FIFA Street - The Single Players FIFA
I welcomed the announcement of an updated FIFA Street with some reserve, as although the previous games were fun, they didn't really set the world alight, partly due to the mechanics of the senior FIFA's gameplay that it used, however with FIFA 12's remarkable improvement in terms of controls and movement, hopes were high.
FEATURES and MODES
Featuring some 100 plus club sides and 20 International sides, the game features a standard single game mode which features all the modes (mentioned below) and the ability to customize setup games, a career mode called "World Tour" and a basic practice area, similar to the loading screens on FIFA 12, in which you can try to learn tricks without the pressure of a match.
Graphically, it's smooth, sharp, and very much in the same vein as FIFA 12. Audio is the usual mix of good and bad tracks, sound effects deserve a mention, as you hear your players shouting for the ball and communicating to add a little extra layer of realism, otherwise its pretty much the solid presentation you come to know and expect from EA Sports
FIFA Street is all about the career mode or "World Tour". You start off creating your virtual self and initially play in a small pitch on a housing estate, once the match has finished, you can either take players from that match or create upto 9 team mates based on whatever you fancy to fill your squad.
The tour starts off locally, then expands on each tier, until you reach worldwide events on tier 4. FIFA Street features variations on 4 modes of play, including:
Futsal: 5 a-side football on a small indoor pitch, with the ability for the ball to go out of play
Street Football: 2-5 a-side game played on various walled arenas
Panna: A skills based mode which in essence is what FIFA Street is trying to embrace, 2-5 a-side games in which players have to beat another player with skills to earn points, and then scoring to bank them. The other variant of this incorporates general skill and entertainment but with the same outcome.
Last Man Standing: An interesting mode that isn't really expanding on unfortunately, teams start off with the same players and the aim is to score and lose a man each time until you have no players left.
On selection of each event, the player has the option of playing in Bronze, Silver or Gold skill level, each skill you win in, gives you an unlockable, including new kits, new venues or at times later a new team. The nice thing about the Gold level is that this can be played online rather than the A.I. to breathe a bit more excitement into proceedings.
During the World Tour mode you come up against a combination of street teams, real clubs or user based teams downloaded into the game at random. In some specific events, once beaten, you can "take" a player from them, so the possibility of having a Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo in your squad is possible.
Every match you play with your side earns XP, simply put, the better you do the more you get, this then can be used to level up your players appropriately, and to also unlock the silky skills to show off more on the pitch.
GAMEPLAY
Gameplay is very crisp, using FIFA 12's impact engine and general mechanics makes for a fluid game for which you always feel in control, movement is with the left stick and the clever tricks are all made possible with deft movement of the right stick and in conjuction with the collar / shoulder buttons. I had a couple of FIFA 12 playing friends have a go, and they picked up gameplay within ten minutes, so to those wondering, its very familiar to regular players.
Everything is apparently a bed of roses then? well sadly it isn't. When playing against the A.I your teammates can suffer with poor positioning and the opposition can have an amazing knack of keeping the ball no matter what you do, The opposition A.I. also are a little hit and miss, in street matches, you need to play on Gold level to get a decent match as 7-0's versus top teams on Silver are quite regular, and i'm an average player at best, but play in Panna or Futsal on Gold and the A.I. becomes a little too good, supposedly good tackles do nothing apart from inconvenience them at best, which can be a bone of contention, especially to someone like myself who watches and plays football for real.
Thankfully of course there is online, well thats until you realise you can only play as your World Tour side, yep despite the inclusion of 6 leagues of sides (US, England, France, Germany, Italy, Spain) and 20 international sides, only your own team is allowed to be used. EA have tried to defend this by stating that "people will end up playing against the same teams all the time", which is to an extent true, but surely having the option to play in a non-ranked mode would have been fine.
On top of this, you can only play 5 or 6 a-side, again a travesty considering Panna is the big feature of the game, and has been the main selling point. A missed opportunity again, and the other thing, Panna is very much a game popularised in South America, yet we only have international sides from that area of the world, makes no sense to me.
OVERALL
Technically a great game, which has been let down by some poor decisions by EA, only two modes in online play, and the inability to use licensed teams in them is quite stupid. Basically as my title suggests, this is great for an offline player or someone new to the FIFA universe, but in this day and age of online passes (which this has), this is a bit of a travesty.
3.5 out of 5 - Rent it first, unless you have regular game nights around the same console.