Its not enough to win... (FIFA Street (PS2))

Member Name: seanb-v1

Product:	FIFA Street (PS2)
Date:	10/05/07 (80 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great Graphics, Great Sound, Nice Gameplay

Disadvantages: Bored players

“It’s not enough to win – you have to win with style.” That is the tag for EA’s football game FIFA Street.

This football game is different from all of the football games that you will be used to; it is definitely not anything like your normal FIFA football game. This one takes place on the streets, similar to what you do as a kid when you are on street or park. Play on small 3 v 3 or 5 v 5 pitches. This is a nice touch as you do not have to travel all the way up the pitch with 11 players, in this game it is very quick, end to end football action. This makes you alert all of the time and also keeps you entertained.

The game itself is based around showing off tricks on the streets as well as actually winning the game itself. There are many tricks that you can perform and with relative ease. They are done by using the right analog stick either on its own or in conjunction with the L1 and R1 triggers. There are many simple tricks that can be used against an opponent just by moving the right analog stick; however some of the more complex and nicer looking tricks are done by using the triggers as well.
By performing tricks you can build up combos. Combos are a sequence of tricks and flicks that gain some serious trick points. If you string together tricks you will notice that your Combo indicator will fill up and spell out COMBO. The further up the word COMBO you get with your string of tricks the more chance you will have of scoring a goal. Each additional letter you move up also multiplies the points that you are awarded for your next trick, this will fill up your Gamebreaker Meter in very quick time.
When you Gamebreaker Meter are completely full, you now have the ability to pull off a hammering shot. Push L1 and press the circle button to launch the pile driver of a shot, this will most likely hit the back of the net, and if not, it will take a player that is unfortunate to get in the way. Gamebreakers are very important in this game as you may as well convert them into goals. However you need to watch out that your opponents do not collect enough points to get a Gamebreaker as this can put you in jeopardy at times.

The main part of the game is called “Rule The Street” however before you can access this you need to create a character. To create a character just simply select “Create Player” from the main menu. First select a slot to save your character in and then input your player’s name. Once you have input your player’s name select done and you will see 3 submenus that you can open: Body, Head and Kit. You need to select each of these and design how your player looks and what his kit looks like. I like this Create Player mode as there are lots of options and depth to it. You can choose from body: skin color, height, build, definition and tattoos. From head you can alter: hair styles, hair color, head shape with definitions and positions for each facial feature, eye color, and many other features to do with face. Now on to the favorite part of the player creation process, designing the kit, you can alter: team colors, top styles and patterns, logos, short styles and patterns, shoe style and color, socks, hats etc. This is quite an in depth process and looks very nice. There are also a lot of unlockables that you can unlock once you start going through the “Rule The Street” campaign and gain street rep. It is very easy to create a character and doesn’t take too long but you should make sure you are happy with your character as you will have to put up with them throughout the “Rule The Street” campaign.

The “Rule The Street” campaign starts with you selecting your characters skills, you can choose from the following options: speed, shot power, shot accuracy, tricks and tackling. Choose what you like at the start and don’t worry too much about what you select as you will have to upgrade your character as you go through the campaign. After selecting your attributes you then need to set up your initial team. First pick the logo you would like for your team and also the team name. Once chosen you finally pick the members of your squad from a default list of players. These players are not particularly very good to start with; however they don’t need to be as you will be going up against opponents of similar skill levels. After selecting the members of your squad, you are more or less set to begin your campaign to “Rule The Street.”
You start in Marseille, France and have to play in 10 different stages before you can say you “Rule The Street.” The 10 stages are not all available from the start as you have to unlock them by winning “Rule The Street” tournaments. These are located in countries you have already unlocked and can play in. When you select on a country you will get 3 options. The first is “Kick About” which is basically a friendly against an opponent from the same country and there are eight of these in each country. You should beat them all as you can gain a lot of experience from beating them all. The second option available is “Upgrade Squad”, this is where you can challenge players (some have a cost to challenge, but these disappear as your rank goes up), and if you beat them in a match that player will join your squad. For example in Marseille, France you can challenge Rivaldo for free and he will be a great addition to your squad should you beat him. The final option is “Rule The Street” and this is the tournament for that area. To compete you will need to pay an entry fee, earned from beating other teams in that area and also a certain squad rating. To get your squad rating up, you will need to either upgrade your character or recruit new players into your team. When you pay this entry fee you will be permitted into the tournament where you will battle against teams in a timed game. If you win, you will win cash (A.K.A SB - Skill Bills) which can be used to challenge new players, upgrade your player or enter the next tournament.
As you move through the campaign your reputation will increase and you will unlock a lot of new items for your character and also a wide number of world famous players. These players can be recruited to your squad. The main aim of the campaign is to collect all of the trophies (which you gain when you win a venue tournament), beat all of the teams in “Kick About” mode within all of the venues, recruit highly rated players to your squad and conquer the world of FIFA Street.

The usual exhibition mode is in the game as you would expect. In this mode you can play 1-4 player mode which means that you can play along with friends. When I took this game around to a sleepover a couple of years back now, my friends didn’t like football and thought that this was a rubbish game. After a very long time, I convinced them to have a go with me on the multiplayer mode. This was my first time on multiplayer mode and I thought that it might be a little strange with fewer players on the pitch, however it is really fun. Everyone seems to get involved with the tackling and trying to show off to each other. If you also have very good goal keepers it can keep things very tense. The multiplayer aspect of the game gets very exciting when team mates are working cohesively as a team. When this happens they know when to pass to the other person, perform a trick, shoot, and even block Gamebreakers. We must have played the game for at least 3 solid hours without coming off that is how addictive this game can be, even to people who don’t like the sport and think that game is going to be garbage.
With exhibition mode you play more with nations, however you can include your team from your “Rule The Street” campaign and the star team. I think that his is a very nice touch.

The final mode is “Star Team”. This mode is not really a playing mode, however this mode does allow you to choose from the world’s finest players and assemble them into your own dream team to play in friendly games and exhibition games. This is quite nice as it has a similar setup to the “Rule The Street” team setup. You choose a logo for your team, a team name, choose your people and you are ready to go. However with this one, you have the ‘Stars’ of the game to choose from.


Graphics

I think that the graphics in this game are excellent, much better than any other football game that was released before and around it. The players look awesome, the scenery looks beautiful and the game flow is very nice, apart from when a Gamebreaker is used and the ball goes off at a slightly less natural angle; however this is still a very high detailed game. I think EA have concentrated a lot of the time on creating this game with the basis of it looking nice, with it not being a large pitch and there not being as many players they have to zoom in on the pitch and so presentation has to look good in order for you to play the game without thinking ‘wow, that looks bad!’ Not only have they done a good job but I think they have done an exceptional job of making this game stand out graphics-wise. The one and only problem that I found with this game is that the players faces never change, they are always in that default look. It would be nice to see a change to this and let them smile when happy, cocky when they do nice tricks, cry when in pain etc. In other words, let them have emotions. However this is my only complaint.


Sound

With the game having a very urban background, EA have done the clever thing and added an urban style soundtrack. When you are in menus and even in the matches you can hear the music and it is very catchy at times, and I think that EA have done a good job of not putting in songs that may irritate some individuals. The sound effects whilst playing the game are incredible at times. You can really hear the ball bouncing of the walls and players colliding. This sounds really good and with the graphics, it makes you feel as though you are actually there (that is if you have a nice big television with nice sound =]). When your hit the crossbar or the post, you can hear a very realistic sound for it, almost the exact same sound when you hit a crossbar of post with power in real life. One final thing about the sound is the commentary. The commentary is very delightful or at least for the first couple of times you play the game. The commentator has a false Jamaican accent and it sounds really good and blends in with the urban style of the game. Some of the things said by the commentator are unbelievably funny at times also and are really impressive. However if you feel that he becomes less than funny after a while, you can turn off the commentary in the options menu.


Game Length

This game has quite a long game length depending on how you wish to play the “Rule The Street” campaign and how much you play with friends. If you enjoy playing with friends and do it often then this game can have many hours of play time just between you and your friends in the multiplayer modes. If you play the “Rule The Street” campaign very vaguely and just rush through getting just enough points to clear the tournaments and rush it, then you are still going to have double figure play time. However if you decide to play the “Rule The Street” campaign properly and collect lots of points, upgrade your player to his maximum skills, recruit all of the best stars, unlock every venue, collect all the trophies and do all of the “Kick About” options then this game can go on for way longer than if you just do it vaguely.


Overall

Overall I think that this is a very nice game that I really enjoy playing again and again. I think that the “Rule The Street” campaign is a nice idea and very original. I also like the style of the game where it is about skills and tricks and not just pure football which you could get in an ordinary FIFA game. It is not a hard game but if you do not pick up the controls quickly you may get stuck for a little while at different stages of the game. Playing in multiplayer mode is very fun and can last a long time, speaking of which this game can last for a very long time and can be replayed over and over which is great value. The graphics and sound are very nice and add to the game greatly making it a very enjoyable game.
You can pick this game up brand new for as little as £9.68 (not including postage and packaging) from Amazon. This is a fantastic price for such a great game, that I give 8.5/10.

Final Notes: This game requires 249KB minimum space on your Memory Card for Playstation 2. This game also requires analog compatible controllers.

Thank you,
Seanbv1

Summary: A completely different game, hone your skills