FIFA Street 3 (Xbox 360) Review
Posted by Sean Garmer on 03.21.2008
EA Big has brought their Soccer street series to the next-gen consoles. Does it score a cracker? or hit the post?
Do you remember playing a game of Basketball or Football with your friends in the frontyard? Around the world, the sport played everywhere is football of a different kind, but the place that the game is played the most, is in the street. EA’s FIFA Street 2 was a vast improvement over its first iteration, so there are many big expectations for this edition of the franchise, being that is also the first on the next-gen consoles. EA Big also needed to redeem themselves after the deplorable NFL Tour. In my opinion, they have done that quite well, but there is one issue that keeps them from getting the game just about right. What is that problem? And how is the game in general? Read to find out.
Graphics:
A lot was made of the cartoony look used for the players, but I think it fits the style used in Street 3 very well. Sure, it makes the players look disproportionate, Peter Crouch looks really skinny, Rooney looks fat, and Ronaldo (The Brazilian one) looks like a body builder. The facial animations though look good. You can instantly tell who each player is, and if for some reason you can’t tell, they have indicators (with name included) above the player you happen to be controlling. One aspect that is new this year is the player icons. Each player is now categorized as one of four things, a finisher (which are your Strikers or Forwards), a playmaker, or a trickster (which are your midfielders) or Enforcer (pretty much your defenders). These help in two ways, it makes it very easy for casual fans of the sport to figure out their formation because they don’t really have to know the names of all 250 stars to know where to place them. The other way is that it helps players decide how they want to make-up their squad. It is a good way to distinguish the players, if they desire to use this in their next game; they probably should make some exclusive moves or shots for each category.
Due to the way that the game is structured the arenas don’t have the same essence as the last iteration. There are no home turfs or anything like that. The cool and varied arenas, such as, one that looks like a pitch on a rooftop, and another that seems to be connected to a Brazilian beach all bring their own flare and unique style to the game, just don’t expect each one to have their own environmental hazard. The pitches are mainly just window dressing for the gameplay.
Gameplay:
With this version of FIFA Street, EA decided to get away from the crazy, indoor-soccer type gameplay, with ridiculous tricks and old-fashioned gamebreaker, to bring a more realistic style of play.
Before the game begins, the player chooses a team, and must then decide which four outfield players and Goalkeeper they want to send out on the pitch, in a mini 1-2-1 formation. The best part is the game does not restrict you at all, if one so desires they can play with four strikers, or four defenders, it doesn’t matter because the object is still to score goals. If you did play with four defenders, you might have a problem performing tricks or scoring, but that’s up to personal preference.
Three things players will notice from the start is this game has a slightly slower pace than its predecessors, especially once you play on the harder difficulties because the defensive A.I. start to kill your trick attempts, which requires more passing to try to find space for a shot. The A.I. will dive to block shots, tackle at will, and trick you out if necessary. The Goalkeeper A.I. also does a good job of keeping the ball out of the net. You’ll need to find yourself in good spots and possibly trick out the keeper to score. Did I mention that the ball actually goes out of play? All the arenas are open so if your shot gets deflected or the shot has too much power the ball goes out of play. Then the ball is returned to the goalkeeper of the team that did not hit it out. That’s a nice touch to add strategy to the game, because no longer does the ball just bounce around the park, you’ll have to be careful with those shots.
The second thing is that the tricks have been immensely toned down in this iteration. Aside from the occasional time that you’ll do a back-flip off the wall or fence, the moves are pretty standard to what you would see in a regular game. The Right Analog Stick is used for drags, while the Y button is used for juggles (which are harder to pull off) and to volley the ball to yourself (which can make for some pretty spectacular goals). I’m a Soccer purist, so I really liked that aspect because you are still essentially playing Soccer with realistic movements, with maneuvers that could actually be done by kids or players on the street. Not these ridiculous flips, and air spins. Well, some of that is still there, but where it should be in the gamebreaker.
The final thing is gamebreakers, (achieved by performing tricks and securing the meter by putting shots on goal) are more realistic. No longer does the other team lose points for failing to stop the gamebreaker team from scoring. The reward for performing tricks while on gamebreaker is that it may extend the time a player has the gamebreaker. The way to stop that on defense is to keep the possession or perform tricks of your own to eat away at the gamebreaker meter. So it is nicely balanced this time around. Scoring is also not automatic either, you actually have to aim the ball into the goal and be aware of the Keeper as well, as it is not unusual to see blocked shots.
The problem comes from the single-player mode. Instead of what has been the norm in these street games, to create-a-player, pick a team of scrubs, and then progressively make your team better by defeating other squads, and plucking their best players. EA decided to use another one of their staples as the main mode. The challenge mode has been used as an extra in the NFL Street games and Madden, and it worked well in that setting. For FIFA Street 3 it just creates a lot of repetitive gameplay. The challenge mode is divided into nine different challenges, with the same basic five types. Score a certain amount of goals in a required amount of time, be the first to score a certain number of goals, score a certain number of headers, or volley goals, be the first to score a certain number of gamebreaker goals, and score goals with no gamebreakers allowed. At the end of a set you unlock a team (including a team of legends), and that continues throughout the whole process. Then if you score a set number of goals or win a certain number games overall you unlock a team as well. You get to pick a new team before the beginning of another set, but that is all that changes. It probably won’t take most more than about 8 hours to finish the whole mode, which is a big letdown.
This would have been fine if it was an extra mode, and they came up with another story mode, but there is no point to replaying it through again, and everything will be unlocked on the first try as well. The other single-player mode I spoke of above at least gave the game a lot more length, and provided the player with an opportunity to want to play it through again with a different character, and make a different team. The challenge mode is bland and has no depth to it. It is rather sad because, it is the only part of the game that lacks invention, and otherwise would have made this game great.
Sound:
Most of the sound you hear in FIFA Street 3 comes from the music, the ball hitting objects, and player chatter. The ball sound effects and that stuff is fine. The player chatter is kind of interesting actually, I heard at least four different languages spoken telling players to “pass the ball,” “shoot,” and a few other things. There is no crowd watching the game or anything like that, which is consistent with all the street games. Once again, the thing that EA always seems to get right with the FIFA games is the music. Most of the tracks are techno, it mixes well with the gameplay and also sets the mood well before the game. I don’t really know why Soccer is always put in conjunction with techno type music, but it works for this game. If you don’t like techno, well you can always use your own soundtracks in the game as well.
Lasting Appeal:
As I said before, the single-player campaign offers no replay value, but there is 2-4 Co-op offline, and 2-8 players online. You can play head-to-head in any of the game types I spoke of above and then they have another gameplay mode called “Playground Picks.” Where you and your opponent take one team (either a national team or one of the teams you unlock in the game) and take turns picking players from the team to make your best squad. There’s also a practice mode for you to practice those tricks and volleys, or even practice playing Keeper.
In online play, everything is the same except there is one extra mode the World Challenge, which is just picking your favorite national team and playing against others online. The results of games affect how many points your team has. Very similar to the Interactive Leagues in FIFA 08. It basically calculates which national team is best, based on how many wins gathered by all the players online. I played a few games online and didn’t notice any lag, but I did notice that apparently not a lot of people bought this game because it was very difficult to find an opponent. There was one time during the middle of the day that I waited an hour before I got someone to join my session, just a disclaimer for those who just wanted to play people online.
The 411: The game itself is tons of fun, if you have friends you could find yourself playing several games before stopping. Though there isn’t much to keep a lone player entertained, there is plenty to do online (if you find someone that is). EA did a great job improving on the gameplay elements, but the repetitive and bland single-player experience really takes away from what could have been one of the best Street games. So if you’re a Soccer fanatic and want to play with your favorite players in a different setting, go for it. If you have a lot of friends they will enjoy this, but someone that is just looking to play by themselves, I’d say give this a rental before putting money down to buy it.
Graphics
8.5
The animation style, players, and arenas all look great. Would like to see the arenas have more of a purpose though
Gameplay
8.0
The new gameplay elements are a huge improvement over last game, but the single-player is really lacking
Sound
9.5
You can't beat the music in any FIFA game
Lasting Appeal
7.0
The game has head to head, and online play, but good luck finding somebody to play. There is also no point to replaying the singleplayer mode
Fun Factor
8.0
The game is a lot of fun, especially with friends, there are modes to keep you playing for hours.
