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Can EA Canada apply its street magic to the FIFA series? Well, that depends on how you look at it. The game clearly has style and flashy gameplay, much like the other entries in the Street series. You’ll play in much grittier places than the grand stadiums that professional soccer games typically take place in. Overall though, although the style and feel is certainly there, the actual gameplay doesn’t quite live up to great status. NBA Street V3 is quite possibly the best basketball game available; FIFA 2005 is considerably better than FIFA Street.
As always, customization is a major part of the game. You can customize a player for use in the “Rule the Street” mode. There is a wealth of options for physical customization, although not as many as NBA Street V3; nevertheless, it isn’t bad for a first entry. Aside from the player’s physical attributes, you can change a number of skills including accuracy, power, and speed. You’ll earn more skills in the game’s single-player mode, which you’ll then use to improve the character.
In the actual gameplay, you’ll be part of a team of four, going up against another team of four. The games are played in gritty environments as I mentioned above. The gameplay focuses much more on making a fool out of your opponent and pulling together massive combos than forming in-depth strategy to get a goal. It is also incredibly fast-paced since the only stops are for goals. Speaking of which, most games have a five-goal limit (although there are some timed-games as well).
The trick system in the game works very well since the controls for pulling these moves off is intuitive. Aside from creating your own team for use in single-player, the game lets you make a dream team from using one of the several hundred included players. As you move towards the goal, you’re able to pull together many moves to form a combo. This combo will greatly increase your chance of getting a goal even if your shot isn’t all that great. This leads to some frustrations when cheap shots go through because the player was able to string together a decent combo.
The game’s trick system is great, and the single-player mode is solid, so everything should be fine, right? Unfortunately, the actual soccer gameplay isn’t that satisfying in FIFA Street. The A.I. players are incredibly dumb. They fail to try to get the ball when they aren’t in position, and fail to defend the goal when they lose control of the ball. The goaltender doesn’t fare much better, only caring about the ball when it gets ridiculously close to the goal post. At times, the game will even remove your control of a character so an animation can go through.
The game’s visuals are respectable, although nothing out of the ordinary. The player models are good, though they don’t have the same detail as was found in FIFA 2005. This is to be expected, but the urban look just doesn’t look as natural on these players as it does on NBA players. Nonetheless, they do animate pretty well and the different locales are fitting. The game is pretty similar across all three versions, although the Xbox version is just a bit better than the others.
The game’s audio performs just the same. The soundtrack is certainly varied and fits with FIFA Street’s style very well. The sound effects also add authenticity to the game. The commentator although a bit annoying at times proves to be entertaining for the majority of the game.
FIFA Street shows a lot of potential. The game’s trick system is solid, if a bit cumbersome at times. Also, the overall “feel” of the game is right up there with EA Sports BIG’s usually high production values. Unfortunately, the dimwitted A.I. is frustrating and removes much of the fun from the game. Although not a bad game by any means, it doesn’t meet the Street’s series high standards. FIFA Street does show promise, and if EA Canada can learn from its mistakes, the second game should fare much better. -- Adam Nunez, PGNx Media
---- Mar 26, 2005
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