FIFA Street 2 (GameCube) Review

Fifa Street 2 is the second (and hopefully final) attempt from EA to make a "cool" "street" version of football that revolves around skills instead of the fundamentals of football. So instead of 11 vs 11 you have 3 vs 3 in small street settings and with no rules, no refs and no atmosphere. The main goal is still to score goals, but it is accompanied by doing tricks using the c-stick. Each trick adds to a trick point tally, once you hit a certain amount you are awarded with a gamebreaker, which is essentially an unstoppable shot but with a certain quirk.

Ah the quirk, the quirk that ruins the game. Not single handedly as the rest of the game is dire as well, but it is certainly a major factor. When you have the gamebreaker the game goes into a slow-mo dreamlike state and you have the choice of either scoring or taking players on. For every player you beat there is a perk, you get an extra goal and they lose one. And when you beat the third and final player you can take an unstoppable shot and "k.o" them. Game over, you win. Now look at that again and see if you can spot the flaw, found it yet? Yes, you win regardless if you beat 3 men. So even if you are 15-0 down then you can win with one goal if you have a gamebreaker. Now this would be fine if the trick system was well balanced enough that beating 3 people would be rare and an achievement.

But guess what, the trick system is flawed as well. Yes just when you think things can't get any worse the game manages to get even worse. The trick system is a bit different from last years with the new tricks having more of a root in real football. Which is lovely. Problem is tricks are easy to pull off and the computer will only stop you 1 in every 10 times, so it's easy to rack up points.

The trick system is also easy to abuse. When you nutmeg a player (called a panna ingame, which I'd never heard of) the player falls down in a ridiculously exaggerated manner. They then take a ridiculously long time to get up from the ridiculously long fall and when they are getting up you can dance around them doing tricks unopposed. So essentially loads of free points... ridiculous. You'd think the developers would've spotted this problem... but no. You can also rack up points by passing the ball about in the air, because apparently a short lofted pass is stylish whereas a long perfect pass isn't.

The sound is a million times better than last years. DJ Embarrassment (joke) is no more and Zane Lowe of Radio 1 and MTV 2 fame is the replacement. He does a good job with no more mortifying football raps and let's the decent music flow. There is also a distinct mix of international music, with a regional feel to each location. Very impressive stuff EA, so why not put this much care and thought into the rest of the game?

Fifa Street 2 is a game that is crippled from the start with a few fundamental flaws in what should be the solid foundations of the game. Simply speaking you don't base a game on tricks and gamebreakers then leave those open to abuse, and no amount of nice graphics or good sounds can change that. A game with poor foundations shouldn't be let out of development, and guess where Fifa Street 2 should still be. Please EA, don't try again. Instead pour the money into making the regular Fifa series half decent. That's possible, turning Fifa Street 2 into a decent game isn't.