Brutal Gamer

FIFA ’10 (Wii) Review

By Mike - October 12, 2009 - 14:27 UTC

The newest version of EA’s football franchise has arrived on the Wii.

The FIFA series has been going for a fair while now, right back to the days of FIFA International Soccer which started the, ahem, ball rolling.  So now, we have the Wii version of the 2010 entry in the series, which EA have decided to build with the Wii specifically in mind.

If you’ve ever played other versions of the FIFA series on other consoles, the first thing that hits you is the complete difference in presentation for the Wii.  Rather than the slick looking front end menus, you are presenting with a vibrant, almost cartoon like presentation with big cartoony looking fonts, almost like it’s a kids football game.

When you start playing, you notice that the graphics aren’t terribly impressive.  The players do look enough like their real life counterparts, but the faces do look a bit jagged, with blocky players and flat hair being the norm.  Sure, the Wii isn’t as powerful as the 360 or PS3, but it’s produced plenty of games with smoother looking graphics than this.  Although the players are small when you’re playing, so you’re hardly going to notice them.  However, the textures are pretty low resolution as well,  and the crowd models look very strange, almost alien like.  The stadia look good, though.

The licensed tracks from the other versions of FIFA are missing from the Wii, instead being replaced by a somewhat cheesy techno soundtrack, which really does grate quite quickly.  There is full commentary from Martin Tyler and Andy Gray, which is really well done and sounds like you’re playing a real match, and the crowd noise and chanting really adds to the atmosphere, although the occasional cheers and horns blaring through the Wiimote speaker are annoying.

FIFA 10 contains all the play modes you’d expect from a football game, from your exhibition games through to your leagues and tournaments.  It even has it’s own specially built manager mode called ‘Battle for Glory’, which is hugely simplified compared to the other versions of the game.  In the ‘Battle for Glory’, you can play or simulate games, and you can make transfers.  However, rather than use money, the transfer system on this mode uses a stars system and transfer points.  Each player has a star value which indicates how many of your own stars you need to buy said player, or how many stars you’d get to sell your players.  Each ingoing or outgoing transfer also uses up one of your transfer points.

There is also a ‘Manager Moment’ before each match, where you can choose one of three aims you expect to achieve in your next game.  These can be things such as getting a certain number of shots on target or not getting a red card in the game.  If you achieve your aim, you get some ratings point which you can exchange for a selection of boosts to give you the edge.  The more difficult the Manager Moment you attempt to pull off, the more ratings points you get.   You can also save up your boosts and combine them to get even bigger boosts to make things easier.  The ‘Battle for Glory’ mode is a bit flimsy, though, with very minimal depth.

Gameplay is very different in the Wii version of the game.  Rather than trying to recreate the realistic simulation of the other version, EA have opted to go for a more arcade style approach on the Wii.  The action is very fast paced and simple, and you get sound effects and trails behind the ball when you take shots, and this set-up is actually more fun, reminding you of Mario Strikers Charged.

The game have a choice of control schemes, all of which are well done and become natural quite quickly.  You can use just the Wiimote where the AI moves your players and you aim at team-mates to make passes and lobs, although the AI isn’t the sharpest knife in the proverbial drawer and can get annoying.  You can use the Nunchuk as well, which allows you to move your own players and gives you more control options.  Both of these options use a shake of the Wiimote to either shoot or slide tackle.  On opponent’s set pieces, you can shake the Wiimote to attempt to win control of the ball on a corner, or to get the goalie to save a shot from a free kick, by shaking when the ball turns green.  Of course, if you really hate flailing your arms about, you can always just plug a Classic Controller in and just play in the time honoured method.

FINAL THOUGHTS
EA have clearly put a lot of thought into the Wii version of FIFA 10.  Rather than just pop a stripped down version of the 360 and PS3 versions onto a disc like some other multiformat games do, EA have instead decided to build this game with the Wii in mind.  What they’ve delivered is a fun, well designed and controlled footy game that will provide great fun with friends.  Sure, the music is awful and it doesn’t look pretty, and hardcore FIFA enthusiasts will baulk at the lack of realism and detail.  But this is the best football game on the Wii right now, and is well worth buying if you’re after a fun, arcade style kickabout.  There isn’t a massive amount of variety, though, so it don’t expect this to last all the way until FIFA ’11 appears.

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