FIFA Soccer

FIFA Soccer for PSP is Electronic Arts' 2005 portable football game, released under the EA Sports label as the first FIFA entry for Sony's handheld. It is the PSP edition associated with FIFA Soccer 2005, but its North American box title omits the year; elsewhere the wider release was known as FIFA Football 2005 or FIFA Soccer 2005. Built around the 2004–05 season, the game brings licensed club and international football, recognizable kits and team identities, and a presentation designed to resemble its console relatives to the widescreen portable.

Matches are played from a choice of broadcast-like, overhead, and other adjustable camera views. Players pass, shoot, cross, tackle, and work the ball into space while the game models rebounds and loose-ball movement separately from the athletes themselves. Its first-touch system lets a player attempt to control the ball with a purposeful touch, turn, or trick before continuing the move. On PSP, movement uses the analog nub while first-touch inputs are assigned to the directional pad, adapting a feature originally made for controllers with more analog controls. Shoulder-button commands can call teammates into forward runs, bring defensive support, and modify certain chipped deliveries.

The roster offers more than 350 licensed club and international sides from around the world. Licensed strips, badges, sponsor markings, and many prominent players give the teams their period-specific identity, while a create-a-player option lets users add an original footballer rather than alter existing pros. A transfer-market menu permits players to move squad members between teams for custom lineups. The game also retains set pieces, including free kicks, corners, penalties, and throw-ins, so positioning and timing matter beyond open-play attacks.

FIFA Soccer PSP provides several ways to structure a campaign. A full Season option covers any of 26 club divisions, while Midseason Scenario begins from real 2004–05 league standings and results after the first half of a season. That mode concentrates on 18 European divisions and asks the player to take a selected club through the remaining fixtures. Custom Season supports a user-made league with from three to 20 teams, and Tournament mode includes more than 20 licensed cup competitions alongside configurable tournaments of the player's own design. Exhibition matches provide a direct route to a single fixture.

Challenge mode turns famous 2004 matches into 40 time-limited situations. Rather than replaying each match from kickoff, the player enters a prescribed scoreline and moment on the clock, then tries to produce the required comeback, lead, or goal total. Clearing challenges unlocks later scenarios and earns FIFA Soccer points. Those points can be spent in the in-game store on extras including alternative kits, official balls, stadium night options, additional music, and referee Pierluigi Collina. The system gives individual matches and milestones such as clean sheets or hat tricks a progression layer outside the season tables.

The PSP version also supports wireless head-to-head play, allowing two nearby players to contest matches and preserve their results against one another. Its use of the handheld's broad screen helps keep a large horizontal section of the pitch visible, while replays include telestrator-style drawings that illustrate a goal sequence. EA's Pocket Trax feature functions as a dedicated soundtrack player from the game's menus, with an on-screen visualization. Match presentation combines crowd ambience with English commentary from John Motson and Ally McCoist, and the soundtrack contains 35 licensed tracks from artists including Air, Debi Nova, New Order, Morrissey, and The Libertines.

As a PSP-specific version, FIFA Soccer is not the same package as the console editions bearing the 2005 name. It preserves much of their on-field design, licenses, first-touch play, ball physics, and season-era content, but it omits the full career mode found on those larger releases and reshapes the controls for Sony's handheld. Its mix of complete seasons, midseason tables, cup play, challenges, customization, and wireless competition made it an early example of the FIFA series' console-style scope on the PSP.