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FIFA Street 3
Reviewed by Rick Tittle
rick@ricktittle.com
My, how times have changed. Just ten years ago you would be hard pressed to find an average American man on the street that could tell you the difference between Manchester United and Manchester City. But times have-a changed, baby. The world sport truly is conquering the world for real, and we’re that much the richer for it.
The video game industry has tackled soccer games in the past but only until recently have they done it with aplomb. I suppose the initial signs of a workable soccer game came with EA’s first FIFA foray on the Genesis. It was taken to a higher notch when Super Soccer exploded onto the SNES (red cards and all). But now we have reached a plateau where a good soccer video game just isn’t enough unto itself. The crying need to “switch things up” and “shake things around” has given birth to the FIFA Street franchise, now in its third incarnation.
The idea was followed from the same EA BIG games which brought NFL football stars to your back alleys and vacant lots. We’ve even seen efforts in this vein which model themselves on the Baby Muppets. But honestly, who can resist taken control of Ronaldinho and knocking over a trashcan or seven? You can always create your own player (um, yourself?) or pick amongst a roster of 250 established internationals. And that’s one of the flashy point to this game that I liked: when you pick a country and a player scores, it gets you fired up with some cool animations and deep-voiced mentions of the name. For example, pick Germany. GERMANY, you hear. Score a goal with Michael Ballack. BALLACK thunders across. Sounds simple, but it works.
If you’re looking to run the catenaccio or to park a bus in front of the goal, it’s not going to happen. This game is thankfully not about defense. You basically have two choices when approaching a man with the ball: lightly disturbing his progress or bum-rushing him. Either way, you usually whiff. This is where the game-breaker feature comes in for the offense. Do enough tricks and the meter will build onscreen until you can unleash an unstoppable shot.
There are only three body shapes in this game, so if you want to play as the obese guy or the seven-footer, you’re out of luck. Also, the different venues all pretty much play the same, which is disappointing. The main question is whether or not people who own the previous version of this game (FIFA Street 2) should buy the new one. My answer is no, unless you simply love the series. All in all, it’s a very polished game with some nice features, but it comes in as a 6 out of 10 in my book. 6 means above average. Rent it first.
Rick Tittle can be reached at rick@ricktittle.com
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