You remember that Nike commercial where the best soccer players on this planned were cramped together in a cage to take each other on? That's what it's all about in FIFA Street. When I first saw the ad on TV with the astonishing moves and passes I was hoping to be able to do it myself. After having put the disc in my XBox my career as soccer star started.

The game is an EA Sports Big title which means amusement and great gameplay. You play with a keeper and three field players that you can choose from 16 different countries. Belgium and The Netherlands aren't available thuogh. The location of the games is different but of course it's always on the street. The idea is to win (dug!) and for that you need to score more goals than your opponents in a certain time limit, or be the first to get a fixed score.

Fifa Street is a refreshing new concept that will appeal to most people. If not for the fantastic gameplay, then certainly for the fantastic stunts that you can do. These are easy to do and look very realistic. You can humiliate your opponent by passing him through the legs followed by a retro. A feast for the eyes. As you see there's a lot of spectacle and there are a lot of possibilities for scoring. However, don't be fooled as not every chance results in a goal. Each keeper has cat-like reflexes. Shooting from the middle will almost never succeed.

The game is extremely fast and there's a lot of running up and down. Because there's no referee the game is even more pleasant. You can tackle all you want and will never hear the whining from a referee (although your opponent might not be so happy with that)

The graphics aren't really finished but it never bothered me during playing. Reckognising the players isn't a problem thuogh. The surroundings look beautiful with settings like the suburbs of Brasil and the worst neighbourhoods of France. They show a poor and desolate image which perfectly fits the concept.

To continue on the incredible tricks we can say that there's another nice addition to the game, the gamebreaker meter. The more tricks you do, the more the meter gets filled. Once completely full, you can do an unstoppable shot towards the goal. The keeper may better start praying as the chance of stopping such a kick is 1/10. The best thing about this is that it's shown in slow-motion. Since most games are only up until 5 goals this is more than welcome.

Certainly worth the effort in the game is the Rule the Street option. You create your own character and start your career as the worst player. Don't be sad as with a bit of goodwill and endurance you'll quickly become Ruler of the Street. The idea here is to get 10 cups in 10 different countries. Luckily you're not alone and get the help of your teammates.

In the beginning there will be 7 at your disposal (read: nerds) that are as bad as yourslf but as you collect skill bills by winning games, you'll be able to upgrade your own player, or get other players. Also new characters can be unlocked that can be added for free. The players are rated on a scale of 100, the best has a score of 97 (Ronaldinho). Too bad that Rule the Street can be finished quite quickly (it took me 5 hours)

To conclude I would like to talk about the sound which consists of nice latino-tunes that remind us of samba-soccer. Unfortunately these tunes get disturbed by some wannabe-Bob Marley who does the comments. He'll say at least 100 times in a game "Fifa Street", like we didn't know the title of this game.