After Winning Eleven DS turned out to be a steaming pile of uninspired dog poo, I was somewhat trepidacious about buying FIFA 07 for the DS. Fortunately, EA Sports Canada did more than just a mailed-in effort and as a result FIFA 07 DS is an enjoyable, if not very challenging, soccer game.

Graphics 75/100

It seems to be a given that sports games for the Nintendo DS have a low resolution once you step onto the field and FIFA 07 is no exception. That said, EA Sports Canada seem to have put a lot of work into different aspects of the graphics and the result is a game that looks far better than Winning Eleven DS.

The in-game menus are very similar to those in the current-gen home versions of FIFA with the bottom screen used for selections. Once you’re on the pitch the top screen shows the action while the bottom screen depicts a massive pitch-radar and also gives you access to tactics and strategies on the fly.

The game’s default camera angle is a medium-level, moderately zoomed out Broadcast view and strikes a good balance between showing a good portion of the pitch and yet being close enough to appreciate graphical details.

The player models are solid if unspectacular. Apart from skin colour and general body habitus you can’t really differentiate between players by look alone but for a system like the DS I guess this is good enough. The kits are also licensed and though the graphics aren’t nearly crisp enough for you to actually ‘read’ the sponsors you can identify the general shapes.

Animations are decent with a good variety of different captured movements though obviously not nearly as many as the home console versions of the game. The running animations could be a little better as sometimes it can look like the players are skating on grass rather than planting their feet when running. Transitions between animations are generally good but it does become apparent early on that, much like the older FIFA games, the animation cycle for one particular movement has to finish entirely before another cycle can start.

Like the PSP version of FIFA 07, the Nintendo DS edition impresses when it comes to the stadiums. Though the list of stadiums is small and none are licensed, they’re all depicted very nicely and each ground brings a different visual atmosphere to each match. There are also decent approximations for stadium lighting effects for different times of day (you can play matches midday, afternoon and night).

My favourite aspect of the stadiums is the depiction of the crowd. Now from static screenshots you’ll see that they’re just different coloured human shapes and don’t look so special. However, what’s neat about them is that when you do stick the ball in the back of the net, depending upon whether or not you’re at home, they jump around like mad. It may sound like a small thing but when you watch a replay of a goal and you see the crowd behind the net jump up and down like crazy when the ball actually hits the back of the net it really adds to the atmosphere. It may be just a miniscule graphical effect but it does wonders for the sense of immersion.

For the sake of completeness, the list of stadiums is as follows;

The TV-style presentation is particularly impressive with instant replays for goals and close attempts from a variety of camera angles. There’s also decent introductory sweeps of the stadiums and the players walking onto the pitch. End of match highlites are present and in the Manager Mode you can even see highlites from other CPU vs CPU matches which is a nice throwback feature (remember that in the original NHL Hockey for the PC back in 1993?). The only downside is the fact that you’re shown an instant replay after each and every foul (even small ones) but they’re easily skip-able.

Sound 80/100

I’m really impressed with the audio in FIFA 07 DS. Most notable is the solid commentary by Clive Tyldsley who, while not saying specific player names, does a very good job of following the action. Repetition is present but it never gets annoying and after playing both Winning Eleven for the DS and PSP it’s nice to have some play-by-play.

Music is a bit of an oddity, there are some licensed tracks but I seem to keep hearing the same two over and over and there’s no ‘EA Trax’ option to select your music.

Crowd sounds are functional and there are a few generic crowd chants. One interesting feature is the ability to use the DS’ mic to record your own crowd chants to play back during the game. Once you record the audio you can then augment it with horn, clap or drum sounds and then trigger the chant by pressing a button on the touch screen during a match. Apparently triggering the chant gives your players some sort of a boost during matches but I didn’t notice it. Unfortunately, you can only record five seconds of audio which isn’t long enough for any interesting chants but EA Sports deserve some praise for at least thinking of a novel way to incorporate the DS’ microphone into gameplay.

Options 70/100

Like the other FIFA games this (last) year, FIFA 07 DS features a solid list of gameplay modes and features. Along with the customary Exhibition Mode, you also get a Scenario Mode (with 20 different match scenarios based on actual matches last season) and an oddly castrated form of the Manager Mode I love so much. There is no Wi-Fi multiplayer nor any single-cart multiplayer.

FIFA 07 DS would have received a much higher score in the options department (and even overall) if it weren’t for two very strange shortcomings in the Manager Mode. The first, and minor by comparison, problem is that you can only play for five seasons before your managerial career is over. This is not so bad as this is about four and a half seasons more than Les Reed and John Barnes lasted. The second, and much more serious, problem is that THERE ARE NO PLAYER TRANSFERS!

That’s right, no transfers. No buying. No selling. No taking anyone on loan. Nothing. What the hell? The absence of player transfers is incredibly perplexing and it really puts a massive dent in the sense of immersion and the FUN factor of the Manager Mode. Want to take Scunthorpe to the European Cup Final? Well you’ll be taking Billy Sharp and the rest of the lads with you. From a difficulty standpoint this isn’t a massive problem (more on the game’s difficulty later) but a large part of the fun of being a manager is wheeling and dealing players.

To try and mitigate this EA Sports have stuck in some functional training mini-games (shooting, corners, free kicks, etc) to liven things up and also allow you to increase player ratings. However, these are a poor substitute for a functional transfer market.

Another missing feature is a stand-alone Cup Mode that was present in other versions of the game.

FIFA 07 DS features the following licensed leagues;

As you can see, that’s a very impressive number of fully licensed teams. The rosters, however, aren’t even close to being up to date – even transfers that happened way before last August’s (2006) transfer deadline are absent. As such, Ashley Cole is still at Arsenal and unfortunately there is no edit mode to rectify this!

Gameplay 70/100

The controls in FIFA 07 DS are as follows;

I was quite interested to see how FIFA 07 DS would play. Having not played the previous DS FIFA games I didn’t really know what to expect. Fortunately, FIFA 07 DS plays a fun, old school-style game of arcade football.

Player movement is a bit ‘floaty’ (as if players are skating on ice) but usually responsive and you never feel like you’ve lost control your players. Despite the addition of the L-Trigger to initiate ‘skill’ moves, the only move I could really do was the 360° spin which is pretty useless in this game as even if you do get past your opponent you usually knock the ball too far ahead to retrieve it. As such you’re forced to go past opposition defenders using a combination of deft manual dribbling (tight turns, alternating speed bursts, etc.) and good old passing! That’s a good thing.

The passing is a bit hit and miss. Through passes often have far too much juice on them (particularly when you knock them out into the wing areas) and you give possession away. On the plus side, however, it is possible to knock the ball into space and the ball physics are interesting mix of both scripted and unscripted.

CPU AI is uninspired. Opposition teams all play the same passing style and the only difference between them is player abilities. On your side of the ball, your teammates take up decent positions but there’s little to none overlapping or support play.

As mentioned before, the touch screen is used primarily as the radar. With respect to gameplay there are touch buttons for selecting offensive and defensive plays/strategies. Unfortunately, these icons are clustered on the right side of the screen and are fairly small. As a result it’s not easy to select plays during the course of gameplay without using the stylus.

Another feature of the touch screen is to set tactical runs for your AI-controlled teammates. Basically, at any point during the match you can tap a teammate’s icon on the touch screen and then drag/trace a run to wherever you want him to go. Unfortunately, unless you have a third hand it’s pretty unpractical to pull out the stylus and draw a run while you’re controlling the action on the top screen. Where this does come in handy, however, is during corners and free-kicks when you can create some pretty nifty decoy runs.

Putting the above factors together, FIFA 07 DS sounds far from impressive. Fortunately, the game’s saving grace is the great attacking play on offer. The combination of no effective ‘skill’ moves, no money goals/plays and the quasi-unscripted ball physics means there’s great variation in the goalscoring chances you can conjure up. I’ve scored 30 yard screamers, 2 yard tap ins, diving headers, and finished off mazy dribbles with a deft chip over the keeper. The attacking play really is a great deal of fun.

The fly in the ointment, unfortunately, is the game’s difficulty level…..or lack thereof. There are four difficulty settings but if you play on anything but ‘World Class’ (the highest) the game is an absolute cakewalk. With aggressive pressing and closing down you can dominate every match. Regrettably, even World Class isn’t ‘that’ difficult and I’ve found myself undefeated for most of my current Manager Mode season – I suspect most seasoned soccer gamers will experience the same.

Longevity 60/100

FIFA 07 does so much right that it’s sad that the replay value is killed by both the lack of transfers in the Manager Mode and the easy gameplay. The lack of notable challenge is the game’s biggest failing and if it weren’t for that I could imagine myself playing for a lot longer than the few weeks I’ve been playing it now.

Wi-Fi multiplayer would have saved the game but alas it’s absent…..

Overall 68/100

Despite doing so much right, FIFA 07 falls at the last hurdle by not presenting enough of a challenge. This is such a shame as there’s a lot about this game that I really like. If you can find a place that rents Nintendo DS games I’d say that this is a definite rental, but with full-price DS games being a little too pricey, in my opinion at least, I can’t recommend this as a must-buy.

It’s definitely the best soccer game on the DS and if you simply must have a DS soccer game this’d be the one to spring for, but just know that you’ll be winning pretty much every match after a few weeks.

After Winning Eleven DS turned out to be a steaming pile of uninspired dog poo, I was somewhat trepidacious about buying FIFA 07 for the DS. Fortunately, EA Sports Canada did more than just a mailed-in effort and as a result FIFA 07 DS is an enjoyable, if not very challenging, soccer game.

Graphics 75/100

It seems to be a given that sports games for the Nintendo DS have a low resolution once you step onto the field and FIFA 07 is no exception. That said, EA Sports Canada seem to have put a lot of work into different aspects of the graphics and the result is a game that looks far better than Winning Eleven DS.

The in-game menus are very similar to those in the current-gen home versions of FIFA with the bottom screen used for selections. Once you’re on the pitch the top screen shows the action while the bottom screen depicts a massive pitch-radar and also gives you access to tactics and strategies on the fly.

The game’s default camera angle is a medium-level, moderately zoomed out Broadcast view and strikes a good balance between showing a good portion of the pitch and yet being close enough to appreciate graphical details.

The player models are solid if unspectacular. Apart from skin colour and general body habitus you can’t really differentiate between players by look alone but for a system like the DS I guess this is good enough. The kits are also licensed and though the graphics aren’t nearly crisp enough for you to actually ‘read’ the sponsors you can identify the general shapes.

Animations are decent with a good variety of different captured movements though obviously not nearly as many as the home console versions of the game. The running animations could be a little better as sometimes it can look like the players are skating on grass rather than planting their feet when running. Transitions between animations are generally good but it does become apparent early on that, much like the older FIFA games, the animation cycle for one particular movement has to finish entirely before another cycle can start.

Like the PSP version of FIFA 07, the Nintendo DS edition impresses when it comes to the stadiums. Though the list of stadiums is small and none are licensed, they’re all depicted very nicely and each ground brings a different visual atmosphere to each match. There are also decent approximations for stadium lighting effects for different times of day (you can play matches midday, afternoon and night).

My favourite aspect of the stadiums is the depiction of the crowd. Now from static screenshots you’ll see that they’re just different coloured human shapes and don’t look so special. However, what’s neat about them is that when you do stick the ball in the back of the net, depending upon whether or not you’re at home, they jump around like mad. It may sound like a small thing but when you watch a replay of a goal and you see the crowd behind the net jump up and down like crazy when the ball actually hits the back of the net it really adds to the atmosphere. It may be just a miniscule graphical effect but it does wonders for the sense of immersion.

For the sake of completeness, the list of stadiums is as follows;

The TV-style presentation is particularly impressive with instant replays for goals and close attempts from a variety of camera angles. There’s also decent introductory sweeps of the stadiums and the players walking onto the pitch. End of match highlites are present and in the Manager Mode you can even see highlites from other CPU vs CPU matches which is a nice throwback feature (remember that in the original NHL Hockey for the PC back in 1993?). The only downside is the fact that you’re shown an instant replay after each and every foul (even small ones) but they’re easily skip-able.

Sound 80/100

I’m really impressed with the audio in FIFA 07 DS. Most notable is the solid commentary by Clive Tyldsley who, while not saying specific player names, does a very good job of following the action. Repetition is present but it never gets annoying and after playing both Winning Eleven for the DS and PSP it’s nice to have some play-by-play.

Music is a bit of an oddity, there are some licensed tracks but I seem to keep hearing the same two over and over and there’s no ‘EA Trax’ option to select your music.

Crowd sounds are functional and there are a few generic crowd chants. One interesting feature is the ability to use the DS’ mic to record your own crowd chants to play back during the game. Once you record the audio you can then augment it with horn, clap or drum sounds and then trigger the chant by pressing a button on the touch screen during a match. Apparently triggering the chant gives your players some sort of a boost during matches but I didn’t notice it. Unfortunately, you can only record five seconds of audio which isn’t long enough for any interesting chants but EA Sports deserve some praise for at least thinking of a novel way to incorporate the DS’ microphone into gameplay.

Options 70/100

Like the other FIFA games this (last) year, FIFA 07 DS features a solid list of gameplay modes and features. Along with the customary Exhibition Mode, you also get a Scenario Mode (with 20 different match scenarios based on actual matches last season) and an oddly castrated form of the Manager Mode I love so much. There is no Wi-Fi multiplayer nor any single-cart multiplayer.

FIFA 07 DS would have received a much higher score in the options department (and even overall) if it weren’t for two very strange shortcomings in the Manager Mode. The first, and minor by comparison, problem is that you can only play for five seasons before your managerial career is over. This is not so bad as this is about four and a half seasons more than Les Reed and John Barnes lasted. The second, and much more serious, problem is that THERE ARE NO PLAYER TRANSFERS!

That’s right, no transfers. No buying. No selling. No taking anyone on loan. Nothing. What the hell? The absence of player transfers is incredibly perplexing and it really puts a massive dent in the sense of immersion and the FUN factor of the Manager Mode. Want to take Scunthorpe to the European Cup Final? Well you’ll be taking Billy Sharp and the rest of the lads with you. From a difficulty standpoint this isn’t a massive problem (more on the game’s difficulty later) but a large part of the fun of being a manager is wheeling and dealing players.

To try and mitigate this EA Sports have stuck in some functional training mini-games (shooting, corners, free kicks, etc) to liven things up and also allow you to increase player ratings. However, these are a poor substitute for a functional transfer market.

Another missing feature is a stand-alone Cup Mode that was present in other versions of the game.

FIFA 07 DS features the following licensed leagues;

As you can see, that’s a very impressive number of fully licensed teams. The rosters, however, aren’t even close to being up to date – even transfers that happened way before last August’s (2006) transfer deadline are absent. As such, Ashley Cole is still at Arsenal and unfortunately there is no edit mode to rectify this!

Gameplay 70/100

The controls in FIFA 07 DS are as follows;

I was quite interested to see how FIFA 07 DS would play. Having not played the previous DS FIFA games I didn’t really know what to expect. Fortunately, FIFA 07 DS plays a fun, old school-style game of arcade football.

Player movement is a bit ‘floaty’ (as if players are skating on ice) but usually responsive and you never feel like you’ve lost control your players. Despite the addition of the L-Trigger to initiate ‘skill’ moves, the only move I could really do was the 360° spin which is pretty useless in this game as even if you do get past your opponent you usually knock the ball too far ahead to retrieve it. As such you’re forced to go past opposition defenders using a combination of deft manual dribbling (tight turns, alternating speed bursts, etc.) and good old passing! That’s a good thing.

The passing is a bit hit and miss. Through passes often have far too much juice on them (particularly when you knock them out into the wing areas) and you give possession away. On the plus side, however, it is possible to knock the ball into space and the ball physics are interesting mix of both scripted and unscripted.

CPU AI is uninspired. Opposition teams all play the same passing style and the only difference between them is player abilities. On your side of the ball, your teammates take up decent positions but there’s little to none overlapping or support play.

As mentioned before, the touch screen is used primarily as the radar. With respect to gameplay there are touch buttons for selecting offensive and defensive plays/strategies. Unfortunately, these icons are clustered on the right side of the screen and are fairly small. As a result it’s not easy to select plays during the course of gameplay without using the stylus.

Another feature of the touch screen is to set tactical runs for your AI-controlled teammates. Basically, at any point during the match you can tap a teammate’s icon on the touch screen and then drag/trace a run to wherever you want him to go. Unfortunately, unless you have a third hand it’s pretty unpractical to pull out the stylus and draw a run while you’re controlling the action on the top screen. Where this does come in handy, however, is during corners and free-kicks when you can create some pretty nifty decoy runs.

Putting the above factors together, FIFA 07 DS sounds far from impressive. Fortunately, the game’s saving grace is the great attacking play on offer. The combination of no effective ‘skill’ moves, no money goals/plays and the quasi-unscripted ball physics means there’s great variation in the goalscoring chances you can conjure up. I’ve scored 30 yard screamers, 2 yard tap ins, diving headers, and finished off mazy dribbles with a deft chip over the keeper. The attacking play really is a great deal of fun.

The fly in the ointment, unfortunately, is the game’s difficulty level…..or lack thereof. There are four difficulty settings but if you play on anything but ‘World Class’ (the highest) the game is an absolute cakewalk. With aggressive pressing and closing down you can dominate every match. Regrettably, even World Class isn’t ‘that’ difficult and I’ve found myself undefeated for most of my current Manager Mode season – I suspect most seasoned soccer gamers will experience the same.

Longevity 60/100

FIFA 07 does so much right that it’s sad that the replay value is killed by both the lack of transfers in the Manager Mode and the easy gameplay. The lack of notable challenge is the game’s biggest failing and if it weren’t for that I could imagine myself playing for a lot longer than the few weeks I’ve been playing it now.

Wi-Fi multiplayer would have saved the game but alas it’s absent…..

Overall 68/100

Despite doing so much right, FIFA 07 falls at the last hurdle by not presenting enough of a challenge. This is such a shame as there’s a lot about this game that I really like. If you can find a place that rents Nintendo DS games I’d say that this is a definite rental, but with full-price DS games being a little too pricey, in my opinion at least, I can’t recommend this as a must-buy.

It’s definitely the best soccer game on the DS and if you simply must have a DS soccer game this’d be the one to spring for, but just know that you’ll be winning pretty much every match after a few weeks.