FIFA Street 2
EA Canada comes back with a much improved, yet still underwhelming arcade footy experience.
Published: April 4, 2006
EA hit paydirt with NBA Street, turning something as simple as basketball into arcade gold, but since then, they've tried repeatedly to get lighting to strike outside of basketball games, but so far both the football and soccer offerings have fallen way short.
Perhaps it's that basketball is simple enough that it translates perfectly, or perhaps it's just that the development team better understands how to make that translation work so well, but whatever the reason, FIFA Street 2 just doesn't have the magic.
I'm not saying it's not a decent game, but the NBA Street titles are great games that continue to get better with each iteration. The second street soccer game is a marked improvement over the first -- arguably a bigger improvement than even NFL Street 2 was over its predecessor -- but it's still not great, mainly because of the defensive game.
FIFA Street 2 is based around simple three-on-three matchups. In EA's tireless quest to brand and trademark everything they possibly can about a game, the right analog stick has become the TrickStick, and it's used to direct the ball between a defender's legs, over their head or left/right move. It's a pretty deep system, all told. The shoulder buttons can be used as modifiers, and as you progress through the single-player game, you'll unlock a ton of moves that are mapped to these shoulder buttons and the diagonals on the TrickStick.
While this is certainly a more refined version of what was in the last game (you no longer have to hold a button to make bank passes off the walls or to make more precise passes, for instance), it's still a clumsy way of doing things. The diagonals aren't always easy to hit when you're on the move, and too often I found myself just defaulting to the basic moves even though they yielded fewer points.
When you're on defense, the TrickStick is used to direct specific attacks on the ball carrier, be it a slide tackle, anticipation of a juke, and so on. Since any tricks, either served up by or at you, leave the trickee stunned while the ball handler zooms by, using the TrickStick in anticipation of what the carrier is going to do becomes increasingly important -- and difficult -- as the game progresses through the career mode.
On the opposite end of the spectrum are the shielding abilities and dribbling. By holding a shoulder button, you can essentially open up a massive host of TrickStick-guided moves that allow you to pull off some of the more impressive moves in the game. Bouncing the ball off knees, heads, traps, footwork, all of it is controllable via the right analog stick. The problem here is that the moves are difficult to pull off reliably and even harder to remember the complex swoops and flicks.
Shielding also opens up a new set of moves with the TrickStick, again with more complex moves being unlocked as you move through the career. Because all of the tricks you unlock have variants for dribbling, shielding, and modifiers, it can get a little overwhelming, and shields never really felt like they were worthwhile to me when complex passes and tricks would get by defenders anyway.
Getting by defenders isn't terribly difficult, but building up the GameBreaker meter can be. All moves in the game give you points, though the more you use them per match, the less they're worth. Beating multiple defenders will act as a multiplier for your total score when a combo string ends, as will passing, so as long as your team retains control of the ball, you can ratchet up massive point strings. The AI, especially later on, is far better at this than I ever got, making lighting quick passes into dribbles and then shots.
Once you've maxed out your GameBreaker, any one of your players can take the ball to midfield and kick on the GameBreaker option. Here's where the game gets interesting. By beating all three defenders before taking a shot, you'll automatically win the game if it's a goal. Even beating multiple defenders will act like previous GameBreakers and add points to your score while docking theirs. It's actually a neat concept, but can be abused like crazy, resulting in matches that are over in little more than a minute or so.
Perhaps it's that basketball is simple enough that it translates perfectly, or perhaps it's just that the development team better understands how to make that translation work so well, but whatever the reason, FIFA Street 2 just doesn't have the magic.
I'm not saying it's not a decent game, but the NBA Street titles are great games that continue to get better with each iteration. The second street soccer game is a marked improvement over the first -- arguably a bigger improvement than even NFL Street 2 was over its predecessor -- but it's still not great, mainly because of the defensive game.
FIFA Street 2 is based around simple three-on-three matchups. In EA's tireless quest to brand and trademark everything they possibly can about a game, the right analog stick has become the TrickStick, and it's used to direct the ball between a defender's legs, over their head or left/right move. It's a pretty deep system, all told. The shoulder buttons can be used as modifiers, and as you progress through the single-player game, you'll unlock a ton of moves that are mapped to these shoulder buttons and the diagonals on the TrickStick.
While this is certainly a more refined version of what was in the last game (you no longer have to hold a button to make bank passes off the walls or to make more precise passes, for instance), it's still a clumsy way of doing things. The diagonals aren't always easy to hit when you're on the move, and too often I found myself just defaulting to the basic moves even though they yielded fewer points.
When you're on defense, the TrickStick is used to direct specific attacks on the ball carrier, be it a slide tackle, anticipation of a juke, and so on. Since any tricks, either served up by or at you, leave the trickee stunned while the ball handler zooms by, using the TrickStick in anticipation of what the carrier is going to do becomes increasingly important -- and difficult -- as the game progresses through the career mode.
On the opposite end of the spectrum are the shielding abilities and dribbling. By holding a shoulder button, you can essentially open up a massive host of TrickStick-guided moves that allow you to pull off some of the more impressive moves in the game. Bouncing the ball off knees, heads, traps, footwork, all of it is controllable via the right analog stick. The problem here is that the moves are difficult to pull off reliably and even harder to remember the complex swoops and flicks.
Shielding also opens up a new set of moves with the TrickStick, again with more complex moves being unlocked as you move through the career. Because all of the tricks you unlock have variants for dribbling, shielding, and modifiers, it can get a little overwhelming, and shields never really felt like they were worthwhile to me when complex passes and tricks would get by defenders anyway.
Getting by defenders isn't terribly difficult, but building up the GameBreaker meter can be. All moves in the game give you points, though the more you use them per match, the less they're worth. Beating multiple defenders will act as a multiplier for your total score when a combo string ends, as will passing, so as long as your team retains control of the ball, you can ratchet up massive point strings. The AI, especially later on, is far better at this than I ever got, making lighting quick passes into dribbles and then shots.
Once you've maxed out your GameBreaker, any one of your players can take the ball to midfield and kick on the GameBreaker option. Here's where the game gets interesting. By beating all three defenders before taking a shot, you'll automatically win the game if it's a goal. Even beating multiple defenders will act like previous GameBreakers and add points to your score while docking theirs. It's actually a neat concept, but can be abused like crazy, resulting in matches that are over in little more than a minute or so.
