''FIFA Football 2005'', also known as ''FIFA Soccer 2005'' in North America or simply ''FIFA 2005'', is a football

simulation A simulation is the imitation of the operation of a real-world process or system over time. Simulations require the use of models; the model represents the key characteristics or behaviors of the selected system or process, whereas the s ...

video game released in 2004. It was developed by

EA Canada EA Vancouver (formerly known as EA Burnaby, then EA Canada) is a Canadian video game developer located in Burnaby, British Columbia. The development studio opened as Distinctive Software in January 1983, and is also Electronic Arts's largest and ...

and published by

Electronic Arts Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) is an American video game company headquartered in Redwood City, California. Founded in May 1982 by Apple employee Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer game industry and promoted the ...

. It was released for the PlayStation, PlayStation 2, Microsoft Windows,

Xbox Xbox is a video gaming brand created and owned by Microsoft. The brand consists of five video game consoles, as well as applications (games), streaming services, an online service by the name of Xbox network, and the development arm by the ...

, PlayStation Portable (as simply ''FIFA Soccer''), GameCube,

mobile phone A mobile phone, cellular phone, cell phone, cellphone, handphone, hand phone or pocket phone, sometimes shortened to simply mobile, cell, or just phone, is a portable telephone that can make and receive calls over a radio frequency link whi ...

Gizmondo The Gizmondo is a handheld gaming console developed by Tiger Telematics. It was released in the UK, Sweden and the U.S. starting in March 2005. Its first-party games were developed in studios in Helsingborg, Sweden, and Manchester, England. Gi ...

, N-Gage and the

Game Boy Advance The (GBA) is a 32-bit handheld game console developed, manufactured and marketed by Nintendo as the successor to the Game Boy Color. It was released in Japan on March 21, 2001, in North America on June 11, 2001, in the PAL region on June 22, ...

. The tagline for the game was: "A great player needs a great first touch". ''FIFA 2005'' is the twelfth game in the

FIFA series ''FIFA'', also known as ''FIFA Football'' and to be rebranded as ''EA Sports FC'' from 2023, is a series of association football video games developed and released annually by Electronic Arts under the EA Sports label. As of 2011, the ''FIFA'' fr ...

, the ninth in 3D and the final game in the series for the PlayStation. ''FIFA Football 2005'' marks the first time to include the seventh-generation

handheld game consoles A handheld game console, or simply handheld console, is a small, portable self-contained video game console with a built-in screen, game controls and speakers. Handheld game consoles are smaller than home video game consoles and contain the cons ...

. The Japanese version of the game went by the name of ''FIFA Total Football 2'' and was released on 9 December 2004. FIFA Football 2005 is the last licensed game to be released for the PlayStation in North America.

Gameplay

Improving the career mode, the game was extensively advertised and released much sooner than the usual late October dates to avoid proximity with the release of '' Pro Evolution Soccer 4'' and the EA Big release ''

FIFA Street ''FIFA'', also known as ''FIFA Football'' and to be rebranded as ''EA Sports FC'' from 2023, is a series of association football video games developed and released annually by Electronic Arts under the EA Sports label. As of 2011, the ''FIFA'' fr ...

''. The game featured a return of create-a-player mode, as well as an improved, 15-season-long career mode. The game's biggest difference compared to previous titles was the inclusion of first-touch gameplay which provided gamers the ability to perform real-life tricks and passes. It was also the first version to feature the full

Mexican League The Mexican League (, ) is a professional baseball league based in Mexico and the oldest running professional league in the country. The league has 18 teams organized in two divisions, North and South. Teams play 114 games each season. Five te ...

, which boosted sales in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

. The soundtrack was headlined by British DJ

Paul Oakenfold Paul Mark Oakenfold (born 30 August 1963), formerly known mononymously as Oakenfold, is an English record producer, remixer and trance DJ. He has provided over 100 remixes for over 100 artists including U2, Moby, Madonna, Britney Spears, Mas ...

, who composed the "FIFA Theme" especially for the game. The soundtrack was Faithless,

Ivete Sangalo Ivete Maria Dias de Sangalo (; born 27 May 1972) is a Brazilian singer-songwriter, TV host, and occasional actress. She was on six albums with Banda Eva, and seven more solo albums. Sangalo is noted for her powerful voice, charisma and live pe ...

, JoJo,

Marcelo D2 Marcelo Maldonado Peixoto (born November 5, 1967), also known as Marcelo D2, is a Brazilian rapper and singer. Biography A former vocalist of the band Planet Hemp, he started his solo career in 1998 with the album ''Eu Tiro É Onda.'' The al ...

Oomph! Oomph! is a German rock band from Wolfsburg, formed in 1989. The band pioneered the Neue Deutsche Härte movement. Their work contains lyrics in both English and German, with a shift towards German exclusively on recent albums ('' GlaubeLiebeTo ...

Scissor Sisters Scissor Sisters were an American pop rock band formed in 2001. Its members include Jake Shears and Ana Matronic as vocalists, Babydaddy as multi-instrumentalist, Del Marquis as lead guitar/bassist, and Randy Real (who replaced Paddy Boom) ...

and

Seeed Seeed is a German hip hop, reggae and dancehall band based in Berlin. Founded in 1998, they have become well known in Germany and its neighboring countries. Musical style and lyrics Seeed consists of eleven band members, including three ...

. The main cover for the game featured

Patrick Vieira Patrick Vieira (born 23 June 1976) is a French professional football manager and former player who is the manager of club Crystal Palace. He is widely considered as one of the greatest midfielders of his generation. Vieira began his career at ...

Fernando Morientes Fernando Morientes Sánchez (; born 5 April 1976) is a Spanish former professional footballer who played as a striker, currently a manager. He played for a number of clubs during his career, including Real Madrid, Monaco, Liverpool and Valenci ...

and Andriy Shevchenko. On the North American cover

Oswaldo Sánchez Oswaldo Javier Sánchez Ibarra (; born 21 September 1973) is a Mexican former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper and a sports analyst for Televisa Deportes. He is highly regarded as one of the best goalkeepers in Mexican football ...

replaced Vieira.

John Motson John Walker Motson (10 July 1945 – 23 February 2023) was an English football commentator. Beginning as a television commentator with the BBC in 1971, he commentated on over 2000 games on television and radio. From the late 1970s to 2008, Mo ...

provides commentary with

Ally McCoist Alistair Murdoch McCoist, (; born 24 September 1962) is a Scottish former footballer who has since worked as a manager and TV pundit. McCoist began his playing career with Scottish club St Johnstone before moving to English side Sunderland in ...

on special comments in the English version of the game. In most territories, ''FIFA 2005'' was the last game to release on the PlayStation console. The game's online servers were closed in 2008.

Reception

According to Electronic Arts, ''FIFA Football 2005'' sold above 4.5 million units worldwide by the end of 2004. While it had inferior gameplay to Konami's series, it was acknowledged to have improved significantly since the 2003 edition. The PlayStation 2 version of ''FIFA Football 2005'' received a "Double Platinum" sales award from the

Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association The Association for UK Interactive Entertainment (Ukie) is a non-profit trade association for the video game industry in the United Kingdom (UK). Ukie was originally founded as the European Leisure Software Publishers Association (ELSPA), and the ...

(ELSPA), indicating sales of at least 600,000 copies in the United Kingdom. The game was met with positive to average reception. GameRankings and

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

gave it a score of 85.33% for the Mobile version; 82.07% and 81 out of 100 for the Xbox version; 82% and 75 out of 100 for the Game Boy Advance version; 81.46% and 81 out of 100 for the PlayStation 2 version; 80.99% and 78 out of 100 for the GameCube version; 78.25% and 77 out of 100 for the PC version; 77.90% and 79 out of 100 for the N-Gage version; and 74.36% and 73 out of 100 for the PSP version.

GameSpot ''GameSpot'' is an American video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information on video games. The site was launched on May 1, 1996, created by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady and Jon Epstein. In addition ...

gave the Mobile version a score of 8.4 out of 10 and said, "It doesn't supersede the console versions in any way, but the fact that it comes reasonably close says a lot about the quality of this game as well as about how far mobile gaming has come along."

IGN ''IGN'' (formerly ''Imagine Games Network'') is an American video game and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa distri ...

gave the same version 7.5 out of 10 and called it "unnecessarily hard". It received a runner-up placement in ''GameSpot''s 2004 "Best N-Gage Game" award category, losing to ''

Colin McRae Rally 2005 ''Colin McRae Rally 2005'' is a racing video game developed and published by Codemasters. Gameplay As with previous games in the series, ''Colin McRae Rally 2005'' is presented as a realistic rally simulation, with players participating in ralli ...

''.

References

External links

Official site
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Fifa Football 2005 2004 video games Electronic Arts games EA Sports games Esports games 2005 Game Boy Advance games GameCube games Gizmondo games Mobile games N-Gage games PlayStation (console) games PlayStation 2 games PlayStation Portable games Video games developed in Canada Windows games Xbox games Video games set in 2004 Video games set in 2005 La Liga licensed video games Multiplayer and single-player video games