Product Description

Step onto the pitch and play professional football your way in FIFA 09. Experience the most authentic football simulation EA Sports has delivered as you live the fantasy of playing as a professional player and customise the game to suit your style and ability.

Powered by the third generation of the EA Sports football engine, FIFA 09 features more than 250 core gameplay additions and enhancements that deliver the most responsive, intelligent and realistic action ever for the series. Enjoy turning defenders with more controlled dribbling and ball control, snapping off precision shots with improved first-time shooting mechanics and firing beautifully timed passes with greater accuracy, placing the ball exactly where you want it.

With new player momentum physics the speed and weight of the player determines everything from the distance of a slide tackle and the power of a header to the severity of player collisions and the height of a player's jump. Plus, players now behave according to their physical attributes with larger, stronger players dominating collisions, battles for control of the ball, and position in challenges for two player headers.

• Unique Wii Experience: Enjoying football action on Wii is now easier with refined gestures, point-and-play controls with on-screen pass indicators and one-button actions that create instant shots on goal and greater success connecting on headers and volleys.
• New 8 vs 8 Footii Match Minigame: Play 8 vs. 8 in a completely unique mode where you can play an arcade version of football with the focus on fun. Populate your team with your Mii characters captained by one of our FIFA 09 All-Play cover athletes created as customised characters.
• Boot It: Play with your Mii, Ronaldinho, Rooney or other stars in a simultaneous shooting frenzy. Play as the goalie or the shooter. All-new Eliminator Mode enables up to four frien

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #428 in Computer & Video Games
• Brand: Electronic Arts
• Released on: 2008-10-03
• Platform: Nintendo Wii
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English

Manufacturer's Description
Step onto the pitch and play a unique football experience exclusively for the Wii. Enjoy FIFA 09 All-Play one of two ways - a Wii-specific take on the classic ‘11 vs. 11’ simulation or over-the-top arcade action with Wii versions of your favorite football superstars.

FIFA 09 All-Play is balanced for gamers of any ability to enjoy fun, football action. Choose to play the style that best suits your skills from advanced controls for experienced players to new EA SPORTS. All-Play that enables novice players to focus on fun using simplified controls with AI assistance. EA SPORTS All-Play makes it easier and less intimidating for new players to play at their own level of ability. One gesture and one button press performs all the actions and increases your success rate on shots, free kicks and rebounds. Trouble deciding who to pass the ball to? Let the CPU point you in the right direction with on-screen pass indicators and one-button actions. Panic over picking the corner? Don’t worry, just blast away to find the back of the net with instant shots on goal. It’s that easy! Plus, the game provides feedback and stats to track your progress.

Experienced players using advanced controls can still access all the in-depth controls, now with refined gestures and a precision passing system with point-and-play control. Plus, you can even use a Classic controller or Nintendo GameCube controller for a more traditional FIFA game experience.

Play with your Mii alongside your heroes Ronaldinho, Wayne Rooney and other football stars created as customized characters in an arcade version of the beautiful game. Play 8 vs 8 Footii Match mode for addictive pick-up-and-play arcade action suitable for all levels of ability. Steal the ball and make outrageous shots by simply waving your Wii Remote. Plus, Footii Party Games called Table Football and Boot It have been overhauled for more great fun with family and friends.

There are over 500 teams all accurately represented with correct kits and crests. Plus Manager Mode debuts with a Wii specific interface, club finances and sponsors, visual sims and dynamic board expectations that change depending on your successes … or failures.

Customer Reviews

Footii Fun
Having been a PES fan for many years, this was the first FIFA I've played in a while and I was not disappointed. EA have crammed a lot of gameplay features and options into FIFA 09.

You can play the game with realistic looking players and stadiums or choose 8 vs 8 Mii-like carricatures with big heads, who play in a training ground. The latter option is fun for a couple of games, but after I played the "advanced" game I didn't want to go back to the cartoony version.

You can play FIFA 09 against computer controlled teams, against human friends, with human friends in co-op mode, or online against players from across the world. You need an EA account for the last option, but it's free and you don't need a friend code. I already have an account for Medal of Honor 2 so I was able to use that.

The game plays very well. You use the remote to point where you want to pass, then hit A to move the ball. You move your players using the nunchuk so you'll need two of these if you want to take on a friend or family member. To shoot at goal you shake the remote. It's all very intuitive, but shooting does seem a little on the random side. Tackling is done by either sliding in (shaking the remote again) or pressing the B button to nick the ball.

FIFA 09 isn't without its faults though. The sound effects are fine, but the commentary is hit and miss. Andy Gray's comments are either frequently late or just plain wrong. It's also a pain that there is no animation when a player is booked or sent off, so if you blink you'll miss the small dialog box which flashes up in the top right-hand corner. Gray often makes comments about players being injured but there is no on-screen indication whether this is the case or not.

One more serious problem occurred when we were playing a 2 player game and my son's keeper was red carded for bringing down my striker in the penalty area. He was taken straight to a substitution screen and told he must put another keeper on the pitch. Sounds reasonable doesn't it? Unfortunately the game wouldn't let him swap an outfield player for the keeper sitting on his bench, and to cap it all the game then crashed when we tried to return to the action. The first time any Wii game has crashed on us.

Two player mode is great fun, and we also enjoyed playing in co-op mode. Unfortunately it doesn't look like you can play two human teams in a league or cup tournament which is a real shame. You can play in co-op mode, but it would have been great to play the Barclays Premier against human AND computer teams rather than just the latter. I may be wrong, in which case it is not at all obvious how to do this and the instruction manual is no help in this case.

So there you have it. The game gets 4 stars for being great fun, making the most of the Wii's unique remote, and because there are so many leagues and cups to conquer - as well as online. It loses a star because of the minor niggles noted above, but especially because you can't enter two human teams into a league or cup tourney. Overall though, great value for your £30.

Noticably better than last years
Now the title may indicate that I wasn't a fan of last years but actually it was my most played game on the wii purely down to its pick up & play-ability. This years edition instantly is better purely because it has a manager mode , if they released last years game with just a manager mode I would have been happy, they didn't they put new controls in which at first I thought we're very off putting but after a couple of matches I was getting used to it & now feel it's genuinely for the benefit of the game( even if you get confused when playing with your mates & little cursors are flying all over the screen, ) My friends first comment was "god these controls are difficult " but he also settle after a couple of mii matches. ( the mii matches are a welcome extra also just a little bit of fun but reminds me of the mario charged football ie arcade style )

The manager mode is VERY basic you can't really do a lot with it but you can buy/sell players deal with contracts/media & nurture talent ( sort of.... my player at stoke went up 3 levels in one match but the next match returned to his old level ??? don't know why & no manual to explain ) Again I am not putting it down it's just we're all used to football manager & champ manager's deph of controls but of course this just isn't achievable with the wii unfortunately, either way very pleased to have it in & certainly better than just entering tornament after tornament last last year.

The graphics are improved but to be honest I couldn't tell because I think the camera angle I choose, but the replays really do show some pretty impressive shots of players that look like the real players ( even dave kitson was pretty darn good considering he's at stoke I Was quite surprised ) In game sound is as good as last year no real need for improvement. One thing I have noticed which I'm disapointed with is the Music on the disc, last years was brilliant loads of songs & I often left the wii on with the music playing around the house but this years songs aren't the same style or even don't seem to be so many of them so I am slightly disapointed on that note. Gameplay,it flows great charactors respond well to this new meter we have so you really have to build your play up to score great goals, the players slow dramatically when they are tired & I actually have to be tactical now & not run them around the pitch all match on pressing mode as I end up needing to use all of my substitures. Shooting: this one is a biggy I spent ages running around the pitch trying to find areas you can score fluke goals from ( as in fifa 08 it was near the corner you fire one in at the keeper & the keeper hits it into his own net worked about everyone 1 in 3, also the keeper often chucked it to his closest defender & if you marked him you could pick up an easy goal) but this one wow there is nowhere, the GK is actually clever now you hit a shot from the corner & it flies off ANYWHERE the game relies a lot of randomness ( by that I think it means my players abilities perhaps if I had rooney , the guy on the front cover :p he would be able to score some screamers ) also I spent a lot of time practicing in the 'academy' where you learn like practice mode, & the shots do just seem to be random sometimes left sometimes a bit to the right & you run & hit & bang over the bar. So shooting a little disapointing when EA know the only thing people want is to score beautifully random goals every so often.

So to sum it up, the new controls are great but last years weren't bad so they could have kept them as another option, management mode MAKES this game but it's still as enjoyable as last years, I have yet to use the game cube controllers on it so perhaps that will help when friends come around. Other than that what more could you add?? I would just love football manager interface with fifa game inside but I definately think that is pc territory. 8/10 would be my grade as its not vastly different on last years but longetivity will keep this going till next year if you have friends that enjoy a good game now & again.

7 year old boy rates this 5 out of 5!!
I brought this for my son for Christmas and it is based on his opinion that this game gets a 5 out of 5. He is 7 and he plays against his 5 year old brother. The game is easy enough for both of them to play and is also enjoyed by their dad and uncles who are between 25-30.