FIFA Street
Soccer samba or football folly, Sam kicks-off...
The meat of the game is the aforementioned Rule the Street mode. Here you build up a squad which you then play off against other street teams, (all made up of international sporting superstars, naturally) in kick abouts. Playing these matches supposedly increases your player's skills and will accrue you SBs depending on how stylish your match was, which can then be spent on upgrading your team. Get your team's rating up high enough and you can enter that area's knockout tournament. Win this and another zone in another country unlocks so you can repeat the process all over again. As matches are won by the first team to score five goals the relative strength of the opposing goalies to your player's abilities means games can last upwards of twenty minutes. Consider that you will have to win eight matches before you get to enter the first competition and you can begin to appreciate just how long it would take to finish the campaign. The constrained pitch size and reliance on tricks leave little room for gameplay which is a pleasure and a challenge to master, so the desire to play through to final victory was utterly absent from my mind.
Irrationally, EA have decided to remove all Live functionality from the European releases of their sports games. Even though all the coding has been done and is present in the North American versions, for some inexplicable reason EA have seen fit to provide European gamers with a lot less product than their North American cousins. What you are left with is local multiplayer where up to four gamers can face off in teams of two. There's also a friendly match option where you can just have a leisurely kick about with the team of your choice. There's also the option to create a dream team, but as you can only use this team against the computer or in multiplayer it's not much of an attraction.
Like all EA sports games the curse of The Sims is all too evident. Apparently, a while back someone at EA made the decision that what gamers really wanted was the chance to play Barbies with their favourite sporting stars. Accompanying the now-standard player appearance options, which are typically comprehensive to the point of ridiculousness (this gimmick is wearing seriously thin), there are a host of clothing options to unlock. Yup, play for twenty hours and you are rewarded with a pair of bright orange surf shorts. Which only your virtual dollies, I mean footballers, can wear. For all its purported ghetto toughness this fevered attraction to girly dressing-up makes me wonder whether this game should be in the psychiatrists couch rather than the shelf. Additionally, the animation is often left wanting. Players sometimes move around the pitch in stiff jerky movements and the joins between many of the moves are often rough, with obvious jumps in both ball and player movement all the more obvious because of the close up nature of the action. The graphics are otherwise rather good, with the players looking particularly impressive even if their bodies resemble NBA players. The pitch backgrounds are varied yet there's no life to them as they are devoid of any incidental animations.
Being a Street title, the presentation is seeped in urban ghetto culture. Or what the marketing men reckon is urban ghetto culture. This means that there's a whole bunch of frantic licensed tracks and some over-zealous commentating. If the entire game was full of that shite called urban music, or even more laughably, R&B, that floats around the British music charts like so much effluent, I would have been hurting inside. So it's a relief that the music is pleasingly varied, with music from most of the cultures in the game getting a look in. While they occasionally let some crap seep in, whoever is in charge of EA Tracks licensing division really has a good handle on their job.
As do the EA marketing people. This game has been heavily promoted on TV and print and will no doubt sell in large numbers. And even though the game is often very sloppy and a mess to control and despite the fact that the trick system makes FIFA Street less about football than THPS, most of those consumers will probably be fairly content with their purchase. You see, even though I was astonished by the terrible controls, infuriated by gameplay and dismayed at the barrenness of game modes I did find myself playing this game more than was necessary to write this review. It did have a certain pull over me which I am somewhat ashamed to admit, considering the slapdash and cynical nature of the title. I doubt I will still be playing it in a week unless it's with a few friends over some beers, but for a while I did manage to take some enjoyment from the game. FIFA Street could well be a good game by the time it comes round to its third or fourth sequel, but for the moment it stands as a testament to the creative and technical desolation that characterises so much game development these days.
63%
Comments
YAY!!! IM THE FIRST PERSON TO WRITE ABOUT FIFA STREET!!! IT'S A GOOD GAME!!!
It sucks!!!!!!!!!!
I relaise that as a reviewer I should at all times remain balanced and subjective, but I will still insist on this occaision that I don't have to play Fifa Street to know I will hate it.
Non non non!
Vous avez tort. Aucune merveille que votre équipe de nationalo fait tellement mal.
Thank you, Mark Ecko, for your input. NOW GO HOME!
Now, c'mon, guys...this game may have good graphics on the Sony PlayStation 2, but you should at least post actual pictures of the LameCube version when you review it! I've seen it, it's not even on-par with the Sony PlayStation, LOL. Just goes to show you, Nintendo can never do anything right.
Hvordan er det man laster ned FifaStreet??
wat r u haters talkin about. fifastreet is da bomb, its great, yes it has its flaws but it is a rele good and gripping game.
niemand kan mij verslaan
i think it is really good and 3.2 as a score is rubish. i would give it 9.2!!!!!!!!!!!
CZEMU NIE MA JESZCZE NA PC FIFA STREET BO BYM SOBIE POPTYKAL AHA I LUBIE TYCH PILKARZY W KOLEJNOSCI OD NAJLEPSZEGO DO TAKIEGO SOBIE
1. Niedzielan
2. Henry
3. Gerrard
CZEMU NIE MA JESZCZE NA PC FIFA STREET BO BYM SOBIE POPTYKAL AHA I LUBIE TYCH PILKARZY W KOLEJNOSCI OD NAJLEPSZEGO DO TAKIEGO SOBIE
1. Niedzielan
2. Henry
3. Gerrard
what a waste of 30 quid got me gripped for an hour to easy like every other fifa game if i didnt have gamecube i would buy pro evo- BIG MISTAKE
Sorry the review was posted after the game hit the shelves Whatafool :-(
Wow it`s a very very cool game, this game rocks dude
Wow it`s a very very cool game, this game rocks dude
i played it and it is so crap waste of every cent
It is nice
I don't have ni puta idea of the game,i'm spanish very well manuel,y eso, is very very nice,isn't it?
it ite but not rele challngin i prfer 2 see pro evo street style
hi
its good
is there a way to get fifa street for less than £29
Mutly its mint u dill :)
toos son putas y amo ala nacha
awsome
it's a wikid game ive got so much skill i was denmark and i beat brazil 10-3
QUE JUEGAZO TIO ERES GUAPERICO.
go on fifa street
its the best game out:):)
its the best game out:):)
its crap
safe dred standad game yth
safe dred standad game yth
safe dred standad game yth
yeah the FIFASTREET is the right thing 4 now am Basketballer so much used to tricky moves u know like And 1 streetball.But now l gat this thanks alot.
GaMe BrEaKer
YAY!!! IM THE FIRST PERSON TO WRITE ABOUT FIFA STREET!!! IT'S A GOOD GAME!!!
hi
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hi wat is evry1 up 2
fifa street rules doesnt it
hi wat is evry1 up 2
fifa street rules doesnt it
hi wat is evry1 up 2
fifa street rules doesnt it
hi wat is evry1 up 2
fifa street rules doesnt it
hi wat is evry1 up 2
fifa street rules doesnt it
how do i get advance soccer moves
it rocks
hi
semoga sepak bola ini menjadi terkenal
fifa street are a good game
yeah lets get down into the street