason scenario mode, which will let you play through the rest of the ongoing season with accurate league standings. The development team took all the statistics and records from the current season and included them, so you'll be able to pick up at that point and finish the season with your favorite team right alongside the conclusion of the real soccer season.

The challenges mode provides more interesting gameplay for hardcore fans of the sport, presenting you with specific preset match scenarios that mirror famous historical matches. You'll scroll through a list of games that indicates the teams that are playing, the venue, and the time and point values you'll have to meet to successfully re-create (and thus complete) the scenario. For instance, a challenge may have one team winning by three points and start you with 40 minutes left on the clock. This sort of gameplay will provide an extra challenge, since you not only have to win, but also win by following these certain specifications.

The core gameplay in FIFA Soccer for the PSP should be quite familiar to anyone who has played the console versions, since the controls and design are virtually identical. Passing, shooting, dribbling, and so on were easy to pull off with the unit's controls. EA Sports has managed to incorporate all of the big features from the previous games into this PSP edition, such as first-touch mechanics, realistic ball physics, and significant opponent AI. We found the wide aspect ratio of the unit's screen to be especially well suited to FIFA, since it showed such a large portion of the horizontal field at one time. The game has considerable camera-control options, which you'll set by using a menu. You can make the camera show you a downfield view, make it behave like a television camera, or simply lock it directly overhead, among other options. You can also set the camera height to a specific degree. Zooming out let us see a huge part of the field at once, but zooming in revealed the surprisingly realistic player animations, which EA says were imported directly from the console version of the game without compromising their quality. The stadium and characters look pretty detailed up close, and the players of course look like their real-life counterparts.

Along with all of EA Sports' other games, FIFA Soccer will support a new feature being dubbed EA Pocket Trax. Like its console counterpart, Pocket Trax is a licensing program that will bring licensed music into the gameplay. FIFA will feature music from bands like the Libertines and the Bravery, among others. Pocket Trax goes a step further than the regular Trax on consoles since it actually doubles as a stand-alone music player. You'll be able to simply fire up the game's soundtrack from the main menu without going into the actual game itself, and you'll get an onscreen graphical visualization that corresponds to the music (though you'll only be able to use this with the tracks on the game's soundtrack, of course).

FIFA Soccer will feature a whopping 350 team and league licenses, making it pretty much the only game in town if you value an authentic handheld game of video footy. The game also has one-on-one wireless play, which is invaluable if you really want to mix it up with another thinking human opponent, though we unfortunately didn't get to try this feature out. The wireless two-player mode will even allow you to play any of the regular game modes against another player, and it will track all of your stats so you can see how well (or how poorly) you're doing against your opponents. Development began on FIFA Soccer later than the other PSP EA Sports games, but the company is confident it can bring the game up to speed in time for the North American launch of the system in late March. We'll bring you more on the game before then.