Overview

The original FIFA Street was one hell of a disappointment for me. I was (and still am) a huge fan of the NBA Street series and was expecting that level of arcade-style fun to be applied to a soccer title. Unfortunately, the game was an unmitigated disaster with cheap, skill-less gameplay that was devoid of any depth, and most importantly, devoid of fun.

A year later and EA Sports BIG release a sequel that is vastly superior to the original in every way, however, it’s still a title that has its problems – most notably, the fact that FIFA Street 2 seems to be more of an arcade-trick game that has soccer elements, than an arcade-soccer game that has trick elements.

Graphics 85/100

In the graphics department I find FIFA Street 2 to be significantly better than the original in almost every department. Two of my biggest beefs with the original came in the form of the excessive clipping and the crappy, devoid of imagination courts/pitches. Fortunately, both have been addressed.

The player models this time around are far less exaggerated when it comes to their musculature – little Mikey Owen doesn’t look like he’s been hanging around with Mark McGuire and Rafael Palmero – and much more improved when it comes to their likenesses. Tevez isn’t just short but is slightly built, while Crouch isn’t just tall, he also has that slightly hunched-over posture he exhibits in real-life. The faces are still a bit hit and miss, but on the whole seem cleaner and sharper than the previous version. I still think there could be a bit more detail in the kits and players (particularly since there are only 8 players on the pitch at a time and no referee) but we’ll probably have to wait till the next version for that.

The animations are very impressive. A whole host of new and spectacular trick moves have been added and each of these has been animated wonderfully. Importantly, the transitions between these animations have been improved and aren’t nearly as jerky as before. That said, some of the trick moves are so ridiculous that it’s almost impossible to have transitions between them that don’t look odd. Fortunately, such combinations don’t occur too often. As mentioned before, the clipping that plagued the last game has been practically eliminated – no more seeing the ball go through players or structures!

The courts/pitches have been significantly improved and the pitch creation option is on-par with that in NBA Street V3 with respect to the number of potential combinations you can create. The following pitches are included in the game;

Each of these courts/pitches are different, and range from playgrounds, to alleyways, to basketball courts. A particular complaint I had about pitches in the first FIFA Street was the lack of background activity and character in the pitches. This has been rectified in FIFA Street 2 as there is a lot more going on in the backgrounds (for example, you see cars passing the court in New York).

Another, very important thing to note about the pitches is that they all have different dimensions! For example, Mexico City’s court is the shortest (length-wise), while ‘Favella’ is the longest but is also the narrowest! Not only does this give each court/pitch a unique look, it also has ramifications for the gameplay as the smaller the pitch the more difficult it is to chain combos.

Special effects (lens flare, motion blur, trails on replays) are all pretty  and the replays (now without ridiculous clipping!) look very impressive. FIFA Street 2’s menus are nicely laid out and I really like the graffiti-style art work, and in particular, the artistic style of the player sketches.

Sound 85/100

I guess a lot of people found the DJ in the first FIFA Street to be one of the most annoying things in the game. To be honest I didn’t mind him too much, yeah his schtick got old fairly quickly, but he didn’t grate on my nerves. Fortunately for most, he’s been given his marching orders and the whole music system….er…I meant “EA Trax” (can’t forget the ‘x’)…has been revamped. Now you have a variety of radio stations playing different genres of music. Some stations have minimally invasive DJs that come on and announce the songs but nothing annoying. I was really impressed by the musical selection and while I don’t think its as good as the FIFA 20206 soundtrack, its still pretty damn good. You can select play-lists for each of the stations though I couldn’t find an option to add tracks from your custom X-Box soundtrack.

The rest of the audio consists of ambient sounds for each of the courts, plus some dialogue between players (someone will scream out the odd ‘Panna!’ when you nutmeg someone).

Options 85/100

The option set, and in particular the career mode, in FIFA Street was notably lacking. With FIFA Street 2, EA Sports have made amends with a veritable crap-load of features and play modes.

Like the previous game, FIFA Street 2 features only international squads (as well as a few ‘Street’ teams consisting of no-namers and a Legends team) and the following are included;

This time around, each national team features many more players; aprox. 18 per team which is a lot when you consider that each match is only 4vs 4 (including the keeper!). Another problem that has been rectified are the player ratings that are much more realistic this time around (remember in the last game Crespo had a rating of 38/100!). The Legends team consists of Ravelli, Alberto Torres, Abdi Pele and Jean Pierre Papin. There are also a bunch of unlockable Legends that include Zico, Cantona, Gascoigne and Hagi. While I understand that FIFA Street will be played by mostly younger gamers, it would have been nice to include players like Pele, Cruyff, Stanley Matthews, Eusebio, and Puskas. Also, where the hell is Diego Maradona? I’m guessing there were some licensing issues at hand.

The main modes of play are; Play Now, Friendly, Rule the Street, and Skills Challenge. Unfortunately, there is no online mode. The ‘Rule the Street’ mode is the career mode and I’m really impressed with the amount of effort EA Sports has put into this main mode.

You start off ‘Rule the Street’ by creating ‘yourself’ and also creating your home pitch/court/ground. I had a lot of fun creating the playground at St. Francis Xavier Public School in Markham where my friends and I played ball hockey every Friday night throughout highschool! Once you’ve done that you are shown a cut scene intro;

Apparently it all starts when Cristiano Ronaldo is having a kick-about in London with his mates and needs another player to complete his team (stop laughing, I’m not making this stuff up!!!). You join his team to play a match, and once that’s done he’s so impressed that he allows you to join the world of street football. The career mode has 4 tiers of play and you start off in lowest tier – ‘Kick Abouts’ where you basically join other teams and play to win ‘Skill Bills’ - currency which you use to improve your player’s attributes, unlock extras and raise your Player Rating (out of 100). In each tier play is organized into a variety of series’, each series having multiple rounds, and you have to win each round to progress. Once you’ve complete the series you unlock goodies such as Skill Bills, players to add to your team, new kits, etc. What’s neat about these series’ is that each has different rules – some are regular play (i.e. 2 minute halves, most goals wins), others are first to five goals, some are purely trick based (i.e. first team to 40,000 skill points wins), some include specific skills (i.e. first to 10 goals or pannas/nutmegs wins!), and there are many more varieties.

Actual entry to each series is also varied; some are available to enter from the start, others require you to win a certain number of other series until you’re eligible, and others require you to put up a set number of Skill Bills as a wager/collateral before you can enter! All this variation keeps things fresh and makes each series a slightly different experience.

Once your player gains a certain Player Rating, you progress to the next tier, ‘Team Captain’ and it’s here that the fun really starts. Now you inherit a squad of your own and your goal is to add players, win tournaments and raise your Squad Rating to unlock the next tier, “Underground”. Ditto for ’Underground’ and the final tier ‘International’ involves national sides.

EA Sports have tried to spice things up even further by including player conflicts. Sometimes, after a match you’ll get a message that two players on your team have had a falling out (apparently Marcus Beasley and Yakubu didn’t like each other) and you have to select which one to let go. Likewise, other players may complain that they don’t get enough play time and will ask for Skill Bills as remuneration or they’ll walk. What’s neat about this is that the players that walk often come back with their own squads and offer ‘challenge’ matches with Skill Bills as a wager. I think this is a neat addition.

Unlike the career mode in FIFA Street which could be finished in a (lengthy) single session, Rule the Street mode is long! There are just so many matches to play and because of the varying rules some matches can be as short as a minute while others have taken over half an hour! I’ve played the game to death and I’ve still not completed it. Of course, whether or not you’ll have the desire to go all the way and finish everything once you’ve already done 43,000 nutmegs is another story…

Finally, before I forget, the Skills Challenge mode is a gameplay mode where you get the chance to rack up trick points by juggling the ball and doing various tricks.

Gameplay 65/100

Even more so than the changes to the gameplay modes, the biggest change in FIFA Street 2 comes with respect to the gameplay. The controls, for the X-Box version, are as follows;

The trick moves are mapped to the Right Analog and there is a pattern to them;

Another addition to this year’s title is the ability to juggle the ball. To do so you first pull and hold the Left Trigger and press Y. This flicks the ball up, once the ball’s up you pull and hold the Right Trigger and then move the Right Analog/Trick Stick to perform tricks. Tricks are performed by moving the Trick Stick in specific movements (e.g. a half circle forwards), furthermore if you push the trick stick straight up the player will juggle the ball on his head, diagonal up left or up right juggles it on his shoulder, and left or right juggles on his thigh.

So, as you can see there’s a fair amount of complexity when it comes to performing trick moves. As a result, there’s actually an element of skill involved with completing and chaining together tricks and combos. Furthermore, because the tricks are well defined you actually feel greater ownership over the outrageous skill you performed – when you nutmeg someone it’s because you decided to nutmeg them, not because the computer randomly chose that move.

Also adding to the skill element of gameplay is the fact that not all moves are hands-free once you complete the initial controller movements. For example, if you nutmeg someone, you have to manually run after the ball once its knocked through your opponent’s legs! As a result there are instances when you successfully knock the ball past a player but don’t manage to reach it before his teammate takes it and as a result you get zero trick points for the trick you attempted!

A minute amount of skill is also added when it comes to defense. FIFA Street 2 still suffers from the same invisible ‘area of effect’ surrounding a player when he performs a move – if you’re in that area your player falls for the trick – however, you can combat this on defense by moving the trick stick. If you move the trick stick in the same general area that the offensive player moved it in then you can counteract the trick!

So, for example if it looks like the CPU player is about to nutmeg you (which is performed by pushing down on the trick stick), if you press down on the trick stick while on defense you can block his move!

Another great addition to FIFA Street 2 that adds an element of strategy to the game comes in the form of the new modified Gamebreakers. Now, when you generate enough points for a Gamebreaker you dribble to a designated point on the pitch. Once you do so the game zooms in and you have a small amount of time to get off a shot that has a very high probability of going in. What’s new about this? Well, once a Gamebreaker is set in motion, if you trick past one opponent it and score it not only counts as a goal for you, but also subtracts a goal from your opponent, and results in more trick points! If you trick past two opposing players and score before the time runs out it subtracts two goals from your opponent and leads to even more trick points. Finally, if you trick past all three players on the opposing team and score before the time runs out you AUTOMATICALLY WIN THE MATCH!

Yup, that’s right – you instantly win! This doesn’t just apply to matches where you’re trying to outscore your opponent, it also applies to matches in which you’re going for the most trick points to win! As a result you have to balance the risk and reward of trying to trick past opponents when on a Gamebreaker. And, you have to worry about what the CPU’s going to do with their Gamebreaker!

A final notable improvement to FIFA Street 2 comes in the form of better goalie awareness and control. Now if you concede a breakaway (and you will do so many times) you can just hold down Y to gain complete control of the keeper. This is also useful when you want to collect a loose ball which is closest to the goalie. Furthermore, when you’re controlling the keeper he can come out of his crease and act like an outfield player – participating in trick moves and scoring!

So lets put this all together, you’ve got a Street^TM game that has improved with respect to more skill-based trick moves and combos, has a juggling system that also requires a great deal of skill, has improved defense, has fixed some of the problems with keepers, and has a fantastic new Gamebreaker system. So why does this game only receive a 65% in the gameplay department?

FIFA Street 2’s main shortcomings come not from the handling of the trick moves, but more so from the handling of the actual soccer. This game plays a really crappy game of football and it’s a damn shame.

First off, the scoring is completely random. This is no better illustrated than in matches where Gamebreakers and Trick Points aren’t counted. These matches are the most insanely boring games of football ever – you’re basically moving from end to end taking random shots. There’s no rhyme or reason to them – you could perform 10 trick moves, string together 5 passes and finish off with a spectacular overhead kick and the keeper will nonchalantly save the ball. Then, 10 seconds later you could run straight up to the keeper, perform no trick moves and slowly shoot to his left and he’ll let it in. This goes for both your keeper and the CPU’s keeper. I’ve had matches where it’s been first to five goals, I’ve had a 4-0 lead, will be controlling the ‘match’ and then the CPU will ring off 4 weak shots all of which go in and suddenly we’re tied 4-4!

The randomness of the goals affects every match (save for those that involve getting the most trick points to win) and as a result it undermines some of the feeling of accomplishment when you are skillful in chaining together trick moves. You also feel cheated when you lose because your keeper can’t keep out the most innocuous of shots.

The defensive aspect of the game, though better than last year, is still mostly a crapshoot. Its almost impossible to predict what move the CPU is going to do, so tackling with the trick stick is like playing rock-paper-scissors. Prepare to feel particularly cheated when the CPU busts out the most incredible 'showtime' when it has a Gamebreaker. There will be matches when you are dominating with respect to trick points, barely allowing the CPU to complete a single combo. Then, after much work they manage to scrape up a Gamebreaker and suddenly ALL their tricks leave you trailing in their wake. Likewise, you can pull of 10 straight skill moves to activate a Gamebreaker, but once you try a move during a Gamebreaker the CPU defenders become Superman – their tackling improves 10 fold in an instant!

Most recently I had a ‘first to 80,000 trick points’ match where I was leading 50,000+ points to around 4,000 (!). I was kicking the crap out of the CPU at every opportunity but then they finally managed to get a Gamebreaker – suddenly, the guys who could barely breathe against my team pulled off three straight successive tricks and won the match automatically! Needless to say, my Logitech wireless controller went flying across the room in frustration....

Pass and move, the essence of football (whether you’re playing at the Nou Camp or in your back-yard) plays absolutely no role in this game. In the vast majority of matches you win the ball by kicking the shit of an opponent (there are no refs), perform a few tricks, pass off to a teammate, circle back towards your own goal (to make more space), perform some more tricks to rack up a combo, move into space again, start juggling the ball, then you take a shot. It’s usually saved, the CPU keeper bowls the ball out to one of his players and you start the whole process again!

Sometimes I forget I’m playing a football game completely! In fact, FIFA Street 2 doesn’t need the ‘FIFA’ in its title – they could just take out the soccer nets and make it ‘Hacky-Sack Street 2’ since the main skill component of the game has absolutely nothing to do with the game of football.

That’s not to say that the game isn’t fun – FIFA Street 2 is a fairly enjoyable arcade game, it’s just more of a ‘trick’ game than a football game with tricks.

Replay Value/Longevity 60/100

Like most arcade-style games, the depth present isn’t quite enough to make the game last that long. NBA Street 2 has more longevity than most because of the fantastic ‘Rule the Street’ mode. Unfortunately, there are only so many tricks you can perform before you start getting bored.

Overall 68/100

Is FIFA Street 2 a bad game? No, not at all. I’ve had a lot of fun playing through the game and working my way up the ladder in ‘Rule the Street’. The game has many moments when you feel a real sense of accomplishment, unfortunately there are also many moments when you feel utterly cheated. Personally, my biggest gripe is that it just doesn’t feel like a football game and half the time I wonder why they even bother putting nets at either end of the pitch. This is a shame because if EA Sports BIG could just get the footballing basics down this could be one of the best soccer games around. As it stands FIFA Street 2 isn’t much more than a solid rental.