FIFA Street – Review

Football games have always been a popular staple in the gaming marketplace, be it NFL, Soccer, AFL or rugby (ok so that’s not REALLY football). These titles are brought out year in year out usually with a different year attached just to make it appear a little different and updated. So what does FIFA Street bring to the multitude of football games already saturating game stores shelves the world over that they have missed? Apparently it brings street style to an otherwise serious format. Let’s see how it shapes up.

When you start FIFA Street you will probably want to create your own player so let’s look at that aspect first. Customization of your character on FIFA Street is fairly in depth and is only let down by the lack of female character choice. Essentially you can make your own character, but he’s a guy. You can change his build, hair, facial features, clothing, shoes, head-ware and the color of each. Some of the items available are unlocked if you’re starting a new game, but it wont take you too long before you’re unlocking things. As well as player creation and customization you can also create and customize your own team based on various world club players. Other options include difficulty and music options.

Gameplay is fairly easy to get into since the initial tutorial explains a lot of the moves to you in a fast but simplistic manner, You can use the surrounding walls / fences to aid you in your goal seeking which makes for a fun addition to the usual football games. It’s essentially a four on four knockabout with friends to see who can build their rep and become the best street player. There are some sweet moves including the all important gamebreakers in which a shot on goal is pretty much guaranteed. In a similar style to that of NBA Street, FIFA Street allows you to build up your combo meter by performing various trick shots, when the meter is fully charged you can let rip with a gamebreaker shot which is virtually unstoppable. My first few hours with this title were really used to get to grips with the trick stick and various available moves, further into the title however the difficulty level seemed to rise to the point where the usual flood of FIFA goals turned into a mere dribble (pun intended). Although perseverance and learning all of the possible moves helped I still found it fairly difficult and frustrating.

Sound on FIFA Street is good however the introductory tutorial is all done in speech and features no subtitles, this means the deaf gamer will miss out on this section as it is difficult to tell what is going on as the tutorial player performs various basic moves and trick stick moves whilst a voice-over explains what is happening on screen. In game commentary is done by a slightly annoying cockney bad boy wannabe with numerous EA Trax from people like Dizzy Rascal, Fatboy Slim and so on. There’s an overt tone of Latin beats here as well and this coupled with the irritating commentator really takes away from the game and grates on your nerves. Yes, you can turn him off but this isn’t the point.

Graphically speaking FIFA Street is above average with the usual crisp visuals we’ve come to expect from EA titles. The character models are clean and well refined, whilst the pitches themselves do bring a certain urban quality that is otherwise lacking in the clubland hell that is the soundtrack. Because there are so many customization options, you really get the opportunity to push the graphics a little and they hold up well. There aren’t any ridiculously long load times and everything seems pretty fresh and responsive.

Multiplayer support other than the usual 1-4 player offline option has been left out for some reason, as with NBA Street this is another missed opportunity as having Xbox Live support could have really made a big difference to this title and opened up the longevity factor no end. It definitely is more fun playing against a friend than it is playing against the computer which seems to always win (or at least wins the majority of times) and if you have a couple of mates around you can have a laugh as you chip the ball over their defenders head and volley it into goal. Great fun to be had here and plenty of taunting and teasing is par for the course.

Female Gamers weep as this title, unlike its basketball cousin NBA Street V3 does not allow you to generate a female character, after all this is football (soccer) and therefore, apparently only the territory of men. For me this was a missed opportunity because the same joy I felt when I realized I could make a female character in the NBA title was sorely missed during the character creation of FIFA Street.

Overall this could have been an excellent title that truly brought a football title to the streets, sadly it all just seems a little bit pretentious, like EA thought they’d work with an idea of what it meant to be ‘street’. Although the game itself is a lot of fun the ‘wicked innit’ DJ and repetitive apparently ‘street muzak’ make the game more of an exercise in stereotyping than an urban adventure. On the upside and commentator niggles aside this title does bring something new to the football genre; it’s like a strange mix of Sega Soccer Slam and FIFA which can make for some amazing trick shots but I’m wondering if trick shots alone and bouncing off walls will keep the serious football gamer glued for more than a few manic hours. All that said it’s a nice entry effort that if fine tuned could make for some more EA Big magic that other titles with the big logo convey, it will be interesting to see how this franchise evolves and what can be brought forward with the inevitable release of FIFA Street V2 (just lose the urban wannabe commentator!). All up a slightly above average, but not wholly brilliant effort that will mean more fun to those with multiplayer friends than single player gamers alone.

Review by Angela