Fifa 2007 Review

Anannya Sen’s Review

Rooney, Ronaldinho, Ronaldo and even Peter Crouch, they're all here!

Fifa 2007 is the sequel to Fifa 2006. Well, that was pretty obvious. But in this day and age of continuous sequels, what's the game like? And is it any better than 2006? Well, if you can't remember what 2006 was like, read our review here. As you may have realised, when it comes to football games on mobile phones, the controls are the trickiest part. How are you going to recreate the silky dribbling skills of Ronaldo, the shooting of Adriano or the acrobatics of Peter Crouch (I can't help it, what a goal against Bolton). Unfortunately you're not going to in this game. We said it in the previous version that the controls needed a major overhaul and to be fair to EA they have tried to do something about it but it didn't really work.

Instead of moving the player around the screen which was a major drawback of 2006, now the player runs in a set direction until you press a button to change direction. You can do this with either the key pad or the D pad. It sounds great and also an awful lot like other games, but it doesn't work that well as the players run so slowly. This allows you to get some dribbling going but it's still quite slow so it can be frustrating at times. The AI also can get some tackles in depending on the difficulty levels and also because the dribbling is so slow. Plus, there's no run button. But there is a shoot button which can be either *, # or the right soft key. So that leaves the 5 button for passing to the nearest player or you can hold it down longer to pass to someone further upfield. The shooting is weird too as although a power bar comes up you don't seem to be able to direct your shot that much or have too much aftertouch.

So what's good about the game if the controls are so difficult? Well, just about everything else. The graphics are slightly improved on 2006 althought they are by no means amazing. The sprites are still pretty big but there's not a whole lot of detail. The pitch and backgrounds are nice enough though and there is some sound and vibration.

On top of this you get absolutely bucketloads of teams. You get all the teams from the premiership, ligue 1, la liga, serie a and the bundesliga. And then you also get four teams from around the world. Plus, there are the game modes, you can play a single match, go for a season or try some scenarios. And these aren't just any scenarios either, these are some real scenarios from my favourite games. 2-0 down to West Ham in the FA Cup final? You can change that. 3-0 down to AC Milan in the Champions League final? Well put Hamann on for God's sake to stifle Kaka's passing.

It doesn't stop there either, as the management options for formations and strategy are pretty decent for a mobile game and you can save your progress. Sound familiar at all to you? Well, it seems EA make really great football games in everything but the controls. Again.