GAME DESCRIPTION: EA SPORTS™ celebrates the world’s largest sporting event with the only official and exclusive licensed videogame for the 2006 FIFA World Cup Germany™.
2006 FIFA World Cup perfectly captures the emotion and passion of the world’s fiercest national rivalries by giving users the opportunity to play with their heroes and the chance to win the FIFA World Cup™. Play as your home nation and control your favorite players as you battle from qualification right through to a virtual re-creation of the final tournament in Germany.
EA SPORTS has brought to life close to 100 superstars by emulating the real-life abilities of the world’s most recognizable players. Signature moves, playing styles and flair moves have all been authentically captured in this game. Gameplay advancements in passing and shooting, including improved penalty kicks, make this the most realistic and playable soccer game yet.
2006 FIFA World Cup introduces a new game mode called Global Challenge that will test even the most hardcore gamer. Global Challenge re-creates classic moments in FIFA World Cup history for fans to tackle. Compare your results with history and measure yourself against the world’s best.
Take control of one of 125 national teams and play against friends in up to eight-way multiplayer matches. Track your results in The Lounge to create your own rankings and earn rewards.
As the only officially licensed videogame of 2006 FIFA World Cup Germany, EA SPORTS has included a plethora of in-game unlockable content such as legendary players and exclusive apparel that will make this game a coveted collectable for soccer fans. Play with some of the game’s greatest legends and outfit your squad in exclusive team apparel.
Play with your heroes and win the FIFA World Cup with 2006 FIFA World Cup, available April 2006. The game is rated “E” (Everyone) by the ESRB.
Key Features–
* PLAY WITH YOUR HEROES:
* The world’s superstars look and play like their real life counterparts. Player attributes like ball skills and playing style have been uniquely re-created for each player to mirror real life.
* WIN THE 2006 FIFA WORLD CUP™:
* Compete as one of 125 teams from qualification right through to a virtual reproduction of the FIFA World Cup Final in Germany. Play in any of the 12 official stadiums that come to life with the pageantry and festivity of the 2006 FIFA World Cup.
* GLOBAL CHALLENGE:
* Introducing a new mode called Global Challenge that recreates 125 classic moments in FIFA World Cup history. Earn rewards to unlock legendary players and classic apparel.
* EXCLUSIVE TO THE PSP SYSTEM:
* Test your skills against gamers from around the world. Play against friends with multiplayer capability that enables two players to compete online or four players to play via a wireless connection.
* EXCLUSIVE TO THE NINTENDO DS
* Experience greater control during gameplay with Touch Screen Controls that let you take control during set pieces for added speed and precision, and Touch Screen Tactics, that let you alter formations and tactics during a game. There are five new Skill Challenges to perfect your ball skills or test your Trivia knowledge about the FIFA World Cup. Also included are 3D, user controlled replays.
* EVOLUTIONARY GAME BOY ADVANCE GAMEPLAY:
* New independent ball physics and improved Artificial Intelligence have created the most authentic and playable EA SPORTS FIFA soccer game yet for the Game Boy Advance. Additional features include a Penalty Shootout Skills Challenge to perfect your penalty kicks and three dimensional, user controlled replays.
PLAY: 2006 FIFA World Cup is head and shoulders better than the previous soccer release by EA for the Xbox 360.
The gameplay is fast and exciting. EA has been chasing Konami’s great Winning Eleven as the king of soccer video games. One thing that has lacked in previous World Cup games was a sense of speed. Finally EA has turned it up a notch. Everything is amazingly fluid and a lot less predictable. The controls are not unlike Winning Eleven. EA figured if we are going to buy a soccer game and it came down to the controls why not utilize their opponents?
EA has taken an aspect of their football games and incorporated it into FIFA. Now the star players have a star over their head. Now you will know from a distance that you’re in control of Beckham or Nesta or another superstar. And that detail is important because the stars are masterful and give you a better chance of scoring or careening past the defense. And another change comes with the ability of your player. EA took another aspect from their football franchises and realized the better the player the better their accuracy and power. It shouldn’t depend on our ineptitude to make Beckham look bad.
There are a few very cool aspects—such as unlockable players and the Global Challenge that goes back to historic moments in World Cup history. This is a fantastic edition and would have been a perfect ten were you able to play with the actually historical players from that era and not substituting current players. It makes no sense to go back in time only to play with current players. It takes the fun out of it.
GRAPHICS: Unlike football, the camera takes a much further view of the game so the players are mostly generic until there is an animation. The animations are brilliant. They far outshine the previous Xbox 360 release of FIFA. Finally a crowd worth looking at—the Xbox 360 brings hope that we won’t have to look at a crowd of cardboard cut-outs. If only the crowd mobbed the field and added even more chaos.
SOUND: Again, Clive Tyldesly and Andy Townsend do a great job of announcing. Hopefully the Madden’s ‘07 release can equal the excitement and genuine enthusiasm.
FRANKLY: The one huge thing missing from World Cup that EA didn’t borrow from their football franchises are the franchise modes. There is no recruiting and that takes away a great part of the other sports games EA has released.
If you don’t own the previous FIFA then don’t buy it—2006 FIFA World Cup for the Xbox 360 is spectacular. It’s still a step behind Winning Eleven but it’s a very close second.
+ Richie Wright
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