When I came up with my iterative, mind-saving approach to writing about FIFA games, I wasn’t thinking about the one which didn’t get to #1. But FIFA 2001 was swept aside by Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? and so we’re in the weird situation of looking at a two-year gap since my post on FIFA 2000, as well as a console generation leap. Luckily, FIFA 2001 even on PS2 was very similar to FIFA 2000, so this should still work realtively seamlessly.
What’s new in FIFA 2002?
The gameplay gets a fairly significant overhaul, with power bars for everything, some new visual systems, and a much greater emphasis on precise control, instead of the spectacular automated moves that had been the stuff of FIFA from the beginning.
The menus feel rather less antiquated and PC-bound, and there are some structural tweaks around the edges. You earn rewards through managing certain things in tournaments, which could be taken as an indication of a future of achievements and trophies but takes on greater future significance when the rewards for winning a tournament are virtual Panini trading cards. Remember that concept.
In other stuff, the Swiss league joins the list, and this being a FIFA with a World Cup year in the title it has a return of the World Cup Qualifying mode from FIFA 98 (in 2002 co-hosts Japan, indeed, this game was similarly subtitled Road to FIFA World Cup). However, rather than the comprehensive approach that time, this one doesn’t bother with Africa and Oceania, a questionable bit of neglect which loses a lot of the joy of the concept.
What’s gone?
The traffic light + arrows indicator for who it might be wise to pass to has been phased out as part of a more general change in approach. The Greek league is also gone.
What’s stayed?
Dependable commentators John Motson and Andy Gray are still around, and still providing the same ambient television experience as long as you don’t listen too closely, even as other presentational aspects change around them. The player and team editor lives on. Most of the licences that go into its claim of ‘the most content ever in a football game’ are longstanding ones.
Who is on the cover?
Thierry Henry (Arsenal, F) pointing with intent and with a weird motion blur applied to what is clearly a still pose. A nice bit of continuity from Dennis Bergkamp in FIFA 99 and I guess it’s designed as a gesture to the emphasis on off-the-ball runs.
What’s on the soundtrack?
More licensed music and a move further away from rock and into, among other things, more Tiësto tracks. The intro song being the Soulchild single version of “19-2000” by Gorillaz, the hip new band of the guy from FIFA 98’s “Song 2”, was about the most conservative possible way of signalling a change in emphasis.
Who is the best player in the game?
With each player on a rating system on different attributes going from 1 to 7, plus an overall rating (which is not the sum of these but subject to its own complex mathematics) it’s easy to read how good players are. And with a full set of eight sevens making for an overall 97, the perfect player according to FIFA Football 2002 is Luis Figo of Portugal and Real Madrid. He was the previous year’s winner of the Ballon d’Or and therefore arguably the canonical choice here, although he’d slipped to 6th by the list at the end of 2001.
Who is the worst player in the game?
The worst player I could find among the named club players was Mordi Shwartz (GK, rated 2 on everything and 37 overall), of Hapoel Beer-Sheva in the Israeli league. He didn’t leave much of a mark on football but he has an entry on transfermarkt.pt! Assuming the slightly different spelling doesn’t indicate a different person. Go to the international sides not even granted the luxury of real players and there are many worse. Hong Kong’s No. 4 (RB) and No. 19 (CF) are both rated 25, for instance.
What do the players look like?
A look at Figo up there is a visible improvement from a few games ago, but while it boasts “realistic player likenesses and heights” and it’s nice to have some variation, likenesses still don’t stretch far past haircuts. And when it comes to the game in motion in matches, it’s shocking how much FIFA Football 2002 on the PS2 looks like a PS1 game. No doubt EA’s commitment to everyone still wanting to play the new season’s FIFA on the older console was a reasonable factor, but it does look awful next to This is Football 2002.
How does it play?
FIFA Football 2002 was released eight months after the Japanese release of World Soccer: Winning Eleven 5, or as it would be known here, Pro Evolution Soccer, the first PS2 version of Konami’s series previously known as International Superstar Soccer. The PS1 predecessors had already made waves, and EA appear to have been terrified, because the revisions in FIFA Football 2002 largely amount to remaking it in the image of its rival. Slower, weightier, more methodical and aiming for a similar realism, it’s a big change of direction.
There are some new flashy interface ideas in the shape of dots indicating where players might run, allowing you to face them, press a button to set them off, and pass into the space ahead of them. Complete with some spin bordering on the absurd, if you want. It’s a lot fiddlier and harder to learn, though the instinct that playing the perfect defence-splitting through ball largely through your own vision and precision is more exciting than any amount of automated spectacle isn’t a bad one. Practice long enough and it has some rewards, but outside of those moments it can just feel like everyone is playing with weights on their feet. And a botched, identity-shredding new direction had the potential to be a dangerous moment for the series.
How does it score on the sepp-blatter-rain-of-banknotes.gif greed index?
It’s a substantial revision, even if it’s largely not for the better, and there’s no grasping beyond the general nature of yearly updates. Let’s go for 0.2 sepp-blatter-rain-of-banknotes.gifs and a sidelong glance at the introduction of a trading card concept.
If FIFA Football 2002 was a football team at the time, who would it be?
Still capable of very impressive stuff on the right day but visibly standing on the edge of a treacherous precipice – it’s Leeds United.
Top of the charts for week ending 10 November 2001:
UK games: FIFA Football 2002 (EA Sports, PS2) 
Japan games: プロ野球 Japan 2001 / Pro Baseball Japan 2001 (Konami, PS2) 
UK films: The Others 
UK singles: Westlife – Queen of My Heart 
UK albums: Steps – Gold: Greatest Hits