Competition is a fantastic thing in the videogame market. When companies are allowed to sell to a captured market with a yearly product they can tend to rest on their laurels and be satisfied with roster updates and little more. Such a thing could have happened with soccer games on Wii, with only EA previously supporting Nintendos platform. However, earlier this year Konami made sure EA would have to keep on its toes with the release of the stellar Pro Evolution Soccer 2008, which effectively turned the soccer gaming world on its head.
Commendably, EA have taken several cues from Konamis book of tricks and have returned with a far stronger outing this year with FIFA 09 All Play and have produced a much more solid, enjoyable experience than last year’s effort. However, it seems like for every step forward EA has made, there are an equal amount of steps backwards, holding back FIFA 09 All Play from being a true contender.
The biggest area that EA have changed in FIFA 09 is the passing game. Borrowing heavily from PES, FIFA now allows you to use the Wiimote to point to exactly where you want to pass the ball, which is a massive improvement. Like PES, this allows the game to flow quicker and gives you more control over your build up play. Unfortunately, EA hasnt brought in the other innovation of PES, namely allowing you to direct player runs, which is a real failing.
The beauty of PES was that with direct control over every member of your team you could apply more realistic, human tactics than arbitrarily waiting for the CPU to make intelligent runs or position itself in the correct spaces. No matter how good the AI becomes, it will never be able to emulate the thought processes of a human, and this control omission from FIFA is a glaring one.
In what is a surprising, though welcome, addition, FIFA can be played with both the Classic or GameCube controllers, and when played like this the game controls identically to other versions. Unfortunately, unlike other games that allow multiple control choices such as Smash Bros or Mario Kart, the onscreen menu buttons dont change to their GameCube or Classic controller counterparts, meaning one has to resort to trial and error or digging out the manual. Another infuriating oddity is that when the Classic controller is being used, the Wiimote pointer is still active, meaning accidental menu choices happen from time to time.
Last year one of the biggest and most frustrating omissions from FIFA 08 was a full manager mode. Thankfully, this year manager mode returns and for the most part plays identical to versions found on PS2 and previous GameCube iterations. In what is becoming a nice feature of EA games as well, a robust online mode is present, allowing invites, automatic friends list population from your Wii address book and online Interactive Leagues, meaning there is plenty there to keep you occupied for a long time.
Another returning mode from last year’s version is the Footii Party, which allows for Mii style representations of famous players to go through mini games. The three modes that were present in FIFA 08 all make a return here, and like last year they are completely forgettable. A new mode however, the top billed Footii Match, is actually quite entertaining. An eight on eight match with Miis using the FIFA engine is a pretty good way to ease new players into the game without scaring them off in the main modes.
Even with all the new features and tweaks EA has added to FIFA 09 however, one still has to wonder just where this game fits in. The FIFA engine as found on Wii is a continuation of the engine that powered the PS2, XBOX and GameCube games, and as such is getting on in years. One has to wonder how much effort EA is going to put into the engine to keep it updated, and because of this FIFA on Wii has a troubling future. Without the tweaks and alterations that power the fantastic engine found on the PS3 and 360, FIFA has to rely on its control scheme to make it worthwhile. Unfortunately, the control scheme is far inferior to the one in PES Wii, making FIFA 09 All Play not the wisest choice for the discerning soccer player.
Wii owners will have to hope that EA want to make FIFA a successful franchise on Wii, and heres hoping they do. Until then, its best to look elsewhere for your soccer fix.
