Game Boy Advance

FIFA Soccer 2004

Because last year's game was a real treat for soccer fanatics, it's not surprising that for the 2004 edition EASports went back to the development team responsible. UK studio Exient used its FIFA Soccer 2003 design as a foundation and built FIFA Soccer 2004 on top of it. The do, admittedly look and play similarly, but there's enough additions and tweaks to validate its existence.

A game can look terrible and still play great, but graphics are sometimes related to the gameplay. FIFA may look like it's powered by a basic engine, but there's a lot going on in the game that makes it seem like so much more. Several players can be seen on the screen simultaneously. They're most likely made up of sprites, but they look like the polygon character models from Tony Hawk's Pro Skater. It's always clear which player is which, who has the ball, and who you're controlling (if you don't have the ball). Arrows effectively point you in the right direction whenever the game becomes a little unclear.

Quasiment pas de nouveautés pour cette édition par rapport à la précédente mais le jeu étant toujours aussi beau et jouable, on y passera encore de nombreuses heures. La connexion GBA/GameCube vous apportera deux nouveaux modes de jeu, mais encore faudra-t-il investir dans un FIFA 2004 GameCube, ce qui n'est pas donné à tout le monde. Bref un bon jeu de foot mais il serait temps que EA Sports innove vraiment. Dans le cas contraire, les joueurs finiront par se lasser.

Det handlar inte om fördomar, utan om fakta. Om att EA Sports föredrar licensierad musik framför en spelmotor som åtminstone påminner om den sport som spelet trots allt baseras på. Om att FIFA 2004 är så omodernt att spelet lika gärna skulle kunna vara hämtat från det tidiga nittiotalet. Givetvis är det sorgligt. Och helt poänglöst.