FIFA 07

FIFA 07
UK version cover art featuring Ronaldinho (right) and Wayne Rooney
Developer(s)	EA Canada, Exient Entertainment (DS/GBA)
Publisher(s)	Electronic Arts
Designer(s)	Joe Booth, Hugues Ricour, Kaz Makita
Series	FIFA series
Platform(s)	PC, Nintendo DS, GameCube, PlayStation 2, Xbox, Game Boy Advance, PSP, Xbox 360
Release date(s)	September 25, 2006 AUS September 25, 2006 PAL September 29, 2006 NA October 3, 2006 Game Boy Advance PAL September 29, 2006 NA October 3, 2006 PlayStation Portable AUS September 25, 2006 PAL September 29, 2006 NA October 17, 2006 Xbox 360 AUS September 27, 2006 PAL October 27, 2006 NA October 31, 2006
Genre(s)	Sports game (football)
Mode(s)	Single-player, multiplayer, online multiplayer
Media/distribution	DVD, UMD, Cartridge, Nintendo optical disc

FIFA 07 (also known as FIFA Football 07 and FIFA Soccer 07) is the 2007 edition of EA Sports' series of football simulator video games. Developed by EA Canada, it is published by Electronic Arts.

It was the last game in the FIFA series to be released for the GameCube, Xbox, and Game Boy Advance, and the second to be released for the Xbox 360. The next-generation graphics and physics engine used in the Xbox 360 version will be exclusive to the console for a period of 12 months. It was also released for PC, Nintendo DS, PlayStation Portable, and PlayStation 2.

There are seven different covers of FIFA 07, each with a different player, depending on which region the game is sold in. Ronaldinho (FC Barcelona) graced the cover of all the games and was joined by Landon Donovan (Los Angeles Galaxy) and Francisco Fonseca (UANL Tigres) in North America; Wayne Rooney (Manchester United) in the United Kingdom, Australia, and the Benelux; Lukas Podolski (Bayern Munich) in Germany; David Villa (Valencia) in Spain; Kaká (Milan) in Italy; Juninho (Lyon) in France; Tranquillo Barnetta (Bayer Leverkusen) in Switzerland; and Kim Nam-Il (Suwon Samsung Bluewings) in South Korea; Jamie Butt (Hereford United).

FIFA 07 sponsored Accrington Stanley for the 2007–08 season, with the FIFA 07 logo displayed on the back of the team's shirts.

Game features

The following features are in the game:

• More than 510 teams in 27 leagues and 20 countries with over 10,000 licensed players.
• Interactive Leagues: An interactive online league has been introduced which creates interactive versions of the FA Premier League, Ligue 1, Bundesliga, and the Mexican League. Tracking the weekly real world fixtures, it matches up fans of one club against the fans of that week's fixture.
• More interactive crowds that react to every move during a game. Crowds also sound like the region the player is playing in. Home and away fans react differently to different incidents on the pitch, such as a small corner of the stadium cheering the away support.
• Manager Mode is enhanced to match realistic player experience rates. Players age and gain more experience, which improves their overall rating.
• Improved passing, crossing, and free kick techniques and advanced goalkeeper artificial intelligence (AI).
• Improved shooting techniques that measure up a player's space, composure, and technique to decide what will happen to the shot. A new "finesse" shot has been included that requires a lot more space and composure, but has less power, and can curl.
• Manager Mode can be transferred between the PlayStation 2 and PlayStation Portable with a simple USB cable. Manager Mode also features player growth and development, as well as youth training camps to produce more players (with older youth players moving up to the main team).
• New ball physics such as top spin and backspin take into account the pitch, weather and player conditions. The player can add spin to free kicks in different directions, something which was not possible in FIFA 06.
• Ability to create original clubs (not in PSP version).
• Manager Mode money is measured in pounds sterling, euro or US dollars rather than points.
• Like its predecessor, FIFA 07 offers a World XI and a Classic XI, plus an MLS All-Star team.
• FIFA 07 takes into account the kicking strength of each player, which includes a weakness on a player's non-preferred foot.
• New unlockables in the Fan Shop. Wayne Rooney is available in the shop.

Leagues

There are a total of 27 leagues available in FIFA 07. There is also an International league that features national football teams, and a Rest of World league that includes other notable clubs from around the world.

• Austrian Bundesliga³⁶⁰
• Belgian Jupiler League³⁶⁰
• Brazilian Campeonato Brasileiro³⁶⁰
• Danish SAS Ligaen ^{1 360}
• Dutch Eredivisie ^{OL 360}
• FA Premier League^OL
• Football League Championship³⁶⁰
• Football League One³⁶⁰
• Football League Two³⁶⁰
• French Ligue 1
• French Ligue 2³⁶⁰
• German Bundesliga 1
• German Bundesliga 2³⁶⁰
• Italian Serie A
• Italian Serie B^{2 360}

• Korean K-League³⁶⁰
• Major League Soccer^{360 4}
• Mexican Primera Division
• Norwegian Tippeligaen³⁶⁰
• Polish Orange Ekstraklasa^{ds 360}
• Portuguese BWINLIGA³⁶⁰
• Scottish Premier League³⁶⁰
• Spanish Primera División
• Spanish Segunda División³⁶⁰
• Swedish Allsvenskan³⁶⁰
• Swiss Axpo Super League³⁶⁰
• Turkcell Super League ^{DS GBA 3 360}

Notes

³⁶⁰ - not available on the Xbox 360 Version.
^DS - not available in the DS version.
^GBA - not available in the Game Boy Advance version.
^OL - Interactive online league.
¹ - The Danish Ligaen will be a generic league on the Nintendo DS version.
² - Juventus was included in the Italian Serie B on the Xbox, Xbox 360, PS2, Gamecube, PSP and PC versions, and in Serie A on other consoles.
³ - New Inclusion
⁴ Even though Toronto FC joined MLS for the 2007 MLS season, it was not included in this game.

Xbox 360

Electronic Arts developed a new sports engine for the Xbox 360-version of FIFA 07. This meant not only improved graphics and better controls, but the physics and control were also improved. The game collects more data from the matches than previous version, and thus is able to give a "man of the match" award. The commentary in English is provided by Martin Tyler and Andy Gray and the commentary in Mexican Spanish is provided by Enrique Bermúdez and Ricardo Peláez.

Extra features include up-to-the-minute real-world game results via real-time, weekly podcasts and news ticker, detailed football stats, information and real-world news available in five languages. Finally, the Xbox 360 version will offer a mini-game while the game loads, dropping the player in a one on one face off against the goalkeeper on a practice pitch. There is also very limited leagues on the Xbox 360 compared to the other consoles.

EA cut all but seven leagues from the Xbox 360 version of the game - one of which contained only one team (Juventus). According to producer Jean-Charles Gaudechon, this is because the new game engine took so long to develop that EA was not able to implement everything.

A FIFA 07 demo was made available on Xbox Live Marketplace on 6 October 2006.

Game soundtrack

FIFA 07 features a wide variety of world music on its soundtrack. The songs featured are as follow:

• Angélique Kidjo - "Wele Wele"
• Belasco - "Chloroform"
• Bersuit Vergarabat - "O Vas a Misa..."
• DJ Bitman - "Get on the Floor"
• Blasted Mechanism - "Blasted Empire"
• Boy Kill Boy - "Civil Sin"
• caBas - "La Cadena de Oro"
• Carlos Jean - "Get Down"
• D.O.C.H.! - "Was in der Zeitung Steht"
• Elefant - "Uh-oh Hello"
• Epik High - "Fly" ¹
• Fertig, Los! - "Sie ist in Mich Verliebt"
• Infadels - "Can't Get Enough (Mekon Remix)"
• Keane - "Nothing in My Way"
• Malibu Stacy - "Los AnGeles"
• Mellowdrone - "Oh My"
• Mobile - "New York Minute"
• Morning Runner - "Gone up in Flames"
• Muse - "Supermassive Black Hole"
• Nightmare of You - "Dear Scene, I Wish I Were Deaf"
• Outlandish - "Kom Igen"
• Paul Oakenfold - "Beautiful Goal"

• Persephone's Bees - "Muzika Dlya Fil'ma" (Music for Film)
• Plastilina Mosh - "Peligroso Pop"
• Polysics - "Tei! Tei! Tei!"
• The Prototypes - "Kaleidoscope"
• Ralph Myerz and the Jack Herren Band - "Deepest Red"
• Seu Jorge - "Tive Razão"
• Shiny Toy Guns - "You Are the One"¹
• Stijn - "Gasoline and Matches"
• Surferosa - "Royal Uniform"
• Tahiti 80 - "Big Day" ¹
• The Feeling - "Sewn"
• The Pinker Tones - "TMCR Grand Finale" ¹
• The Sheer - "Understand"
• The Young Punx - "You've Got To..." ¹
• Tigarah - "Girl Fight" ¹
• Trash Inc. - "Punk Rock Chick"
• Us3 - "Kick This" ¹
• Young Love - "Discotech"

¹Featured in the GBA version soundtrack.

Tournaments

FIFA 07 was also included in the Championship Gaming Series and the World Cyber Games.

Achievements and awards

• UK: Seventh fastest selling game of all time
• IGN: Game of the Year 2006: Best Sports Game (Xbox, PC)
• IGN: Game of the Year 2006: Best Licensed Soundtrack (Xbox 360)
• TeamXbox.com: Game of The Year 2006: Best Sports Game (Xbox)
• UK: First FIFA title to top the UK Christmas chart since FIFA 98
• AIAS Nominations (10th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards): Best Sports Game of 2006, Best Licenced Sound Track of 2006
• Average review score: 85% Xbox, 82% PS2, 80% Gamecube, 80% PSP, 78% PC, 73% Xbox 360. (metacritic.com)
• BAFTA Nominations (2007 Video Game Awards): The PC World Gamers Award (voted for by the public) (PS2)
• EGM gave it an average of 6.5.

External links

• FIFA 07 at the Open Directory Project