FIFA 2002 World Cup

Qualify for the World Cup or dominate domestically

FIFA 2002 was the ninth game in the internationally renowned FIFA series and, as with every new version of the game, it came packed with new features to keep EA Sports at the very front of the football simulator market. For today's player, the game still has a lot to offer even though graphically it comes nowhere near its modern counterparts and the controls can feel clunky after the super-realistic ball control touches of the latter FIFA games.

New for 2002

Whilst the basic gameplay is the same for each member of the FIFA series (choose a team, choose a tournament, mess around with the line up and formations then try to win), there are several features new to the series in FIFA 2002:

• Power bars - up until this point, players had little or no control over the power of their pass or shot. In earlier versions, you simply tapped a button and the pace was dictated by that player's stats. From 1999, the longer you held the button down, the more power you would get. In 2002, however, EA Sports made power bars visible for the first time, so players could see how hard they were hitting the ball, as well as paying an accuracy penalty for kicking it too hard.

• Qualification for the World Cup - All previous incarnations of FIFA had an international tournament option, and in 1998 you were able to edit one of the teams in their so you could choose your favourite country to take part. The 2002 edition saw players able to take charge of a country and guide them through the sometimes convoluted qualification process to the World Cup before being able to take part in the finals themselves.

• World Cup bonus game - For those players who wanted to play as Japan, South Korea or France, who had all qualified for the World Cup as hosts and previous winners, EA Sports introduced a bonus game in which players took control of their preferred country and tried to improve their FIFA ranking by playing a series of increasingly difficult international friendlies.

• Panini sticker bonuses - after listening to gamer feedback from the previous versions, the 2002 edition of FIFA football included rewards for winning the different international and domestic competitions for the first time. Under license from Panini, who make all the stickers for the World Cup tournaments, players could unlock a star player sticker for winning a competition for the first time. This gives you access to World Cup heroes from yesteryear to use in the modern competition. It's an intriguing sight to see Pele and Maradona back in their respective sides, but helps put to bed how they would cope in today's international arena.

• New leagues - For the first time, the Swiss Super League was included, allowing players to take control of Young Boys Bern and Grasshoppers for the first time. This was at the expense of the Greek league, but the three top teams can still be found in the Rest of the World section for friendly matches

Pros

• Longer game when you qualify for the World Cup
• Bonus games
• Panini stickers as rewards

Cons

• Hard to score from long distance
• Not all national teams are licensed, so you get strange player names
• Power bars hard to manage with weaker players