"The best FIFA game yet?"

Well, I think the answer is "yes." After many, MANY FIFA games, EA Sports has finally released the "perfect" football game. Well, maybe it's not as good as the Winning Eleven games, but I guess that it's as perfect as EA can make it. It's definitely superior when compared to its predecesor, and extremely fun to play.

GAMEPLAY: This is where the game shines and fails at the same time... why? Well, the gameplay is basically the same as in FIFA 2005: you pass with A, shoot with B, run with R... you know, the average football game controls. Something that has changed in this edition is that EA Sports has removed the "Off-the-ball" system from the game... which is something good, because it was hardly used *and* it was hard to control. You'll definitely won't miss it. The controls are really good.

But they also have a problem: the response. The control response on FIFA 2005 was pretty good: players would generally do what you wanted them to do, and they would react fast. But this has changed in FIFA 06. For me, it's definitely the only bad point of the game: the control response is awful. Players take A LOT of time to respond to your commands, and it can get really, REALLY frustrating, specially when you're playing a cup or league match. Oh, well, we can't have everything, can we?

GRAPHICS: They're pretty good. The stadiums look great as well as the players, although you'll recognise a lot of the same faces in different players. The graphics are good, but definitely not as good as they could have been.

SOUND/MUSIC: The music is great. You know, like in every other FIFA you have different songs from different artists from different parts of the world, and they're great. The sound is also good, you know, it really CAN'T be bad... and the narrator is pretty good too. Coherent commentaries and interesting phrases... although it can get a little be repetitive.

And in all, it's definitely the best FIFA game there is, specially for the Cube (because it's the only serious football game available) but it doesn't match up with Konami's Winning Eleven games. Nintendo of America REALLY should encourage Konani to bring those games to this side of the globe. =)

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 02/02/06