FIFA Street 2012 Review

FIFA Street 2012

FIFA Street 2012 (A.K.A FIFA Street 4) is the 4^th installment (on consoles) of the FIFA Street series created by EA Sports. The game demo was launched on February 28 2012 on Xbox live, and hit PSN on the 29^th, with the full game releasing on the 13^th of March in North America and on the 16^th of March in Europe.

Gameplay

FIFA Street 4 is a great game to jump in and play, matches are generally only 6 minutes long, so this allows you to play a match pretty much any time, it doesn’t take 10 minutes to set up nor requires you to sit down and play for an hour while concentrating on nothing else but that.

The gameplay is a lot more realistic than it was with the last FIFA Street I played, which was the first one on PS2; it seems like this time it was nicely balanced, it retained the ‘street’ side of the game, but it integrated a lot of mechanics from the FIFA games, so it isn’t as crazy as the first one. The gameplay is great, the controls feel right and everything seems to work according to how it should. Only things I disliked when I first got my hands on it was how hard it was to get air cross passes to where you wanted them to go, and how I couldn’t completely  understand how to switch which character I was playing as; but then again, I’m a noob when it comes to soccer games, so.. Perhaps it’s just me.

Character customization, skill customization and squad customization is great as well, I love how it has the feel of The Sims when it comes to character creation and squad logo customization, but it has a more sporty feel to it.

And obviously, can’t really leave the fact that Lionel Messi is the new face of the game, which is insane, and another 13 or so legendary soccer stars are in the game, so that’s definitely a thing to look forward to.

Graphics

The graphics of FIFA Street 4 are great; the different locations to play in are well designed and really give you a feel for the area you’re playing in, example below with two opposite ends of the spectrum. Playing in a stadium, and playing out on the streets. Character movement is smooth, shadows look pretty real, and most importantly the dribbling looks really slick which is pretty much the main reason why people play the game in the first place

Sound

The soundtracks of the game are awesome; they seem to pump energy into me no matter how much I play the game. Another thing this game has that’s different to the first game is that in FIFA Street 4 you hear the characters calling out to each other, which makes the game even more realistic.

The environment sounds of the game are well done, you can tell what the ball is bouncing off because of the sound it makes, you can hear the crowds cheering and booing as the game goes on, which I find great.

Overall

Would I buy FIFA Street 4? Hell yes, I’d buy two if I had the money. The game is definitely worth getting, so go out there and buy it, now. Don’t think it twice, especially if you’re a diehard soccer fan that would die to play with Messi and other legends out on the streets. This game’s for pretty much anyone who enjoys sports games with a superhuman touch to them, and I mean anyone who’s got the ability to sit down, pick up a controller, and roll two joysticks while pressing some buttons.

Overall Rating: 8.9