Those who played the previous FIFA know what went wrong. It wasn’t a bad game, really, but it wasn’t a very good one either. It played like a diet version of the full-powered console game and even though that is what the portable versions are, it’s never a good sign when the player notices that.

This year, Electronic Arts promised some real improvements and let me tell you already, they kept word. First of all a big hurray to the return of practice. Last year this mode was absent for god knows what reason and that was a real shame. It got even more annoying when you have a loading message telling you to “get to know your free kick taker” while you have no means to get to know him at all.

Next to the return of practice, all other modes are still there and the most important ones had some work done left and right. First of all the newest mode to FIFA, Be a Pro, got a small upgrade towards Be a Pro: Club & Country. When I say small, I actually mean small in effort but big in impact. This time the player that you take control of doesn’t just play to improve and rack up as many stats as possible, nope, now you need to factor in the national team of his country. This is a very challenging task when you start with a player who is actually not selected for the starting eleven of his own team.

If you are not into the whole third-person soccer game you can still play the traditional season where you take control of one club and finish season after season with all the leagues, cups and competitions you could want. This mode is, for me, still the core of the game and it finally plays like a real soccer sim. One can really adjust the team tactics and play style to whatever you like. I always like an aggressive approach with high pressing on the ball and playing triangles when in possession. It worked like a charm on my Xbox 360 but up until this edition it never really worked on the portable version.

Now on to the bad stuff. First of all there are a bunch of modes that really only take up space like the Football IQ tests and the Manager mode. Football IQ is way too random and clearly not really worked out properly. It’s more like an extra from the loading screens that got its own little mode. Manager mode gets better every year but it’s still just an appetizer.

There are also some small flaws in the two main modes. In Be a Pro you really need to take control of the whole game with your player because your teammates run around like a bunch of scared chooks. When they get a ball with no one in front, they usually just run towards a defender and try to pass him. Half the times you end up forcing them to play the ball backwards so you can send them on a run and give the ball back. This is manageable when you are a midfielder, but not when you are an attacker or a defender. What makes it more frustrating is that your opponent does seem to possess the necessary artificial intelligence to set up combinations and attacks and your four star rated team gets blown away by a two and a half star rated team with a star player that has a 66% overall rating. Next to that the Be a Pro mode also has some rather useless objectives like “be in front for less than 50 minutes”. What? If I can be up two goals after 5 minutes I’m going to do so.

Another issue that is present in both modes is the clumsiness of the physics aspect. You can’t count the number of times two teammates run into each other and lose the ball. If you aren’t losing the ball because of that, you can bet that you get a free kick against you because of some freak-of-nature involuntary hands ball. This can get annoying but I can live with it because having ‘real’ physical objects has way more pros than cons. It really made me smile when I tried to slide a ball under the keeper and he sat on it making it pop up from underneath him and cross the goal line.