There are gamers who adore some games so much that they don’t care if it’s a tad bit repetitive. As a developer you’re sure to stretch the gameplay a lot using this method but the gaming fun is suffering from it. I’ll be more precise. The biggest game mode in Fifa Street 2 is the Rule the Street mode. Here you’ll follow all the typical steps you’re used to following in other sport games namely: create your character, distribute your first points amongst your abilities and start shooting that ball. Nothing new here, but if this wouldn’t be in the game you’ll surely be missing it.

You’ll get a decent amount of matches, every single one with its own rules. The only problem is that scoring the most points doesn’t always result in winning the game. Sometimes you’ll have to be the first to get a certain amount of trick points. This will results in you acting like a real showman on the court, constantly busting one move after the other without really going into offence and shooting at goal. This gives the game that we all know as soccer an awkward twist. The main purpose in soccer is namely scoring goals and this is being cut now. Sure, the moves look fresh, but they aren’t that hard to pull off though. With your right stick and a couple of turbo buttons pressed, you’ll be busting the most ridiculous moves. We have to keep in mind that we’re dealing with an arcade soccer game, where the focus is on entertainment rather than on strategy. But given the enormous amount of repetitive gameplay, the entertainment disappears after an hour.

You’ll follow each step of a career with your created player. You start of as a real rookie with your team mates being picked automatically. When your statistics have reached the gap of 40 however you’ll get the opportunity to pick your own team mates. Do keep in mind, however, that at this moment you’ve already played tons of matches and Fifa Street’s moves hold little to none secrets. So you’re only in the second phase of your career and you’re already yawning with boredom. If you also take into account the numerous unlockables such as: exclusive shirts, courts and players and you have an idea of how long it can take to really finish this game. Most players won’t be bored by this fact, unless your name is Mario Moris, then you’ll be leaving the controller behind faster than you can say “Schnitzelschlager”. As you can tell the lasting appeal of this game is pretty decent, although you can put question marks behind the word “appeal”. I truly feel that quality is much more important than quantity so for me it’s more about the appeal than about the lasting spirit of things.

So I got tired of this street soccer thing faster than I expected, that doesn’t mean the controls aren’t a joy to fool around with. Within minutes you’ll be executing some tight moves that you only see in those Nike and Adidas commercials. The only disadvantage when it comes to controlling your player is seen on the defensive part of the game. Your opponents are namely smart enough to pull of some cool tricks now and then and when you’re trying to steal their ball during one, you’ll often see your player hit the floor and stay there for far too long. As a result your opponent will already be free at goal but thanks, or due to the accessible difficulty level this will never pose big threats. However it does give you the feeling that you’re powerless.

As you all probably know, Fifa Street 2 also has the gamebreaker, which we all know from NBA Street. In Fifa Street however they called it the Panas, of which I don’t know the meaning and frankly I don’t care. When your trick bar is full, a round icon will pop up in the middle of the screen and once you run over it with your player the gamebreaker mechanic will be activated. Depending on how many defenders you’ve passed when scoring, you’ll get more points and one or more goals will be cut from the opponents. This whole Panas thing sure is spectacular to look at but you won’t really need in. However EA Big is forcing you to use it in certain matches where you can only win by scoring one or more Panas.

So as far as gameplay is concerned I’m not really a big fan. However, there will surely be gamers who love this kind of gameplay. Well not me though. But one thing I can’t complain about are the graphics. Everything looks just as you’ll want it to be. Nothing more, nothing less. The sound is of an equal quality with one thing that stands out being the soundtrack. You’ll hear a number of familiar tracks, especially the title track that’s being played a bit too often on the radio as far as I’m concerned. Each time I hear it, it reminds me of this review and how lazy I’m becoming. It rubs it in my face but I can’t blame it because big changes are needed when it comes to my activity on Fragland.