Digital Sportspage Blog

Some impressions from the FIFA Street Demo.

Unfortunately, the core gameplay of FIFA Street is boring, even at the game’s highest levels. To be successful at the game, you simply need to do the following:

1) Hold the ball in your own half and execute tricks to build your gamebreaker. Using tricks involves no skill…it’s simply a matter of flailing the right stick quickly and randomly. While you do this, the AI defenders will wait a bit, and maybe pressure at the higher levels. If so, just pass the ball to another player in your own half and continue. Rinse, repeat. Then take any shot on goal in order for your gamebreaker bar increase to register.

2) Do this until you fill your gamebreaker bar, and then activate it once you have the ball in the offensive half.

3) Score.

That’s basically the core gameplay mechanic, which is a shame since soccer can make an excellent arcade game with good gameplay mechanics. For example, the designers could modulate trick value based on whether they are used in the vicinity of a defender or when beating a defender. In fact, any arcade soccer game should emphasize beating an opponent. Who cares if you can dribble the ball in a corner by yourself. What draws the ooohs and aaahs on the pitch is when you use those skills to beat a defender with a rainbow or some other impressive move. Instead, FIFA Street 3 rewards you for playing with yourself. How boring.

Some other problems include:

• Scoring is inconsistent when you don’t have a gamebreaker. I found myself alone on the keeper multiple times and missed the majority of my breakaways from a couple of feet away. However, I was much more successful with bicycle kicks from distance. I understand this is an arcade game, but a breakaway in indoor soccer should be a goal more often than not. And if the keeper makes the save, it needs to be a wow moment. (As an aside, there should be more “street” moments from the keeper as well…flashy kick saves, the Higuita scorpion save, etc.)
• Difficulty levels are primarily modulated by increasing the “steal radius” around a defender. It does make the game harder, but not in an interesting manner. There are many more interesting ways to increase the difficulty.
• Ball physics are poor, as the ball will warp into position to fit an animation. Furthermore, the ball looks like it’s invisibly tethered to the player during many dribbling moves. Please EA…if the ball is in the wrong place, can’t the player just not complete the move? (I think I could write a whole post on the limitations of ball physics in EA Sports titles…)

The only major positive is that the graphics are creative, with players caricatured well. Peter Crouch, for example, looks like a gangly freak, whereas Rooney looks like a fireplug.

But outside of the graphics, the gameplay is rote and the game design is lazy. It’s not as horrific as NFL Tour…but it’s not worth a purchase.