"At the end of the day though, the terribly slow, choppy animation absolutely ruins the experience in this game and the less than stellar controls caps it off."

Platform: Playstation

Genre: Sports

Publisher: Electronic Arts

Developer: Electronic Arts

ESRB: E (Everyone)

Released: Q4 2001

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FIFA 2002

After putting in several hours on the PS2 version of FIFA 2002, moving onto the PSOne version has brought me nothing but shock, horror, and utter disappointment. Sifting through the menus I saw a few things that looked pretty interesting like slightly more game options and more precise differences in the performance of the different teams, where each of their attributes could max out at six points and not five like in the PS2 version. However, once I started playing what I saw was just wretched. The framerate in this edition of FIFA 2002 is unforgivably choppy to the point that it is difficult to concentrate on the game, the action is also incredibly slow, almost as though the entire game suffers from slowdown non-stop, and making matters worse is the unresponsive controls. All of this leads to entirely to much frustration. Do not even bother with this game, it is not worth your time.

Now I'll be the first to point out that graphics are not the be-all-end-all of gaming, but when the presentation is so poor that it inhibits one's ability to properly play a game we have a problem. Everything in this game lurches along at such a horrendously slow pace, the framerate stutters almost as bad as watching a silent film out of the 20s and it all comes off very slow, totally destroying any hope of there being any excitement to be had. Putting the last nail in FIFA 2002's graphical coffin is the sheer murkiness of the visuals. I know that the PSOne is old and well on its way to retirement, but come on, surely a better job could have been done. If you aren't going to try, don't even bother making the game.

Sound is a step down as well, sounding more like something off of an AM radio, strained and muffled. The crowd noise is passable, and the commentary does the 
trick (though it does get repetitive quickly), but what struck me is the lack of hoop-la after scoring a goal, fanfare and general excitement lacked, there just wasn't that "G-o-o-o-a-a-a-l-l-l" like quality present here. This problem though can be blamed on the lower quality sound in the game. There are about a dozen tracks from various electronic artists for the soundtrack, and they're the same tunes as on the PS2 version of the game which means the music is pretty good.

But it isn't just the look and sound of the game that is lacking, just trying to control what's going on can be an ordeal. The responsiveness is quite sluggish trying to 
move the ball around with players not reacting as well as they should. It's particularly awkward going in for sliding tackles because the players slide way more than expected and aiming them for the tackle is slow, potentially wrecking havoc on the attempt. At least the new power meter for passing and shooting remains serviceable here, but the overall lack of responsiveness makes it easy to miss this. The computer controlled opponents are pretty bright, however. Just like the PS2 version of the game players will have to do more midfield ball movement trying to force defenders out of position, creating openings to move the ball up to the strikers and get a shot off.

At the end of the day though, the terribly slow, choppy animation absolutely ruins the experience in this game and the less than stellar controls caps it off. If you want a soccer game for your Playstation try and scrounge up a copy of an older version of ISS from Konami in the bargain bins, this game is not worth your time.

- Mr. Nash