"Surprisingly good for a FIFA game"

And quite an improvement over past FIFA titles for the GBA, which have always left me cold (including the Konami titles, unfortunately, since their GBA offerings were very weak compared to the great console and PC titles they've put out over the years).

The new camera angles on this one alone make it a worthwhile purchase. I just love being able to see from afar and have a very good sense of where everybody is on the field (a crucial detail for a game of this kind that seems to get overlooked by developers most of the time).

And most importantly, this little gem wont make you feel as if you're playing pinball (you know what Im talking about if you ever played a FIFA game before) and some of the matches can get very exciting indeed, with a very strong resemblance to a real *football* game (yup, thats what it's called, folks - not soccer).

Passing, shooting, lobbing and tackling all feel just about right and very natural but aiming your shots can be quite an ordeal. There are no power indicators of any kind so shooting on target is not exactly intuitive and seem to rely more on luck than anything else.

The graphics are nothing to brag about either but they get the job done - you wont ever mistake your player for the opposition despite the diminutive screen size since you get a choice of different uniforms for each team (granted, there's only two different outfits for each team but at least they're useful and distinctive). They work ok in replays too, where you can zoom in and out and rotate up close and so forth.

The sound is merely adequate and there's no speech, thankfully.

A few minor nit picks: way too many offsides regardles of strategy, almost no fouls are ever called (a foul was called *once* in the hundreds of games I've played so far), primitive system for penalties, corner kicks and fouls, useless radar, a little too easy on all but the hardest setting.

All in all I'm very impressed by this game and would recommend it to anyone with even a passing interest in the jogo bonito (as the great Pele once called it).

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 04/26/06