Fifa 08 is EA Sports' first step into the Fifa franchise for the
Nintendo Wii. It's a game based on, probably, the most popular sports
in the world: Soccer. You can call it Soccer, Football, Futbull, Ballon
or whatever you want, everybody knows this, what it is about and so far
EA has (mostly) delivered the same experience you could get in this
sports but in a video game format. Will it do the same for the Wii?
Let's find out …
As you would expect, Fifa 08 for the Nintendo Wii uses motion sensing
controls. Does it work all too well? Not really. A is used for passing,
B for through passing, the control stick to move your player and the Z
button to run faster. Now this all seemed pretty simple right? Well how
do you shoot? By making an upward swing with the Wiimote and let me
tell you that it is actually one of the most frustrating things in the
game, it never works like you want it to. Pretty much all of the
''physical'' moves are controlled by motion sensing. The more you swing
the Wiimote, the stronger your shots will get … but there's a little
tricky thing; if you swing your controller a little too much on the
left/right, you'll only send your ball into a nice flight outside the
stadium. The shooting demands a lot of precision.
While it does seem somewhat decent on paper, this control scheme
doesn't fit in well with the game. When you're approaching a goal
keeper and you're about the shoot, you don't have the time to go into
precision, you just want to shoot. Ultimately this does make the game a
little harder (if you're playing at a medium or high level of
difficulty) but the good side is that when you make a goal, it's very
rewarding because you've made a lot of efforts to get it. But in the
end, the boring controls hurt a lot the replay value. Fifa 08 also
features controls for casual gamers (called Family Play), you only
perform simple tasks like shooting or passing while the game handles
the rest. This is a very good addition if you want some non-gamers to
play with you in this game.
The game also features mini-games like table Football (aka Baby Foot
for some), Juggling (where you just perform simple little moves to keep
juggling the ball) and Boot it, where you just shoot the ball at a
goalkeeper. None of those mini-games are really worth your time (except
maybe the juggling one) especially the table Football game; you need to
rotate your Wiimote in order to play and you move the players with the
D-pad which makes this mini-game totally uncomfortable.
Fifa 08 also has a lot of regular Fifa games features missing such as
the be-a-pro game mode, all you have is ''Kick-Off'' and some
challenges (which are mostly dull by the way). But, no Fifa game would
be a Fifa game without Online Play right? Well luckily Fifa 08 for the
Wii features online play! And you know the best part of it? No Friend
Codes! Yes the game uses your EA Nation ID and nothing else, but you
still can't communicate with strangers which isn't really that useful
in the first place so it doesn't really matter. Online Play can be a
little laggy and for some reasons the connection can drop even if
technically your connection is fine so this really makes it a little
more frustrating. The worst part of Online Play is that the other gamer
can see which player you're using (by that I mean that they can see
that Triangle on top of your player) and vice-versa which really makes
the whole experience cheap since the other gamer would know where you'd
be coming from in the game. There's also Interactive Leagues mode for
online play which is actually a decent one: You represent you own club
online and each club gets a ranking too, compete and win more matches
to raise your club in the ranks.
As you would expect from any Fifa game out there, licensed music are
also thrown into the mix. Many songs from a wide diversity of artists
make the whole menu navigation in the game a pleasant one. Of course in
Fifa 08 you can also unlock many things like extra balls, kits and even
stadiums by playing in the challenge mode and winning points. The
visuals for that game are somewhat decent, the crowd looks horrible and
so does the field on a close-up. At least the animation is fine and the
player models are decent. The framerate doesn't drop which makes the
whole game running smoothly and any important glitches are also missing
which makes the game feel even more real.
Ultimately Fifa 08 for the Wii has many flaws and isn't really worth
your money or in some cases, your time. The boring control schemes,
along with the lack of any good game mode that could keep you occupied
really kills the game. But at least its licensed music, decent online
mode and decent visuals could help to not make your experience with
this game the most horrible one. Rent it first if you're really that
interested in the game, otherwise I would absolutely not recommend it
and this is coming from a big Soccer fan.
