Beating the world isn't easy.

EA Sports' FIFA World Cup 2002 for the Xbox is a difficult game to trust in that it seems to be banking on the hype of the upcoming World Cup tournament without supplying the full breadth of goodies EA fans are used to.

The situation is further complicated by the fact that World Cup has astounding graphics (aside from some framerate issues), intuitive gameplay (aside from occasionally counter-intuitive gameplay), and great licensing (but no Franchise mode to really take advantage of it). The game scores with one foot and fouls with the other.

World Cup's modes are the easiest modes to review ever, because there are only two. You can play Friendlies (exhibition games) and the World Cup tournament. You can also set up a tournament that mimics the World Cup if you'd like to take on some friends. The title of the game is extremely fitting, as the World Cup tournament is essentially the entire game.

While the game lacks the usual amount of customization, you can substitute players, tweak your team's formation, and alter the strategies of your players to a satisfying degree. However, next to FIFA 2002's hundreds of teams and possibilities, World Cup's 40-odd teams are like small potatoes on a very big plate of expectations.

As a result, World Cup lives and dies by its gameplay. The big new features, which should be the saving graces, also give the game a simple, repetitive quality.

The first change is the easier one touch/air play system. If a ball is coming to your player, you hit the button that corresponds to what you want your player to do, and if he's good enough, he does it. His actions also hinge upon the pressure with which you hit the button and how long you hold it. Definitely a change for the better.

The next change is the inclusion of Star Players. Every player in World Cup has eight attributes, with values ranging from 1 (weak) to 7 (killer!). Any player with a 7 in his attributes is considered a Star Player, and any time he does something that corresponds to his talent the action is accompanied by a blurring effect. For example, if your player is a star kicker, his shots will sound like a landing 747 while the ball will leave a red trail.

The downside to Star Players is that they don't take much skill to use. If you have a star shooter, he'll score every time he kicks the ball as long as he's inside the penalty box. You can turn up the difficulty to compensate for this, but you can also forget scoring with any other player.

Another new feature is the ability to juggle the ball. It's a cool ability that allows the player to field an air ball with the body part of their choice, but it isn't as intuitive as it needs to be. I can juggle a soccer ball pretty damn well, and I don't even play soccer that much. Juggling is second nature for pros, which is why the weird press-this-button-in-this-amount-of-time scheme seems unfit.

The passing setup is the same as it was in FIFA 2002. However, the control scheme isn't as friendly on the Xbox as it is on the Playstation 2. The problem lies in the fact that all the important buttons are on the face of the Xbox controller, as opposed to having a couple allotted to shoulder buttons like on the PS2. So when you try sprinting while through passing, or sprinting, juking and then through passing, you'll have to use at least two fingers at once, which is hard for the old-school thumb-gamers like myself to deal with. Playing this way also requires you to change your grip on the controller if you want to use the shoulder buttons, which control ball-spin.

World Cup's graphics are notable for two reasons. The first is the quality of the player animations - they're nearly flawless. There are practically no instances of players 'popping' up off the ground or magically going from one position to the next; everything is smooth. This game contains eye candy that would make Willy Wonka proud.

The second graphical shock are the frame-rate issues, which spoil the beauty of the animations like an outtie on a super-model. Isn't this the Xbox? Why does the game slow down when the ball changes hands, er, feet? Sure the game has plenty to keep track of, but the Xbox should be better than this.

World Cup sounds awesome with a dramatic, symphonic score and decent commentary by Andy Gray and John Motson. The commentary can be heard in 8 languages other than English, including Greek (Go Manolis Mavrommatis!). The sound effects are top notch - players yell to each other for passes, and the crowd roar is literally a roar.

While possessing decent graphics and some nice play mechanics, FIFA World Cup 2002 for the Xbox isn't what Xbox fans should ultimately hope for in a soccer title. More depth and modes would lift it to stellar heights.