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The Nintendo DS finally has a soccer game. Though FIFA Soccer 06 for the Nintendo DS isn’t quite a portable port of the recent console game, the still manages to impress thanks to good use of the Nintendo DS hardware’s unique capabilities, high-quality presentation, and a solid game of soccer.
The game’s exhaustive list of game modes includes career, challenges, season and tournament. You’ll also be able to play the kick off option, which is essentially a quick match sort of thing. This mode is facilitated by the fact that the game asks you which of the different soccer teams is your favorite. You shouldn’t have a hard time finding one since the game includes over 500 different teams. The game’s season and tournament mode lets you take a team through a number of different events. The game’s career mode is meatier, though. You’ll be given a number of objectives including advancing in competitions and obtaining more prestige and influence in the league. You won’t have to worry about stuff like player salaries or other extraneous stuff though. The career mode lets you play the games yourself, watch it being simulated or simply skip and get a result. Since you won’t have much else to do, you’ll want to at least watch the games being played so you can jump in if things start to go awry.
The actual gameplay is pretty solid. The gameplay isn’t quite as involved as recent games in the console version but offers a satisfying game of soccer nonetheless. The game doesn’t offer all of the fancy maneuvering of recent games in the franchise but all of the basics are satisfactory included. Annoyingly, the game includes a fatigue system that proves to be more of burden than a nuance of the game. The AI is decent though nothing spectacular. The game includes a number of difficult settings, though even the most difficult isn’t that tough. The game does a good job of replaying goals, though player-performed goals never look quite as good as those performed by the AI.
FIFA Soccer 06 makes good use of the dual screen nature and touch screen of the Nintendo DS. The second screen always gives you a map of the field will full player positions. Since this is the touch screen, you’ll be easily able to alter the offensive and defensive approach you have set up. You’ll be able to do some basic player changing and play the free kick on the bottom screen. These methods are different than other versions of FIFA Soccer 06, but work very well on the Nintendo DS hardware.
FIFA Soccer 06 supports two-player multiplayer using the local wireless networking of the Nintendo DS. The game doesn’t support online, but two players can play multiplayer with only one copy of the game.
The game’s visuals are pretty straightforward. The players look great from a distance, making effective use of the 3D capabilities of the Nintendo DS. The game is careful never to zoom up on the players to show their simplicity though. That said, the animations are also excellent and very fluid. Something of note is that the replays are particularly satisfying on the Nintendo DS since you’re able to control them with the touch-screen interface.
The game’s audio performs just as well. The commentary is pretty good, though somewhat repetitive. This is somewhat expected for a Nintendo DS title but what is included is pretty solid overall. The sound effects are good, aptly recreating the sounds of soccer and the enthusiastic fans. The soundtrack is fairly de\cent as well.
As I mentioned above, FIFA Soccer 06 is the first soccer game for the Nintendo DS. As such, EA Sports already had the support of diehard soccer fans craving for a fix. That said, the game is fundamentally sound and makes good use of the second, touch screen of the Nintendo DS. -- Adam Nunez, PGNx Media
---- Oct 23, 2005
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