2006 FIFA World Cup

THIS GAME ROCKS LIKE ALL OTHER FIFA TITLES AND MAKES A GREAT SOUVENIER FOR THE WORLD CUP 2006. IF YOU REALLY WANT TO GET THIS GAME I RECOMMEND THAT YOU BUY IT USED BECAUSE THERE WAS A RUMOR GOING AROUND BY MANY PEOPLE THAT THE PSP VERSION OF WC 2006 WAS NOT FUNCTIONING PROPERLY. THIS HAPPENED TO ME WHEN I BOUGHT A BRAND NEW SEALED PSP VERSION OF THIS GAME AT A VIDEO GAME STORE AND IT WOULD LOCK UP ON ME AFTER THE EA SPORTS SCREEN. AT FIRST I THOUGHT IT WAS THE PSP SINCE I ALSO PURCHASED IT USED AND WENT TO EXCHANGE IT. JUST TO BE SURE THE VENDOR TRIED THE GAME ON 2 OTHER PSPS AND THE GAME WOULD LOCK UP ON THE SAME SCREEN JUST LIKE IT DID ON MINE AND THE VENDOR TOLD ME THAT IT WAS THE GAME AND NOT THE SYSTEM. I THEN RETURNED THE GAME WHERE I PURCHASED IT AND EXPLAINED TO THE VENDOR WHAT WAS WRONG AND THATS WHEN HE TOLD ME THAT SOME COPIES OF FIFA WORLD CUP 2006 FOR PSP WERE NOT FUNCTIONING PROPERLY. I GOT A REFUND AND REPURCHASED A USED TITLE ON AMAZON INSTEAD OF THE BRAND NEW SEALED TITLE, I WOULD PROBALLY RUN INTO THE SAME SITUATION. THE GAME WORKS FINE SO I REALLY RECOMMEND YOU PURCHASE THIS GAME USED SO YOU WONT RUN INTO THE SAME PROBLEM LIKE I DID.
Rating: 5 / 5

If you truly love soccer as much as I do, you’ll like this game for a while, but the gameplay will frustrate you like crazy once you get the hang of the controls.

The graphics are great and the choice of world cup teams are awesome. As far as tourney play, you can choose between starting from scratch (where you fight to qualify), or starting right at the World Cup tournament (the final 32 teams).

The only problem, and which is a huge problem for me, is that the gameplay is awful. The player movements are not fluid and at times the computer seems to “cheat” a whole lot.

By “cheating” I mean that many times either your buttons don’t register or it does the wrong thing. Here are some examples:

- my player either doesn’t sprint or it takes forever to start sprinting even though I’m holding down the button.

- my player passes to the wrong teammate, usually costing me a turnover, sometimes costing me a goal.

- if the ball is kicked out of bounds by the other team, the computer automatically makes one of my players chase after the ball, but you can’t stop him to let it go, then he touches the ball out of bounds. It costs me possession or even a corner kick.

- many times I press the “shoot” button and it doesn’t attempt to kick the ball until after dribbling 2 times, costing me a good shot.

- if you’re a goalkeeper during penalty kicks, sometimes the goalkeeper doesn’t move despite your command to move left or right.

These things happen so often that I made a point to count each time it’s happened. During one game I counted as high as 32 TIMES that these things happened!!! It’s very frustrating.

But if you really love this sport and this brand, go buy it, but I wouldn’t buy it brand new. Seriously, I’d rather stick to the Winning Eleven brand despite its shortcomings in the PSP version.
Rating: 3 / 5