Overview

I absolutely abhorred the first FIFA Street because of it’s shallow, boring gameplay. FIFA Street 2 corrected many of the problems found in the first game and added an excellent ‘Rule the Street’ mode. With NBA Street Homecourt being one of my favourite arcade sports titles ever, I was eager to see what EA Sports BIG could do to improve on their FIFA Street series. Unfortunately, FIFA Street 3 takes several steps backwards with respect to gameplay and features. Consequently, it can only be considered a rental….

Graphics 75/100

It may be a matter of personal taste, but I really enjoy the art-style adopted by FIFA Street 3. Rather than try to realistically depict the world’s greatest football stars, EA Sports BIG have decided to adopt a quasi-anime graphical style and I think it works really well. Players are now caricatures of themselves – with aspects of their personality and notable physical features being emphasized in their appearance. For example, Genaro Gattuso is short but now built like a tank (with a small head) to convey his ‘hard-man’ image! It’s a shame that EA Sports had to be kind with respect to their depiction of players – I would have liked to have seen Mark Viduka sporting a beer belly or Sami Hyypia crouched over with a walking-cane!

There are approximately 250 different players (both current and some retired) and almost all of the big-name starts are instantly recognizable. There are some licensed national team kits and at other times players wear a variety of clothing from baggy shorts to cargo pants.

Animations in the game are fantastic with dozens of different ‘trick’ moves that range from those possible in real life to the ridiculous - like running along a wall with the ball or flipping over other players. Transitions between animations are silky smooth and while I’m unsure as to whether or not the game runs at 60fps, the frame rate is rock solid and smooth.

The game features the following pitches/grounds;

While each of these is depicted nicely (my favourite is the Rooftop which has you playing on top of a skyscraper in what looks like Japan with a constellation of neon signs in the background) they’re not nearly as engaging as they could be. Firstly, there doesn’t appear to be anything going on in the background and no spectators are present – compare that to not only NBA Street Homecourt but even FIFA Street 2 where you had cars driving by and people watching in the New York stage. The pitches are also all the same size (again, a step backwards from FIFA Street 2 where you had different dimensions for each pitch). Finally, there are only 7 of them which is 3 less than FIFA Street 2!

Presentation is also lacking with no introductory sequences to the pitches (see Homecourt) and the same 2 or 3 different replay angles. Lighting and special effects are solid with a nice selection of motion blur, lens flare and vapor trails - but again, they’re not nearly as good as those in Homecourt. The effects for the cursed Gamebreaker are particularly underwhelming as the screen just turns a sepia colour and doesn’t have any special kind of replay for a Gamebreaker goal scored.

Sound 85/100

Sound is another area where FIFA Street 3 takes a step backwards from its predecessor (albeit a minor one, in this case). FIFA Street 2 had a variety of radio stations playing different genres of music (with DJs for each station) and you could select play-lists for each station. This is gone in FIFA Street 3 and while the selection of music is very good I’m disappointed that another feature goes by the wayside.

The rest of the audio consists of dialogue between players (in different languages, as well which is neat) and ambient sounds for each pitch/court.

Options 60/100

Like other Street games FIFA Street 3 features three general modes of play; exhibition, a ‘career’ mode and online. Exhibition matches are subdivided into different types;

There’s also a Playground Picks mode which is again an exhibition mode but this time you select a team and then you and your opponent take turns picking 5 players each for your side.

While all of this would seem like a great deal of variation, the painfully shallow gameplay means that this is like giving you the option to have your teeth pulled in the kitchen, living room or garage. Either way it’s torture.

All of these game modes can be taken online and there’s the standard online rankings and stats tracking present.

The meat of the off-line game thus comes from the game’s ‘career’ mode – the ‘FIFA Street Challenge’. Unfortunately, this is where the feature-set falls flat on it’s face as you basically play a (seemingly) endless number of matches against various teams with no structure or narrative whatsoever. During this mode you can change the team you’re controlling at any time but you can’t add new players to a team. As a result there’s zero continuity from match to match, no sense of progression or achievement and no feeling of ownership over your side. There’s no calendar, no tournament table and no league rankings. You don’t get any cash from winning, you don’t get new clothes or boots and you don’t unlock any new venues. Every once in a while you unlock a new team but many teams have the same players! The teams aren’t even real sides but rather fictional collections of players (e.g. a team of tall players, a team of quick players, a team composed of players sponsored by Adidas and so on.).

Compare that to FIFA Street 2’s excellent ‘Rule the Street’ mode that had you first creating your own home pitch/court, then creating your self, creating a team and then trying to rise up the standings (all the while upgrading your abilities and adding/subtracting players from your team). ‘Rule the Street’ even had player conflicts and wagering on matches! As you can see, FIFA Street 3 has taken a massive step backwards in this regard.

With respect to team selection, the game doesn’t feature club teams but merely some International squads and the aforementioned fictional teams (of tall lads and so on…*sigh*). There’s no edit or player creation mode and there’s also no pitch/court creation mode either (again, present in the previous game).

Gameplay 55/100

How to win in FIFA Street 3:

With this fool-proof 10 step plan you can complete FIFA Street 3. Sure, you may get body-checked yourself and lose the ball but don’t panic – just go to Step 7 and repeat.

For some reason CPU players (and in particular CPU goalies) just don’t know what to do with themselves once you start juggling the ball in the air (via a simple press of the Y button, zero skill involved). You can grab the ball at your end and juggle to the end of the pitch against all but the best teams and then a simple press of the shoot button almost guarantees you a goal because the keepers are mesmerized by your juggling.

This translates to the online game where the main skill component is to try and stop your opponent doing the same thing to you! Every online match has taken the pattern of; juggle, juggle, body check, juggle, juggle, body check, juggle, juggle, GOAL!, juggle, juggle, body check – repeat until you or your opponent commit suicide out of boredom. Even if you’re on a clear breakaway your best chance of scoring isn’t to move one way and fire it across the keeper – no, it’s to flick the ball up in the air, juggle it and then shoot it past the keeper while he stares off into space (presumably wondering whether or not he left the stove on). It’s absolutely mind-numbing and bears more resemblance to Tekken than it does to soccer.

Of course, you don’t have to play the game that way against the CPU (or a reasonable human opponent, try finding many of those on Xbox Live) and the game is more fun when you’re not juggling more balls than Jenna Jameson in a gang-bang. Unfortunately, other problems soon start to creep out of the woodwork.

Firstly, goal scoring is heavily dependant upon doing trick moves before-hand – this is even explicitly stated in the manual!

I’m sorry, I know this is a ‘Street’ game, but that’s just idiotic. Trick moves should help you get open for a shot by going past players or help you deke the keeper but just because you do a double step over before you shoot from 20 yards shouldn’t make that shot more likely to go in….unfortunately, that seems to be the case. The result of this is that you forgo passing and movement (something integral to soccer – whether it be indoor 5-a-side, futsal or even a kick-about) for flicking the right analog stick like a monkey. There’s no benefit to quickly passing the ball around to find an open man because it doesn’t enhance your chances of scoring (unless said open man can do a bunch of tricks before shooting). It reminds me of Dave Chapelle’s AND1 baseball skit – completely unnecessary and really rather stupid.

Secondly, the whole system of counters that was implemented in FIFA Street 2 has been removed which takes away any of the depth to playing defense. Previously, if your opponent tried to nutmeg you (by pressing down on the right stick) you could counter that move by making the same motion. Sure, it often felt like rock-paper-scissors but it still provided more depth than the current system of pressing X to perform an ‘Aggressive Tackle’ (kick the opponent) or pressing A to perform a ‘Conservative Tackle’ (body check him instead).

Thirdly, it’s far too easy to get a Gamebreaker - and Gamebreaker shots almost always go in. You basically build your Gamebreaker bar by performing trick moves and you consolidate/keep the progress you’ve achieved by getting a shot on goal. If you don’t get a shot on goal and the opposition gets the ball your progress decreases. This is all fine and dandy, except for the fact that the progress you’ve achieved decreases a rate slower than cold molasses. As a result you can do all the silly trick moves you want, build your bar up, and even if you lose the ball, as long as you can win it back in 10 seconds or so you haven’t lost a thing. There’s no risk involved! This would be analogous to Bizarre Creations changing the Kudos system in their next PGR game so that even if you crash while in a combo you still keep all your Kudos points! It robs you of any sense of risk vs. reward – it’s all reward.

It’s all a shame really because FIFA Street 2 made some good progress and I was really looking forward to a more balanced and rewarding game. Unfortunately, you get something that doesn’t really resemble the beautiful game in the slightest and a gameplay experience that is at best tedious and at worst downright frustrating.

Replay Value/Longevity 50/100

The only reason to play this game is to mine it for Xbox Live Achievements/Gamer Points because FIFA Street 3 gives them out like candy. In a single sitting you can easily rack up at least a couple of hundred points. This may, however, cost you your sanity.

Overall 55/100

Don’t buy this game. I’ve played FIFA Street 3 for quite some time hoping it would get better with time, it hasn’t. If you’re looking for a quick diversion on a lazy Sunday afternoon it may be worth a rental but even then don’t expect much more than an hour or two of play before you get bored of pressing the Y button over and over.

Again, this is another opportunity to make a truly awesome game missed. I’ve played indoor football many times but this winter I got to play real futsal for the first time and it’s tremendous fun. Yes, there’s an emphasis on individual skill but pass and move is still the essence. Unfortunately, FIFA Street 3 doesn’t resemble football, futsal or anything in between.

[Screenshots from www.fifastreet3.com ]

Overview

I absolutely abhorred the first FIFA Street because of it’s shallow, boring gameplay. FIFA Street 2 corrected many of the problems found in the first game and added an excellent ‘Rule the Street’ mode. With NBA Street Homecourt being one of my favourite arcade sports titles ever, I was eager to see what EA Sports BIG could do to improve on their FIFA Street series. Unfortunately, FIFA Street 3 takes several steps backwards with respect to gameplay and features. Consequently, it can only be considered a rental….

Graphics 75/100

It may be a matter of personal taste, but I really enjoy the art-style adopted by FIFA Street 3. Rather than try to realistically depict the world’s greatest football stars, EA Sports BIG have decided to adopt a quasi-anime graphical style and I think it works really well. Players are now caricatures of themselves – with aspects of their personality and notable physical features being emphasized in their appearance. For example, Genaro Gattuso is short but now built like a tank (with a small head) to convey his ‘hard-man’ image! It’s a shame that EA Sports had to be kind with respect to their depiction of players – I would have liked to have seen Mark Viduka sporting a beer belly or Sami Hyypia crouched over with a walking-cane!

There are approximately 250 different players (both current and some retired) and almost all of the big-name starts are instantly recognizable. There are some licensed national team kits and at other times players wear a variety of clothing from baggy shorts to cargo pants.

Animations in the game are fantastic with dozens of different ‘trick’ moves that range from those possible in real life to the ridiculous - like running along a wall with the ball or flipping over other players. Transitions between animations are silky smooth and while I’m unsure as to whether or not the game runs at 60fps, the frame rate is rock solid and smooth.

The game features the following pitches/grounds;

While each of these is depicted nicely (my favourite is the Rooftop which has you playing on top of a skyscraper in what looks like Japan with a constellation of neon signs in the background) they’re not nearly as engaging as they could be. Firstly, there doesn’t appear to be anything going on in the background and no spectators are present – compare that to not only NBA Street Homecourt but even FIFA Street 2 where you had cars driving by and people watching in the New York stage. The pitches are also all the same size (again, a step backwards from FIFA Street 2 where you had different dimensions for each pitch). Finally, there are only 7 of them which is 3 less than FIFA Street 2!

Presentation is also lacking with no introductory sequences to the pitches (see Homecourt) and the same 2 or 3 different replay angles. Lighting and special effects are solid with a nice selection of motion blur, lens flare and vapor trails - but again, they’re not nearly as good as those in Homecourt. The effects for the cursed Gamebreaker are particularly underwhelming as the screen just turns a sepia colour and doesn’t have any special kind of replay for a Gamebreaker goal scored.

Sound 85/100

Sound is another area where FIFA Street 3 takes a step backwards from its predecessor (albeit a minor one, in this case). FIFA Street 2 had a variety of radio stations playing different genres of music (with DJs for each station) and you could select play-lists for each station. This is gone in FIFA Street 3 and while the selection of music is very good I’m disappointed that another feature goes by the wayside.

The rest of the audio consists of dialogue between players (in different languages, as well which is neat) and ambient sounds for each pitch/court.

Options 60/100

Like other Street games FIFA Street 3 features three general modes of play; exhibition, a ‘career’ mode and online. Exhibition matches are subdivided into different types;

There’s also a Playground Picks mode which is again an exhibition mode but this time you select a team and then you and your opponent take turns picking 5 players each for your side.

While all of this would seem like a great deal of variation, the painfully shallow gameplay means that this is like giving you the option to have your teeth pulled in the kitchen, living room or garage. Either way it’s torture.

All of these game modes can be taken online and there’s the standard online rankings and stats tracking present.

The meat of the off-line game thus comes from the game’s ‘career’ mode – the ‘FIFA Street Challenge’. Unfortunately, this is where the feature-set falls flat on it’s face as you basically play a (seemingly) endless number of matches against various teams with no structure or narrative whatsoever. During this mode you can change the team you’re controlling at any time but you can’t add new players to a team. As a result there’s zero continuity from match to match, no sense of progression or achievement and no feeling of ownership over your side. There’s no calendar, no tournament table and no league rankings. You don’t get any cash from winning, you don’t get new clothes or boots and you don’t unlock any new venues. Every once in a while you unlock a new team but many teams have the same players! The teams aren’t even real sides but rather fictional collections of players (e.g. a team of tall players, a team of quick players, a team composed of players sponsored by Adidas and so on.).

Compare that to FIFA Street 2’s excellent ‘Rule the Street’ mode that had you first creating your own home pitch/court, then creating your self, creating a team and then trying to rise up the standings (all the while upgrading your abilities and adding/subtracting players from your team). ‘Rule the Street’ even had player conflicts and wagering on matches! As you can see, FIFA Street 3 has taken a massive step backwards in this regard.

With respect to team selection, the game doesn’t feature club teams but merely some International squads and the aforementioned fictional teams (of tall lads and so on…*sigh*). There’s no edit or player creation mode and there’s also no pitch/court creation mode either (again, present in the previous game).

Gameplay 55/100

How to win in FIFA Street 3:

With this fool-proof 10 step plan you can complete FIFA Street 3. Sure, you may get body-checked yourself and lose the ball but don’t panic – just go to Step 7 and repeat.

For some reason CPU players (and in particular CPU goalies) just don’t know what to do with themselves once you start juggling the ball in the air (via a simple press of the Y button, zero skill involved). You can grab the ball at your end and juggle to the end of the pitch against all but the best teams and then a simple press of the shoot button almost guarantees you a goal because the keepers are mesmerized by your juggling.

This translates to the online game where the main skill component is to try and stop your opponent doing the same thing to you! Every online match has taken the pattern of; juggle, juggle, body check, juggle, juggle, body check, juggle, juggle, GOAL!, juggle, juggle, body check – repeat until you or your opponent commit suicide out of boredom. Even if you’re on a clear breakaway your best chance of scoring isn’t to move one way and fire it across the keeper – no, it’s to flick the ball up in the air, juggle it and then shoot it past the keeper while he stares off into space (presumably wondering whether or not he left the stove on). It’s absolutely mind-numbing and bears more resemblance to Tekken than it does to soccer.

Of course, you don’t have to play the game that way against the CPU (or a reasonable human opponent, try finding many of those on Xbox Live) and the game is more fun when you’re not juggling more balls than Jenna Jameson in a gang-bang. Unfortunately, other problems soon start to creep out of the woodwork.

Firstly, goal scoring is heavily dependant upon doing trick moves before-hand – this is even explicitly stated in the manual!

I’m sorry, I know this is a ‘Street’ game, but that’s just idiotic. Trick moves should help you get open for a shot by going past players or help you deke the keeper but just because you do a double step over before you shoot from 20 yards shouldn’t make that shot more likely to go in….unfortunately, that seems to be the case. The result of this is that you forgo passing and movement (something integral to soccer – whether it be indoor 5-a-side, futsal or even a kick-about) for flicking the right analog stick like a monkey. There’s no benefit to quickly passing the ball around to find an open man because it doesn’t enhance your chances of scoring (unless said open man can do a bunch of tricks before shooting). It reminds me of Dave Chapelle’s AND1 baseball skit – completely unnecessary and really rather stupid.

Secondly, the whole system of counters that was implemented in FIFA Street 2 has been removed which takes away any of the depth to playing defense. Previously, if your opponent tried to nutmeg you (by pressing down on the right stick) you could counter that move by making the same motion. Sure, it often felt like rock-paper-scissors but it still provided more depth than the current system of pressing X to perform an ‘Aggressive Tackle’ (kick the opponent) or pressing A to perform a ‘Conservative Tackle’ (body check him instead).

Thirdly, it’s far too easy to get a Gamebreaker - and Gamebreaker shots almost always go in. You basically build your Gamebreaker bar by performing trick moves and you consolidate/keep the progress you’ve achieved by getting a shot on goal. If you don’t get a shot on goal and the opposition gets the ball your progress decreases. This is all fine and dandy, except for the fact that the progress you’ve achieved decreases a rate slower than cold molasses. As a result you can do all the silly trick moves you want, build your bar up, and even if you lose the ball, as long as you can win it back in 10 seconds or so you haven’t lost a thing. There’s no risk involved! This would be analogous to Bizarre Creations changing the Kudos system in their next PGR game so that even if you crash while in a combo you still keep all your Kudos points! It robs you of any sense of risk vs. reward – it’s all reward.

It’s all a shame really because FIFA Street 2 made some good progress and I was really looking forward to a more balanced and rewarding game. Unfortunately, you get something that doesn’t really resemble the beautiful game in the slightest and a gameplay experience that is at best tedious and at worst downright frustrating.

Replay Value/Longevity 50/100

The only reason to play this game is to mine it for Xbox Live Achievements/Gamer Points because FIFA Street 3 gives them out like candy. In a single sitting you can easily rack up at least a couple of hundred points. This may, however, cost you your sanity.

Overall 55/100

Don’t buy this game. I’ve played FIFA Street 3 for quite some time hoping it would get better with time, it hasn’t. If you’re looking for a quick diversion on a lazy Sunday afternoon it may be worth a rental but even then don’t expect much more than an hour or two of play before you get bored of pressing the Y button over and over.

Again, this is another opportunity to make a truly awesome game missed. I’ve played indoor football many times but this winter I got to play real futsal for the first time and it’s tremendous fun. Yes, there’s an emphasis on individual skill but pass and move is still the essence. Unfortunately, FIFA Street 3 doesn’t resemble football, futsal or anything in between.

[Screenshots from www.fifastreet3.com ]