2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa (Wii) Review

Every four years the world stops what it’s doing and goes football crazy. It’s a great time, when fans believe their country might be able to do the impossible, and when players dream of glory. Forget the Olympics, the FIFA World Cup is the largest sporting event in the world. Knowing this, EA have of course brought all the splendour of the World Cup (including those blasted vuvuzelas) to your home so you can live the dream too.

For those of you that have played FIFA 10 on Wii, you will be very familiar and comfortable jumping straight into the World Cup edition. It sports the same control scheme, same cartoonified look and the same overall feel. Whilst those that read the FIFA 10 review might think that this means the World Cup edition is going to get similarly lambasted, there is a pleasant surprise to be had. No, World Cup 2010 is not a great game. It is a good game, a definite step up from what we experienced with FIFA 10. Much of this has to do with the format of the World Cup itself. Instead of playing with a team over a full season, the World Cup is a quick, three week blast that can be enjoyed in a sitting or two. It would be a struggle to sit down for days on end and enjoy the game, but in short bursts it can be enjoyable.

Helping this are a few excellent new modes that FIFA has included, Zakumi’s Dream Team and Global Elimination. In Zakumi’s Dream Team you start out with a team filled with plebs, and then must defeat each national team in turn. Each game presents different challenges that are ranked Gold, Silver and Bronze, and completing the challenges allows you to recruit a player from the vanquished team, who are either Gold, Silver or Bronze levelled. With only one player of each nationality allowed, you can’t just continually draft Brazilians, so some strategy is involved in choosing people for your team.

Global Elimination sees up to four players choose or be assigned teams and then players battle it out to see who is the last person standing. It’s a great twist on the normal knock-out formula that makes party play really enjoyable. So how is the actual gameplay? If you gave someone a Wii Remote mid-game and told them they were playing FIFA 10, they would probably believe you; that’s how similar the games look and play. If you didn’t like the FIFA 10 gameplay you’re not going to find anything here that will change that opinion, as EA hasn’t really added anything new to the experience. The Remote-only controls are like watching the game play itself and the pointer-based controls are horribly deficient when compared to Pro Evolution Soccer, leaving your best bet for an enjoyable experience with the Nunchuk or Classic Controller setups.

So in the end, is FIFA World Cup 2010 worth your hard-earned money? The game is certainly solid in its feature set for a World Cup version of FIFA. The only mode that could be asked for is a qualification process, but other than that, the excellent Zakumi’s Dream Team mode (which also lets you save your team to a Wii Remote to take to a friend’s Wii) and Global Elimination mode as well as ranked and unranked online play mean there is plenty here to enjoy. On the other hand, the game suffers from the drawbacks of all other FIFA games that have so far graced the Wii. The controls are absolutely horrible when compared to either PES on Wii or FIFA on other platforms. EA has so far put out three FIFA games with the exact same wonky controls, and whilst the World Cup games are generally seen as stop gaps and aren’t expected to advance the series too far, it doesn’t forgive the fact that the controls ARE wonky. If you haven’t already gotten a FIFA game for Wii, this version is clearly the best currently available. Whilst it might be an idea to wait for FIFA 11 which should be coming out in a few months, the cheaper price of the World Cup version is certainly attractive and would be a wise purchase for someone looking for some quick fun, especially in the Dream Team and Global Elimination modes.

Everyone else, however, would be well advised to steer clear. If you didn’t like previous Wii FIFA outings you are probably not going to like this one either, and if you have liked previous FIFA outings, there isn’t a massive change in the game engine to warrant a purchase.

Graphics 6.0

Nicely rendered players and stadiums makes the game pleasant, but hardly jaw-dropping.

Gameplay 4.0

Whilst there are marginal improvements to the last outing, the lack of major changes really hurts here. The slowdowns before shooting are as infuriating as ever.

Sound 9.9

Why the perfect score? Theres an option to turn off the vuvuzelas!

Tilt 5.0

The new modes are a welcome addition and the game is moving slowly towards a more arcade tilt, which is where it needs to head.

Value 5.0

I enjoyed this game more than I thought I would, especially after the dismal FIFA 10. Whilst I could never recommend it to serious football videogame fans, theres enough here to keep a casual fan occupied.