There's a simple question to ask about FIFA 2009. Is it better than FIFA 2008 on the N-Gage, worse, or about the same? Pardon me if I keep you on tenterhooks for a little bit longer before I answer that one (for some reason, reviews need to be a bit more than a hyperlink to last year's review with a changelog!)...
Actually, that's not that far from the truth. EA Sports games have a long history of being reissued each year, with newly updated databases, stats and information about the teams, players or other tweakable areas. This yearly update is also a great chance to do some bug fixes, improve the overall gaming experience, and generally spruce up the interface.
From what I can see, nothing has been added in terms of interface or options, although the look and theme of the menus have been tweaked to a high contrast, almost b/w negative image. Not that anything has materially changed from Fifa 08 to Fifa 09 in the menus or setting up your games. You still have your friendly games, the ability to take part in a year long league, or enter national and international competitions; plus the challenges ('win with ten mintues to go and two goals down' style) are there as well.
At this point you might as well scoot over and read the Fifa 08 review, so that we're all reading from the same page.
Right then, there actually is one major change in 2009 compared to 2008, and that's the control mechanism. It's been significantly streamlined in 2009, with only your direction keys and two action buttons. Previously there were a number of extra buttons for short passes and special moves. This has been rationalised to something that's a lot more arcade-like, and admittedly easier to explain and play.
I'm not the greatest at any FIFA game, so asking me if this makes the game any easier is rather like asking Girls Aloud if miming makes dancing on stage easier. What I can say is that I seem to be just as successful in terms of winning against rubbish teams (such as the Scotland international squad), and getting trashed by better teams than me (like West Bromwich Albion), so I'm going to say that it doesn't materially affect the ability to play well.
While you can treat FIFA 2009 like a pure arcade football game, and I'm sure a lot of casual users, and those just trying the demo, will take this route, there is more under the surface for the competent player. Each individual in the team has their own strengths and weaknesses. Some of this is quite subtle, in terms of how accurate they are at shooting the ball, but sometimes it can be very coarse, such as a defender being useless as a striker (unless he's Scottish, when everyone is useless as a striker).
And of course you have the formation of your team, the classic 4-4-2, 4-3-3 numbers bandied about to represent the number of defenders, midfield players and forwards a team has. These can be changed on the fly during a game, or between games, but naturally you need to make sure you have players who can work in the position they will be moved into if you change the formation in the middle of the game - remember you only get a handful of substitutions per game.
What does appear to have changed is the computer AI. There seems to be a much more intelligent opponent, able to position his (or her) players in better positions while defending, and able to move the ball around and read the tactical situation to a better extent than before.
Which you're going to need, because just as in FIFA 2008, there is no multiplayer mode. While it's understandable that there isn't an online version, I can't think of an earthly reason why Bluetooth multiplayer is not available. Actually that's not true - I can think of one. Because it wasn't in FIFA 2008, which likely had the lion's share of development cash. FIFA 2009 is less a new game, more a next iteration, with some bug fixes, improvements and customer feedback added to the mix. There's some cash and time for little changes, but major changes aren't for this sort of update.
FIFA 2008 is broadly the same as FIFA 2009.
Interestingly, FIFA 2008 is still listed on the N-Gage web site at £6, with FIFA 2009 at £8, which begs the question - is this version worth an extra £2? That's actually a tough call, and luckily you can still grab both demos from the site to decide. If you've been playing FIFA 2008 extensively then I don't think FIFA 2009 offers enough 'new' to the mix. Yes, the individual challenges have been updated, but the loss of control buttons feels a bit like a backwards step.
Those new to either title will probably veer towards 2009, mostly through human nature to pick up the latest ones. Don't get me wrong, there's nothing to fault the new one (apart from the same things that faulted the older version). The fact that an EA title on the N-Gage is doing what EA titles do on every platform can be considered a good sign for the platform...
AAN Score: 78%
-- Ewan Spence, Nov 2009