Product: FIFA 2002
Developer: ZioSoft
Web Site: http://www.ziosoft.com
Category: Game – Sports
Price: $29.95
Requirements: Pocket PC:
Casio Cassiopeia E-125, EM-500, E-200
HP Jornada 560 series
Compaq IPAQ 3600, 3700, and 3800 series
NTT Docomo G-Fort
UR There @migo 600-C
Toshiba Genio-e
NEC Mobile Pro P300
Audiovox Maestro PDA1032
O2 XDA
Siemens SX45

Software:
Microsoft ActiveSync
Desktop Windows 95 / 98 / Me / 2000 / NT / XP

Pocket PC OS:
Windows CE 3.x (Pocket PC 2000)
Pocket PC 2002

Pocket PC CPU:
StrongARM / MIPS

Color:
64K / 4096 Color

Storage Memory:
1.58 MB of RAM

While Football and Baseball continue to be the biggest sports in the U.S., Soccer is the undisputed king of sports for the entire world. More people play, watch, and enjoy Soccer than most popular sports put together. Now ZioSoft brings the most popular line of Soccer games to the PocketPC. FIFA has been the standard for Soccer games since Electronic Arts first introduced it in the mid-90s. Now you can enjoy the excitement of 2002 World Cup competition on your PocketPC.


FIFA 2002 features multiple languages (English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, Japanese, and Korean), all World Cup teams (32 teams with 23 players each), formation sets, and adjustable play styles. The game offers practice, single game, and World Cup season modes.

Controlling the game does take some practice to master. The stylus is used to control the movement of the player as well as changing the player being controlled. The hardware pad is used to kick, slide, or tackle. Holding down the hardware pad for a longer period of time will increase the power of the action. You can also use the stylus after the kick to put some spin on the ball. Overall, the controls are simple and easy to use after you spend some time practicing.

Team and game statistics screens are available. While the statistics are fairly basic, they do give an overall picture of your team’s strength. A nice range of options allow you to customize the difficulty of each game.

PocketPC EditorThe music and sound effects are very clear and enjoyable. The only thing missing here would be commentator voices. The graphics are clean and bright. They may not be impressive, but they are detailed enough for the game and very colorful. The performance of the game is very good and I found no lag or delays in the game. This is most likely due to the level of graphics selected by the developer.

I really enjoyed playing FIFA 2002. While this is a great game, there are still a few things that would have improved it. There are no voices in the game such as game commentaries. Close-up graphics of key action scenes, such as the penalty kick, would have been nice. The language flags are a little confusing the first time you play the game. As with all the ZioSoft / EA titles, the price is a little high, but worth it for such a quality product.

If you are familiar with the FIFA product line from EA, the one thing you should be aware of is that this is not a 3D, highly detailed simulation of Soccer with lots of advanced statistics. It is a top-down, 2D Soccer game that is fun and easy to play. ZioSoft has once again brought one of the best loved gaming franchises to the PocketPC.

Pros
Colorful graphics and animations
Well designed screens
Multiple difficulty levels
Multiple languages

Cons
No action close-ups
No voices
Expensive

Rating: 4.25 out of 5 Stars.

--Harvey Lee