Most people make do with one football game a year. They dutifully buy their copy of FIFA or PES every autumn, and it merrily tides them over for the next 12 months. But EA firmly believes that the marketplace can support more than one football game. Why not? Consumers regularly buy more than one first-person shooter and more than one role-playing game. Enter the rebooted FIFA Street franchise. Where previous entries in the series had a heightened sense of reality, with caricatured player likenesses and a camera partial to the odd crash-zoom, the new FIFA Street is much more in keeping with the core FIFA franchise.
This doesn't mean it's been sapped of what makes street football potentially so electric and exhilarating; it simply creates a sense of continuity between the two titles. And that's no bad thing when the other game is FIFA 12, one of the best-selling sports games ever made. But FIFA Street isn't a cynical, half-hearted entry into the series, it's got an interesting career mode, a simple yet effective control scheme, and is just really, really good fun when played with friends.
Presentation is good, but never approaches breathtaking. A lot of the environments are interesting and vibrant, but lack the level of detail to really sell them. Although none of the stages rouse you like a packed Wembley stadium, there's a great deal of variety. You can play in parks, gyms, and backstreets, on a rooftop in Shanghai, or in front of the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. And this isn't just superficial gloss – each environment is subtly different. The dimension of pitches vary, as do the size of the goals. These variables subtly influence the way in which a game unfolds. Play on a smaller pitch and things are a bit more crowded – you'll pass less and rely more on close control. Conversely, a match on a larger playing surface will encourage passing and more enterprising playing styles. It introduces a refreshing and welcomed degree of variety to matches.
The camera is locked-off and there's no commentary. Instead, you'll be able to hear the shouts of your players as they hustle play and demand the ball. Occasionally, it's a little strange to hear players from around the world communicating with inappropriate accents, but it's a minor niggle that will only trouble the pedantic. Games lack the palpable atmosphere that you find in FIFA 12.
The game uses the a lot of the same technology as FIFA 12, so players move and react in similar ways. But because environments are much tighter, players collide more frequently, resulting in some strange and frustrating tangles. Furthermore, goalkeepers sometimes make baffling decisions, leaving your goal exposed, but it's never so bad that it spoils the experience.
Teams from the top leagues in Europe are present, but you won't find teams from lower or more exotic divisions. Choose a top team – say, Manchester United – and you'll be able to cherry-pick a street team. A lot of players feel the same, regardless of the position they play, so defenders don't feel any more solid than a diminutive playmaker. A handful of international teams are also present, as are various All-Star teams which you unlock during the game.
The presentation of FIFA Street isn't as ostentatious as its precursors but that's probably an intentional design decision, a way of sobering up the franchise and aligning it more closely with FIFA 12. Menu screens and graphics are an urban mix of stained tarmac and bold graffiti, but it's the World Tour that highlights the game's lacklustre presentation. In this mode you're invited to build your own street football team, and rise from humble beginnings on local backstreets to a world final held in Brazil, the spiritual home of street football. Occasionally the user interface resembles a mobile device similar to an iPad - you'll be presented with an onscreen keyboard that you can't use, it's just for show, and looks a bit naff and feels like it's trying a little too hard to feel contemporary and cool.
Apart from that, World Tour has a nice central conceit, especially if you take the game online: it populates each region with local teams. So if you start off confined to, say, the North West of England, you may encounter teams filled with people you know or at the very least from somewhere near by. (Of course, it's success ultimately depends on the game finding a loyal community of players across regions.)
To progress and play on larger stages, you must win tournaments that take full advantage of FIFA Street's varied match types. Initially, World Tour can be frustrating – especially if you've mastered a lot of the game's tricks in multiplayer – since most of the skill moves aren't available to an inexperienced team. You must earn skill points during matches to increase the athleticism of your players and 'purchase' new tricks. Skill points can be racked up quite rapidly though, so it isn't long before you're rainbow flicking balls over people's bewildered heads. One minor gripe is the absence of an auto-level facility – constantly tweaking stats manually quickly becomes monotonous and time-consuming. Winning competitions also unlocks a range of branded apparel in which to kit out your team, making them look more like a professional outfit rather than a shabby bunch of amateurs.
FIFA Street's accessible gameplay is founded upon a brilliant mechanic that gives you greater control of the ball. Holding down the left trigger rivets your player to the spot. In this stance, you can easily manipulate and shield the ball from the opposition. Quickly release the left trigger, depress the right trigger, and you'll knock the ball pass your opponent or through his legs.
FIFA Street is all about staging these one-on-one encounters, wherein you bait your opponent into committing a challenge and swiftly exploit their mistake. Tricks, of course, feature quite prominently in all this. Most are performed using various flicks and rotations of the right analogue stick. Although fairly easy to perform, it takes time to learn when to use each trick most effectively. Although sometimes mindlessly wiggling the right analogue will pull-off the sublime, it will also lose you the ball more often than not.
Defending is more difficult, however. The game is weighted in favour of the attacking team. Games invariably end in high scores. It's not a bad thing, and is entirely in keeping with the spirit of the game, yet it sometimes makes defending feel like a lost cause.
It's worth noting that you can't play FIFA Street as you would FIFA 12. The passing just isn't as sophisticated. It's difficult play a through-ball with the same degree of accuracy, and lofted passes are sometimes too floaty and easily intercepted. If you play a passing game, you'll be frustrated when you pass the ball to no one or accidentally bounce it off a wall. The emphasis is definitely more on short passing, dribbling and beating your opponent. Again, this makes sense but it's worth noting for those who might find it a little disorientating.
There's a decent range of modes in FIFA Street. In addition to the vanilla 5-a-side, there's Futsal which is the officially recognised form of street football; it still allows stylish play, but it has fouls and dead ball situations. Panna is a mode which actively rewards individual flair. Points are awarded for beating your opponent – nutmeg them and three points will be deposited in your 'bank'. Score before the other team, and the amount of points in your bank will be added onto the value of the goal scored. It encourages you to learn the game's tricks, and it's satisfying to overturn a sizeable deficit with one beautiful goal.
If you fancy a quick fix, there's Last Man Standing. Every time you score you lose one of your players. As teams are whittled down, games become more open and play, increasingly stretched. It's a slight mode but it's a really enjoyable addition to the game.
Compared to the very successful FIFA 12, there’s obviously less depth to FIFA Street. But there’s also a lot more immediate fun to be had. Yes, its highs aren’t as thrilling and its lows aren’t as crushing. There isn’t as the same level of immersion or as many variables to master. Yes, its pleasures are cheaper and more ephemeral, but you’ll keep coming back. FIFA Street is more about fantasy fulfilment: it’s about nonchalantly pulling off audacious tricks, scoring outrageous goals, and humiliating your friends in the process. It exists as both a worthy companion to FIFA – providing a quick, fun multiplayer fix – but also as a primer for those who are put off by FIFA’s precipitous learning curve yet still want to kick around a digital ball with friends.
