The sport of soccer has only enjoyed a few blimps of major success and popularity over here in the United States. The majority of the time the team earning the fame and notoriety has been the U.S. Women’s team with their two Women’s World Cups and three Olympic Women’s Tournament wins. Outside of the triumphant women’s team, there’s the Major League Soccer league for men, but even that doesn’t get national coverage and exposure like the women did. With that said, FIFA 09 has hit store shelves for the PS2, and it too isn’t as successful as it could be.

Remaining eerily similar to its counterpart last year, FIFA 09 only sees a few mid-sized additions and changes. A few of these changes don’t improve the game (the new camera angle found in the ‘Be A Pro’ mode) while others, like the tinkering with the animations and collision detections, greatly benefit the game. The new camera angle within ‘Be A Pro’ mode isn’t as delightful as it was intended to be. The camera positioning is the biggest problem since it moves along with the player and could potentially cause motion sickness to a few gamers without strong stomachs.

A big downfall of the PS2 version is the lack of attention spent on the graphics. It often stutters with the framerate and many of the players will clip each other when they aren’t colliding. Of course, there are a few new animations added in, but the PS2 version remains almost identical to FIFA 08 with the visuals only now it has a few hiccups with technical issues. The player models are all right when you consider that this is the PS2 version you are playing, but once again, not much has been done to improve this area over FIFA 08.

The soundtrack of FIFA 09 is handled a lot better than the graphics of the title. Noteworthy tracks that stand out include: Chromeo “Bonafied Lovin”, Kids “I’m Not Going To Teach Your Boyfriend How To Dance With You”, Datarock “True Stories”, MGMT “Kids”, and the Kooks “Always Where I Want To Be.” You should be able to enjoy the music if you aren’t a fan of music that is heavily played on the radio. The other aspects of the sound end up being disappointing with mediocre commentating and below average crowd interaction.

The PS2 version does feature a special Tournament Mode that allows players to play through 42 officially licensed tournaments and 19 non-official ones. On top of that, players can create their own tournaments if the 61 tournaments already placed in the game bore you. This was where most of my time was spent and greatly so since I often recreated my favorite World Cups within FIFA 09.

Concerning the gameplay, it’s primarily decent all-around. Sporting solid action and great controls, players should easily find FIFA 09 to be an entertaining sports title. Players can shield themselves away from defenders, deke their opponents, and seamlessly pass to their teammates without too many troubles. There are also four new skill moves that are executed through the trick stick, but newcomers won’t see the use in these moves as they are hard to pull off. As for the controls this year, they have been modified to allow for an easier entry into playing FIFA 09.

Without many additions, or improvements, FIFA 09 suffers from being a stagnant product that could’ve profited from a more visceral experience. Its lack of online multiplayer (PS3 and 360 versions include a 10 vs. 10 component) is a severe detriment to the total package. The inclusion of the Be A Pro mode doesn’t make this year’s version any better since it’s marred with camera issues that take away from the overall enjoyment of the gameplay. It’s easy to see the telltale signs that FIFA on the PS2 is starting to show its age. For better or worse, the best advice is to jump ship and join gamers in next-gen gaming since it looks like it’s going to be all downhill from here for future PS2 iterations of FIFA.

Gameplay: 7.0
Outside of the sound, the gameplay is the only portion that hasn’t regressed. You can still have fun with the variety of game modes provided. 

Graphics: 5.8
The framerate drags this soccer title to the ground for a yellow-card.

Sound: 8.0
The soundtrack helps create a rich environment of music from dozens of different countries.

Difficulty: Easy / Medium

Concept: 6.0
There isn’t an ounce of uniqueness found within the entire package of FIFA 09.

Multiplayer: 7.0
If gamers can convince a friend to play with them, they’ll undoubtedly have fun with FIFA 09. Also, don’t expect to find any online modes in the PS2 version.

Overall: 6.3
Not enough has changed for gamers to pick up the latest version of FIFA Soccer. It has regressed in the majority of the areas while the next-gen versions have catapulted ahead in quality. Avoid the PS2 version and move onto the 360 or PS3 version