Home Gaming Fifa 08 – Reviewed – Wii

Fifa 08 – Reviewed – Wii

4 min read
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By Philp Dunkley

FIFA 2008 Wii Footii Party

Wii are finally reviewing Wii titles. That’s about the best I can come up with at 7:00am on a Saturday, and no, we don’t usually start doing any kind of writing on Weekends, but hey, I have a lot to get through this weekend with a whole bunch of games to review.

We start off our foray into the world of relentless arm swinging and various other embarrassing waving of bits, with FIFA08, and as a reviewer, I should not have any contact with any FIFA game due to my biased opinion of anything FIFA related on a console. I have always said I love the franchise, and I can’t help it, I’m a football fanatic, and love to play these games.

I truly believe that I can give a relatively decent and fair review of this specific title, as it’s rather different than on other consoles. Purely due to an obvious new control system, this has taken the beloved standard controller of other consoles out of my hands, and thrust the Nunchuck and Wii Remote into my grubby paws.

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Now all seems familiar when starting the game up, with a couple of additions on the menu in the form of a few minigames, which though limited, are relatively fun, but are just an add-on to allow you to use the new control system.

Entering the game, I felt immediately at home with the general FIFA interface, and realised that this was definitely the same franchise that I am used to playing over the years. What I realised rather quickly, the moment I kicked off, was that this was going to be something different from a control point of view. There are two methods of control from FIFA’s point of view, one Family Play and the other Advanced. Advanced is where the action happens, as the Family Play option removes the Nunchuck, and makes the control of the players automatic. But the Advanced option gives the player a lot more control, using the Nunchuck to control the players manually, and sprint. The basic controls are all there, with pass and through pass being button A and B respectively, but it’s when you need to shoot that you are either going to love or hate this game. Flicking the controller up, blasts a shot at goal, and flicking the controller down, executes a more finesse shot at goal. It works well, and I found the accuracy quite good. Another use for the control is when defending, flick the controller down causes your player to slide tackle the opposition.

These controls work well, but can cause a bit of confusion when playing the game, as you tend to push the control the wrong way at the heat of the moment, causing the shot to go awfully wrong, but score a goal in a classy way, and it feels like the ball just come off your own boot.

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This leads me to my question in this game. Will hardcore fans of footie games enjoy this new control scheme? Probably not. It just does not give the level of control that one expects from a game like this. But, will the casual gamer looking for more fun than simulation enjoy this. Definitely. It feels a lot less stressful than the intense FIFA experience normally associated with the franchise.

Difficulty levels range from really easy on amateur to devilishly difficult on World Class, so it will keep you just as engrossed as the standard platforms.

Graphically, the game is just as good as its counterparts, albeit in lower resolution, and flows at a decent pace throughout the game. Animations are also very good. From the audiophile point of view, the game is also good, but it’s the same as every year, though this does fit in to the type of game.

Two Player is loads of fun, but remember, holding your opponents remote whilst he is trying to shoot is apparently not allowed. Trust people to ruin my fun.

Overall the game is very playable and entertaining, but I need to review this from both points of view. If you enjoy the intensity of Football Simulation, and all the hardships that go with it, stick to the other console versions. If you are looking for some fun and enjoy playing two players with the Wii console, go for it. I enjoyed it enough to play it more than just a few times, and I thought the controls were good, maybe just a bit too basic though.

We’d like to thanks EA South Africa for providing us with the game, we really appreciate it.

Scoring:
Graphics – 70%
Playability – 65%
Originality – 65%
Tilt Factor – 75%
Overall – 70% (Good)

Last Updated: March 25, 2008

4 Comments

  1. Evilredzombie

    March 25, 2008 at 08:41

    why does the box art look like Mii’s ? and the game more real ?

    Evilredzombie’s last blog post..PS3ZA Shirts

    Reply

  2. Philip Dunkley

    March 25, 2008 at 10:29

    @Evilredzombie: The Gameplay is real life the same as the other versions, but the Mini Games are in Mii Format

    Philip Dunkley’s last blog post..Fifa 08 – Reviewed – Wii

    Reply

  3. RA1NKING

    March 25, 2008 at 10:44

    Is that the darma logo on the 2nd picture between the 2 grand stands. On the left , sorta in the middle of the page ?

    Reply

  4. LazySAGamer

    March 25, 2008 at 11:05

    No unfortunately not, the Dharma is not in this story ;)…

    Glad to see people are keeping an eye out though

    Reply

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