TaylorMade

Three months ago I bought FIFA08 for my Wii having had previous versions for the PC, my Gameboy Advance, N64 and SNES.

After two half hour stints I thought what a waste of money, I could barely string two passes together and there seemed to be so many movements required to control players that I was left dazed and confused. However Christmas came and I decided I was going to spend some time on FIFA08 to try and master it. Master it I didn’t but now I’m certainly a hell of a lot better at it!

For those of you out there who have loved the FIFA games over the years FIFA on the Wii is a completely different experience. Forgetting the crappy family play option, where the computer basically does it all for you, it’s a fairly steep learning curve to master passing and shooting, never mind the trick moves.

Passing

Short passes are easy and the through ball is your best friend but playing lobbed passes or decent crosses is a skill on its own! I’ve played many games now and scored a load of goals but I think my cross to goal tally amounts to one. Either the keeper gets the ball everytime or it falls to a defender, grrrrrrr.

Shooting

Scoring goals is the second hardest part of FIFA. I played 6/7 games totally dominating but unable to score but once I did the floodgates opened. Flicking the remote up and down is the typical method of scoring but I accidentally found an even better method which seems to hit a low, hard, swerved shot which is done by flicking the remote down and at an angle to your left or right depending on what swerve you want. I didn’t see this in any of the training exercises, did I miss something? My best goal to date has been courtesy of Ronaldo with a 20 yard free kick which curled over the wall and burst into the top left corner. I only wish I could have saved it and put it on YouTube!

Speed

Even though I was starting to win a few games I still found it frustrating that the opposition was out sprinting me consistently. In all other FIFA games there’s a sprint button but training hadn’t revealed this to me, again did I miss something? Anyway I soon Googled it and found Z was what I needed and boy did that make a difference. Now I can sprint past defenders for one on ones against the keepers and track back to defend, this is the most crucial button of all.

Defending

Definitely the hardest part of FIFA. You basically have two moves, either steal the ball or slide tackle. In other versions slide tackles have been easy and most of the time you win the ball cleanly and don’t give away free kicks. On the Wii it’s the opposite. Trying to win the ball cleanly without giving away a free kick is very very difficult. Again only after several hours of play am I finally managing to successfully slide tackle about 50% of the time. Am I alone in finding this a bit mad??

Graphics

During normal play FIFA on the Wii looks ok. I find the sides of pitches a bit dull at times where there’s a shadow from the stadium and if you’re playing in dark colours, it’s hard to see your players. Also is the pitch “map” top right which can also cover your players, not sure what went wrong there. In replays etc you get to see players faces and the likeness at times is superb. Giggs is my personal fave (yes I always pick United!), though Chris Eagles looks like an escapee from a bad 80s band.

Overall

A fun game to play if not a bit tiresome at times. I found after an hour or so my wrists were sore as were my feet from standing as this is a game I cannot play sitting down. Not a bad additonal to my games collection and enough to keep me amused. The additional mini games are a bit crap but my 6yr old son seems to love them as does my 9yr old daughter who has no interest in the main game so obviously EA got something right there. I am looking forward to PES though as traditionally it’s been the superior game on other platforms for graphics and playability - only time will tell if the Wii version will hold up.

Footnote

Pick United and select the invisible man ie Nani. For some bizarre reason he’s invisible on screen leaving you with an arrow to follow but no visible player underneath!