FIFA Street 3

GamePro (online)

  • Review
  • Specs
  • Images
  • User Reviews
  • Buy Online

The third instalment in the FIFA Street is an interesting take on the world's most popular sport. It finds the back of the net with incremental gameplay improvements and a handful of assorted additions. Accessible controls and long-awaited online play help make FIFA Street the best entry in the series, even if it's still a long ways from perfection.

Pros

  • Accessible controls, fantastic soundtrack, new online play

Cons

  • Lame A.I forces you to constantly switch players on defence, unimpressive list of modes

Bottom Line

FIFA Street 3 ditches their dense gameplay and sprints forward with fewer modes and options. While you won't want to sit with it for hours on end, FIFA Street 3 is fun for a few stylish rounds of pretend footy.

Would you buy this?

  • Price

    $ 99.95 (AUD)

Style Over Substance

FIFA Street 3 isn't soccer so much as it is an extremely simplified distillation of the sport. The action centres on a casual vibe that definitely emphasises style over substance. The distinction is immediately apparent in the colourful graphics and tight soundtrack. Both are awesome, particularly the tunes which have been collected from some of the world's most progressive artists. The audio and visuals perfectly match the arcade-style gameplay, which is equally as entertaining and accessible.

Teams of five hit the pitch in a range of single and multiplayer modes. FIFA Street Challenge heads up solo play with a series of nine tournaments comprised of various events. Timed matches, for example, ask you to score the most goals in the allotted time whereas a headers and volleys game only counts those goals made accordingly. Ultimately, the objective is always the same: score as often as possible to win.

Hands-On

Intuitive controls make that goal easy to accomplish. Essential manoeuvres such as passing, shooting, and tackling are all done with the A and B buttons. Fancier footwork demands a bit more from your fingers, but even the hardest tricks are easy to pull off. FIFA Street 3 brings back the trick stick, which lets you toy with the right thumbstick to effortlessly execute advanced manoeuvres. Pulling off tricks isn't just for show, however: each contributes to your momentum meter and leads up to a game breaker. These super-charged moments open up a whole new set of abilities that boost your scoring chances.

The fluid controls also help compensate for your brain-dead teammates. Passive defenders allow the ball to slip through easily, meaning the only way to mount a successful defence is to constantly switch among players and direct each one manually. Online matches do away with this problem, offering matches for up to eight players in any of the arenas and modes featured in the single-player game. Given the lack of a true career mode, a new online-only World Challenge mode provides much-needed depth through large ranked tournaments. Other than local head-to-head matches, it's the best mode FIFA Street 3 has to offer.

Offsides

A fantastic sense of style puts the series' best foot forward, but it's at a cost of losing the relative depth found in the previous two instalments. FIFA Street 3 ditches their dense gameplay and sprints forward with fewer modes and options. This trade off is for the best because it makes the game more accessible and more entertaining than ever before, but it won't make you forget about hardcore sims like Winning Eleven either. While you won't want to sit with it for hours on end, FIFA Street 3 is fun for a few stylish rounds of pretend footy.

Keep up with the latest tech news, reviews and previews by subscribing to the PC World newsletter.

Be the first to comment.

Post new comment

Users posting comments agree to the Good Gear Guide comments policy.

Login or register to link comments to your user profile, or you may also post a comment without being logged in.

Most Popular

Tethering tutorial: How to use your iPhone as a modem
Capacitive vs resistive touchscreens
The next Xbox reveal: What to expect from the Xbox 720
How to pick the right size TV for your living room
LCD vs plasma vs LED TVs buying guide

Best Deals on PCWorld

GamesView all »
Software and ServicesView all »
PC ComponentsView all »
Desktop PCsView all »
NotebooksView all »