Almost a year to the day since the release of FIFA 06, EA Sports has released that game's inevitable sequel, FIFA 07, for the PlayStation Portable. Last year's game represented a major improvement over its predecessor; so the question, of course, is whether or not the same can be said of this year's offering. For the most part, the answer is yes, but although FIFA 07 plays the same enjoyable, fast-paced soccer that its home-console counterparts do, the game counts a handful of bugs among its new features, one of which can occasionally shut down your PSP completely in the middle of a match when playing in manager mode.

The success of passes and shots now depends on your player's positioning and balance.

If you're familiar with FIFA 06, you'll find that FIFA 07 plays a quite different game of soccer to its predecessor, though initially it can be difficult to figure out exactly what has changed. One of the few obvious changes to this year's game is that players accelerate and decelerate more realistically, which means that they can't turn nearly as quickly when they're moving at speed. This results in your needing to pass the ball more, and depending on your play style, you might find that your trick modifier (left shoulder button) gets a lot more use than it did last year when you're attempting to beat opposing players in one-on-one situations. Both passing and using trick moves are a little more challenging in FIFA 07 than they were in 06, and because that's true for both teams (and because tackling when you're on defense is still relatively easy), the result is often that ball possession changes more frequently.

Trick moves have become more challenging not because they have a lower success rate, but simply because the controls for them are a little less forgiving. The section on trick moves in the mostly inadequate FIFA 07 instruction manual bears more than a passing resemblance to a special-moves list for a fighting game, and some of the star players even boast their own unique tricks. Passing the ball hasn't become more difficult per se; you just can't take it for granted as much because the accuracy of your passes is now dependant on the positioning of your player in relation to both the ball and his intended target. A pass to a player directly in front of you when you have the ball at your feet, for example, is more likely to succeed than a pass to a teammate who is barely in your players' field of vision, particularly if you're trying to make that pass on your first touch after receiving the ball at waist height. Lengthy strings of one-touch passes, then, are more difficult in FIFA 07 than in previous games, which adds a nice risk-versus-reward mechanic any time you attempt one rather than take a moment to get the ball under control.

Shots at goal are also greatly affected by the positioning and balance of your player, as well as by how well he has the ball under control. If you try to play the game just like FIFA 06, you'll watch a lot of your shots fly wide of the goal and into the crowd. This can be frustrating at times, but the flipside is that spectacular, almost unbelievable goals in the game are now the exception rather than the norm, which is certainly a good thing. That's not to say that scoring goals in FIFA 07 is difficult, though, because it isn't. Defenders generally back off attacking players a little too much, and the goalkeepers, although good at stopping shots for the most part, are a little too prone to spilling the ball when they do. Worse still, the goalkeepers will occasionally stand motionless while they watch a ball fly past them--we've even seen this happen with a headed back pass that could hardly have been better--the only part of the keeper that moved in the slow-motion replay of that particular own-goal was his head, as he turned to watch the ball narrowly miss his face and hit the back of the net. Worthy of note on the plus side is the new "finesse shot" feature that, using a modifier button that needs to be held down when taking a shot, lets you unleash shots that are more accurate but less powerful. It's not a feature that we've felt inclined to use a great deal, but if you've already beaten the defense and rounded the keeper it's a great way to avoid embarrassing open-goal misses.

Another way that you can avoid potentially embarrassing mistakes, though in a much more subtle way, is to keep your team's momentum up. Your momentum, as indicated by a performance meter in the top-left corner of the screen, is an indication of how well your players think the game is going, as determined not only by the current score but also by recent events on the pitch. It's entirely possible, then, for your team to be a couple of goals down but your players will still be playing their very best football or, by the same token, to be winning a game but struggling to contain their opponents. It's difficult to quantify just how much of an effect momentum has on your players' behavior, but it's definitely noticeable, and we've enjoyed numerous matches in which the run of play has shifted between the two teams several times.

Defenders and goalkeepers don't behave as realistically off the ball as their attacking counterparts.

Matches like those, along with one-sided goalfests, are perhaps the ones that best show off one of FIFA 07's most consistently good features--in-game sound. The commentary from ITV's Clive Tyldesley and Sky Sports' Andy Gray isn't nearly as repetitive as it has been in previous years, and although it's not always entirely accurate, it's certainly delivered well. Complementing the commentary team's efforts perfectly is the noise from the crowd, which changes dramatically according to what's happening on the field and which of the teams is playing at home. The commentary and crowd chants on the PSP aren't as varied as those in the home-console versions of FIFA 07, but they're impressive nonetheless, and they really contribute to the feeling that you're playing in an important match.

As was the case in FIFA 06, the players on your team other than the one that you're controlling are adept at making off-the-ball runs and such. You'll often need to trigger offensive runs manually, which is achieved simply by tapping the left shoulder button, and the subsequent pass or through ball invariably feels more satisfying as a result. CPU-controlled players are less proactive on defense than they are on offense, unfortunately, which is especially noticeable when they continue to back away from attackers well into the penalty area. You shouldn't be relying too much on any defender that you're not controlling yourself anyway, and the good news is that when you switch players on defense, you'll usually be given a defender with a chance of intervening rather than one who's chasing back from a forward position, even if the latter is closer.