Why would anyone pay full price for this?
This is a review for the latest Fifa cash-in for the coming football (soccer) World Cup in South Africa. I am long time PES player but since Konami stopped making entertaining football games couple of years a go. I I've jumped ship. And play my footie on Fifa franchise now a days. Last such game being the Fifa 10 for PS3 which is no doubt best football game for the generation.
World cup is major sports event arranged every 4 years. This year being South Africa's turn to host the event. And as with any bigger such event there is a set of games for any platform you can think of. My chosen platform for this is Nintendo Wii. World Cup 2010 is naturally based on the Fifa 10 game. Just updated with the official national teams, themes and other minor upgrades.
On the graphics front there isn't much else to say than that this games looks fugly. I know that Wii can not be compared with Xbox or Playstations hardware. But come on! Wii can do much better than this. Even the PS2 PES game look better. Game being a sports game the eye-candy is not the first thing that matters. Characters are displayed with cute cartoony look and it is possible to distinquish most of the individual players. Although some of the characters border lining Spitting Image look . Not a flattering look eh. Stadium and the audience is very generic and there is not really much movement except for the occasional country flag. The player animations are looking good enough of with fancy tricks and kicks.
I can overlook the lack of visual presentation in a sports game if the game-play is quality. Unfortunately that is not the case here. I have not played Wii version of Fifa 10 but I had no idea that the game-play would be so simplistic compared to the Xbox/PS version. Game seems to utilize same amount of buttons as the "real" versions do, especially when using the classic controller but one can not wonder how come. The passing/crossing/shooting is more less automatic. The freedom and difficulty to perform own passes and kicks is completely stripped. Passes will automaticly find a player and no matter where. Each efforts towards the goal, not matter where shot will hit the target, not scoring of course but there are no weak shots. Well other than on free kicks, which is done by a new (at least for me) mini-game. You need to time you kick with the right thumpad by nodding towards the ball on the exact moment of kick. Depending on how well you time the better the kick will be. Keeper will also have similar mini-game where you need to nod the thumb-pad on right moment to be able to save the goal. No need to practise free kicks here or have good quality player. All players will get a nice Ronaldo-esque spin on a free kick with correct timing. This mini game is also used on corners and occasions where you are battling for the ball
One other factor to add about the game-play is that since the game has been released month ago and the official teams have only been released last week there teams are not 100% accurate, might be that a online patch might fix this. One other addition to the game is a set of celebration moves. When scoring a goal you get to pick from four different moves. Can't really understand purpose of that.
I wouldn't call Fifa Wold Cup 2010 a hard game. Unfair and unbalanced yes but it can easily be played with the hardest difficulty. Unbalanced factor showing on the set-pieces especially. The amount of volleys opponent is getting is insane. It is excatly not possible to defend a hard hitting volley from a corner. My record so far is 6 corners in a row where 4 being volleys. This was before I understood the timing mini-game and it is bit better now. But still it happens way too often. Opponent getting a perfect corner in and smashing a direct volley, either being saved and deflected by keeper or my own playe
Game modes are the plain World Cup mode where you pick your team and play through the group stages. You can either you use the real existing countries or modify the groups and/or add new countries. Other game modes are the online mode, which I couldn't imagine playing such unbalanced game, the usual quick game/training and to Zakumi's Dream Team. Zakumi being the official mascot of the World Cup. Purpose of Zakumi's dream team is to start with a poor team combined of players from countries that did not make it to the world cup. The progress is split into levels/groups where you need to play against the World Cup countries by performing challenges. Scoring a hat-trick, having certain amount of possession, having a fair game and so far. Depending on the challenge level and if you happen to win or draw you will get to choose a player from that team and add it to your own. Interesting idea and only flaw being the fact that you can not pick your starting team. Meaning you start with crap ala crap. San Marino players and whatnot.
For the sound, game follows the tradition of any EA Sports game with official set of announcers and commentators. This is something they have not stripped from the full Fifa games. In fact there is even more commentatory I feel. As with any other EA Sports games these tend to get annoying with the same comments all the time. For personally I've thought that they always add a nice authentic touch.
And to the best part, surprisingly music and the the overall feel. Game manages to relay a proper World Cup feel with authentic Vuvuzela horn sound and the bright and ethnic looking menus. Everything is displayed with green and brown colors giving a nice African feel. The sountrack follows the same formula. The songs are using the same EA sports tracks style. Only difference here is that the music is ethnic inspired and definitely not the mainstream kind of crap you get on the normal EA games.
Fifa World Cup 2010 South Africa is currently residing at number one chart position on UK's list. Only reason for this must be is because England is a proper contender for a change. And that the country has gone all football crazy. There is one thing that this game is good for, relaying the World Cup feel but I don't feel that it is enough to pay full price for this. Especially not for the Wii version.