FIFA Street

Introduction

Going by both soccer and football, the beautiful game is humanity’s favourite sport. Played on just about every landmass on our planet, it draws record numbers of spectators and their passion is well documented. Not surprisingly, many video game releases have featured the cleat and ball game, with Electronic Arts’ FIFA franchise being the most popular of all.

For years, arcade sports games have meant good business when they’re done right. Midway capitalized on that knowledge in the 90s and Electronic Arts has picked up the proverbial torch with revamps of the now bankrupt company’s intellectual properties like NFL Blitz. However, EA has also created its own over-the-top versions of different sports, including FIFA Street, which just received its fourth iteration.

The Game Itself: Our Reviewer's Take

Unlike many of the sub-genre’s releases, as well as its predecessors, this year’s NFL Street revamp isn’t very over-the-top. Instead, it’s more of a stylistic version of the main series, using mid-sized courts and indoor arenas instead of gigantic stadiums. Walls are in play most of the time, and showing off to the crowd can be worth more than a goal during certain challenges. The key is to practice in order to steadily improve the created players who make up your uniquely designed team.

At the core of the game is World Tour mode, a lengthy trip around the globe that will take quite a few hours to complete. Its six-minute long games are culled from several different types: Futsal, Panna Rules, Last Man Standing, Freestyle, Four-On-Four and Five-On-Five. The last two are pretty straight forward, and traditional, although the inclusion of walls makes things interesting. However, the others need more explaining than that.

Futsal: Think of this variation as indoor soccer, because that’s pretty much what it is. You’re playing on a court that happens to have lines indicating bounds. If the ball goes out, then someone gets a chance to kick it in. Throw-ins have been removed in favour of the aforementioned kick-ins, which work just as well. Free kicks will also be given to those who are fouled, with a shown limit that most players will never reach.

Panna Rules: With FIFA Street comes a focus on tricking. Being the most stylish team out on the court is important in this two-on-two mode, because pulled off tricks equate to bankable points. Those are officially added to the player’s overall score when a goal is scored, but opponents can negate your tally by scoring on you. The right joystick is used to complete said tricks, but they need to be purchased through the character upgrade menu.

Last Man Standing: Within this variation, the two teams compete against each other as three man units. The objective is to score one goal with each member of your team before the opposition does so. Whenever a goal is scored, the specific player who completed the task leaves the game for good. The win ends up going to the team that doesn’t have any members left.

Freestyle: This is another mode that focuses on tricks. Special moves always equate to points, but freestyle events are the only time where they actually factor into the decision as to which team will win each match. Beating opponents with style will bank points, which can be cemented by scoring a goal. In the end, the victor is the first one to 2500.

After World Tour is selected from the game’s main menu, where it features alongside one-off exhibition options and a link to online action, one must create a team. Players take the longest to make through the use of a decent character customization feature that avoids sliders by using premade assets. You’re going to want to make quite a few (upwards of eight,) in order to get a full team. Keep in mind that only five men can play in one game, so the rest may not be necessary. That is unless you like to mix and match.

The reason why so many slots are provided is that each player can be selectively upgraded. There’s a leveling system that goes from 1-50, and each level up brings with it a certain amount of points. Those can go towards different categories like defense, dribbling, athleticism, shooting, passing and goalkeeping. Each one has 15 slots, and they become progressively more expensive along the way. This allows for specializations to be created, so you can have power finishers, playmakers, brick wall defenders and the like.

In addition to staffing their team with potential superstars, gamers must also create the organization itself. Dealing with finances and coaches isn’t required, so the only things you’ll need to worry about are picking a name, primary colours, jerseys, street wear and a logo. A basic image creation system has been implemented for the latter requirement, but you’re dealing with preset features once again. Still, some decent-looking logos can be created.

Once that minutia has been put to bed, it’s time to choose a starting nation. The usual suspects are provided, and the choice is detrimental in figuring out the type of competition you’ll encounter at certain points. I picked Spain, which allowed me to go up against cover athlete Messi in one of the many one-off street challenges that showed up on the world map.

The above-mentioned starting area ends up being your first stomping ground en route to a final tournament against the cream of the crop. That ascension is broken up into four levels, going from regionals to nationals and so on. Each stage has its own final tournament, but teams must win others first, in order to earn a top 8 rank.

Regardless of which match type is involved, FIFA Street is consistent. As the game’s primary campaign, World Tour happens to be a culmination of every one of its other offline options. The gameplay is always methodical and full of steals, but it’s surprisingly realistic for a series of this ilk. Gone are the over-the-top moves and animations. Those are replaced by more realistic designs, creating gameplay that is slower paced and more lifelike. Their associated mechanics work quite well, but there’s a noticeable lack of personality to be found. The result is a decent representation of arcade soccer, but one that gets dull during lengthy sessions because it lacks a wow factor.