Football is always a video game that goes down well with us Europeans, this is because we just love it, why? Because it is the greatest sport on earth that’s why, so you would think that when publishers such as EA try to play around with our beautiful game by releasing a game such as FIFA Street 3 we would get offended, after all this isn’t really football but something entirely different.
We may as well start with the positives and there are quite a few. FIFA Street 3 gives the series a complete makeover in terms of looks, the game now takes a cartoon approach to the presentation and each of the football stars which appear in the game, such as Crouch, Rooney, Ronaldinho all look well represented, the same approach applies to the new arenas such as the Oil Rig, Beach and Rooftop to name a few, each arena has it’s own character and brings something to each game you play. The sound also seems to have had an overhaul, you can clearly hear the shouts of your team mates which helps bring some authenticity to the game.
Essentially FIFA Street 3 is five aside football with superstars and no mud, or that red gravel stuff that you used to cut your knees on when you where a kid (If you know what I’m talking about), oh add a lot of tricks to that list as well. Since FIFA Street 3 is filled with modern day superstars, showing off is mainly what the game consists of, thankfully though the controls are quite simple, I managed to string quite a few moves together without too much difficulty but unfortunately once the novelty of doing this wears off this is where the game starts to go downhill quickly.
The main purpose of pulling off tricks in FIFA Street 3 is to fill up your Gamebreaker Bar, once you do this you can then activate it using RB and score a Gamebreaker goal, most of the time this then results in you scoring anytime you shoot, well until the bar empties at least. Although it is quite satisfying to pull off tricks which results in your bar filling up, like I say things start to become quite tedious as you will have seen nearly everything the game has to offer after a short time.
One of the most annoying things for me about the game though is that defense has been thrown out of the window, you just can’t tackle no matter how hard you try, what is that all about I ask you? What is the point in playing a game of football where you can’t tackle? There are defensive moves included in the game but they are about as effective as trying to play blindfolded, it’s just so frustrating.
On a more positive note that game does include quite a few different game modes for you to stick your teeth into, these include FIFA Street Challenge, Head to Head, Playground Picks and of course the Xbox Live multiplayer mode. Of the game modes mentioned none really stand out when playing solo, however should you play against a human opponent at least this adds a bit more of a competitive nature to things, Playground Picks can be quite amusing in this way, although you still can’t tackle (arrghhh).
As you may have guessed, to me FIFA Street 3 is a game that would most certainly have passed me by had I not been reviewing it, as far as I am concerned football is at it’s best when it is played on a green pitch, inside a stadium with 11 men on each side, men that know how to tackle may I add. FIFA Street 3 is game that is all about flair and done correctly this could be ok I guess, unfortunately though the game doesn’t really have any depth to it, you will soon tire off seeing the same old tricks and hearing your teammates shout the same phrase over and over again, therefore perhaps you too should pass this game by, well unless you are a show off of course.
