Publisher/Developer: EA
Genre: Soccer Game
Price: $9.99
Verdict: The stuffed so much FIFA in there, EA must not have had room for good gameplay.
Pros: The license has been fully exploited, there are hundreds of players and teams represented here
Cons: Frustrating controls, buggy graphics, weak AI.

Full disclosure:  I HATE soccer.  Hate it.  But I can appreciate a good video game based on soccer.  Hell, if a good game based on badminton came out I would probably get it.  This, however, is not a good game based on soccer and for 10 bucks EA really should have taken a bit more time to perfect the gameplay.

The promise of options.

Here is the good news, the license is in full effect here, and to varying degrees of accuracy you get real players, teams, and leagues.  You can choose from the MLS, Ligue 1m, K-League, Coca-Cola Leagues, and many more; there are 30 leagues in all.  Within these leagues are hundreds of teams and thousands of real players.  For hard core players, everything you could ever want is in here.  The different modes included are Manager Mode, Tournament, Be A Pro, Training, and Penalty Shootout.  Manager Mode is not a full featured sim, but allows you to do the basics.  Be A Pro lets you create or follow your own star as he works through the different modes.  You can also host or join a WI-FI game if you choose. Finally, Options lets you set a plethora if different settings including weather, camera, game length, and AI skill.  Here is where it starts to break down: unfortunately you cannot change the AI skill of your teammates as they seem to be stuck on stupid.  I couldn’t get any help from the players I wasn’t controlling and it seemed like they didn’t have any idea of how to get into position to assist me.  Passing, being one of the core functions, should be simplified and the defense options should be tuned to actually work.

Looks like soccer - plays like poop.

Now, the real bad news.  The game control is frustratingly non-functional, and I can’t believe it was fully play tested before it was implemented.  The faulty AI means almost everything is up to you and you find yourself running around like a madman to compensate for your team.  This wouldn’t be so bad, but the virtual joystick overlay is not tuned enough for you to make precision moves.  It’s unresponsive and not sticky making it tough to keep your player on the run and make cuts.  On top of that, the decision to make simple mechanics require ‘press-swipes’ is just silly.  It should be simple to implement the combos instead of dragging between A and B or double taps that misfire for a shot when you wanted a pass.  There is too much inconsistency in how the game registers the input so it becomes very difficult to play the game with any semblance of fun.  Without a solid play control implementation, especially for a sports game, no matter how many options you throw in, the core game suffers.   The buttons are too small as well; I think more developers should err on the side of large when implementing control surfaces.

Who farted?

The graphics are a mixed bag.  Players look somewhat generic and plain.  From the normal playing view, the players move fluid enough, but there are intermittent graphical glitches such as wrong sized polygons and fluctuating textures.  FIFA 10 doesn’t seem to be pushing that many polygons, and on my 3GS there were times when the game slowed and skipped.  The added announcer Clive Tilsley is a nice touch, but his comments are hard to understand and the sound is bad.  There is an option to turn it off and also to use your own music, but the game seems to forget this and asks you every time you restart the app.  FIFA 10 is not worth 10 bucks, so only if you must have an officially licensed game should you look here.  If and when a major point release happens that fixes all the glitches and limited controls, this may be worth a look.