"Sooooooo Sloooooow.........."

I have always loved the FIFA games and really was looking forward to a decent hand held version. Sadly with all its pros, it's just too slow to ever really enjoy.

Graphics: Can't complain in this department, it looks great. Can't really tell a difference from the console versions. Players look good and so does the pitch...like I said before not much to whine about here. The menus and cut scenes are nice as well.

Sound: As good as any FIFA game before it (in my opinion) Announcers still cheesy as ever but what are you gonna do. Crowd and on field sounds are nothing special but don't take away from the experience at all.

Gameplay: This is where it loses me completely....I found it near impossible to make it through an entire match. Incredibly slow doesn't even begin to describe it. It sometimes felt like it took me 30 sec or so just to run from one end of the field to the other. I could see what I wanted to do in my head, but couldn't actually complete the task before getting bored with or completely forgetting my plan all together. It takes a good 5 seconds to cross and felt like forever watching my player go through the motions for a header.Very frustrating....very very frustrating.........Aside from lack of speed, it seems to be all to easy to steal in this game..and also to have the ball stolen from you...so I guess that still comes back around to the speed problem because if you have the ball you seem to move 2 or 3 times slower than the defenders...now I know that you sacrifice some speed to control the ball and push up field, it just seems alittle too unbalanced for my taste.

Replay Value: Well, it's still a sports game...so the replay is pretty high I guess for some. I however found it painful to sit through especially since I've been playing this franchise for years and know how enjoyable previous versions have been.

Overall: Still has alot of features and looks great but the snail paced running turned me off immediately and it was all downhill from their. Hopefully the '06 version will keep all the good and step up the pace making it a must own for all FIFA fans....we'll see.....

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 12/01/05