Welcome to the home of street football. By the time FIFA Street came out, we were used to the original FIFA games. Yet, playing as Ronaldinho and Cristiano Ronaldo in a cage in Rio de Janeiro was an exciting new experience. If you’ve ever been in a football cage on a floodlit evening with your friends, working your hardest to beat the opposition team, then you know what I’m talking about. If not, then just imagine a faster-paced version of football than you’ve ever seen. A place where a nutmeg is more important than a goal, and there are simply no rules.
FIFA Street (2005) and FIFA Street 2 (2006) were both released in quick succession. There were some minor changes and other drastic alterations. It’s been twenty years since the first game was released, and I remember playing in many tournaments to find out who was the best. So, what made FIFA Street so unique? And which game was better?
FIFA Street Versus Real Life
When people think of football, they think of a ninety-minute game where twenty-two players run around a giant pitch full of plush green grass. Whoever has the most goals at the end of the game wins the match. A game like this requires different skills. If you’re really fast, for example, then you can cover more ground on the larger pitch.
Today, footballers are more like athletes than ballers, but twenty years ago, the best players in the world learned their skills in the streets. If you entered a cage with four of your friends and you couldn’t keep control of the ball, you wouldn’t last long. Yet, what would be even worse is if you were slow on the ball. Then you’d invite aggressive tackles and be hacked off the pitch.
FIFA Street was a safe haven for players who preferred the smaller-sided games but perhaps didn’t have the technique to survive a match in the real world. Playing as your idol and using skills to take on your opponent is beautifully addictive. This is the era of Joga Bonito and Ole’s, and what a time it was.
Allow Me to Reintroduce Myself
I loaded up the game on my PlayStation 2 and was immediately treated to the Brazilian players balling out. The soundtrack is perfect for a FIFA Street game, but due to copyright reasons, I had to turn it off. I didn’t turn off the MC, though, and I honestly enjoyed his enthusiasm for the game. What I didn’t enjoy was not remembering the buttons from my childhood.
In my very first game, I was totally lost and I conceded an early goal. The colour of the kits was tormenting my eyes, but I did remember that you can foul cynically and get away with it. That helped to ease some frustration. In the end, I realised that you must press X to change players, and I started to compete a little.
Initially, I was frantically swirling the right analog stick and accepting any skill that my player managed. Then I pressed the triangle button, and skills became a lot easier. Unfortunately, my goalkeeper was shocking. I conceded to a Gamebreaker, and I was only one goal away from losing.
I did manage to score a goal with Wayne Rooney, but then Fernando Torres scored a crazy overhead kick, and the game was lost. The MC confirmed I had been battered today, before announcing that we all needed to scarper.
I am the FIFA Street Gamebreaker
A Gamebreaker is a powerful shot which has a much higher chance of finding the net. You earn a Gamebreaker by performing skills until your skill bar reaches the required threshold. It changes the incentive of the game slightly. Yes, the winner is still the team that scores the most goals first, but you must perform skills to earn Gamebreakers, which allow you to score goals more easily. Without one, scoring can be a really difficult objective.
The mentality shifted, too. In my next game, I decided to be Brazil, and they were much easier to use than the English. I scored with my favourite player in football history: Ronaldinho, and then I started thinking. It feels so cheap to just score a goal. Instead, I felt like I had to earn the goal by performing a crazy skill first. Goals were no longer the main priority, and if you scored without using a Gamebreaker, did you really score?
After a lot of skill moves, I had finally earned my first Gamebreaker. I was filled with anticipation as I initiated the strike, only for it to be saved by the keeper. Damn. It was nice to get my revenge by blocking their Gamebreaker, and I was scoring goals for fun. I learned the hard way that there is no point in sprinting unless you’re either through on goal or sprinting back to defend.
Cristiano Ronaldo destroyed my defenders, and it’s incredible that he’s still playing to this day. Thankfully, my defenders seemed to be better at attacking, and Roberto Carlos scored a stunning volley to win the game.
Can I Rule the Street?
Quick answer? No. I created my player and was happy with the results. I enjoyed the process, but that was where the fun ended. My player was absolutely useless. I started to realise that Gamebreakers are less effective than I remembered, so I resorted to trying to score normal goals. This was impossible because the goalkeepers are as agile as cats. There were some good moments with my player, but mostly it was a horror show. I didn’t Rule the Street in either game. It wasn’t a fun experience, and the mode actually became repetitive after a while.
My player must have looked the part on FIFA Street 2, because Cristiano Ronaldo and his team asked me to play for them. The game was a struggle. It didn’t feel like I was ever going to score a goal, while my keeper seemed to have a heart attack any time the opposition went near him.
I got nutmegged humiliatingly before they scored, and I couldn’t help but feel like I had let Cristiano down. We did finally score, but it was too late. After upgrading my player slightly, I decided that I didn’t like the Rule the Street mode, and I quit the game.
Letting my frustration get the better of me, I decided to return to the team that gave me a lot of joy: Brazil. Once you get the hang of the skills, you open up a lot more possibilities. Agonisingly, my goalkeeper injured Roberto Carlos and then dropped the ball into his own net. I’d had enough and decided to grit my teeth and lean forward. I won the game with a Gamebreaker and felt indifferent about my FIFA Street experience.
Moving On to FIFA Street 2
When loading up FIFA Street 2, I fancied a change of pace. The Skills Challenge mode offered exactly that. The challenge was to earn as many points as possible doing crazy skills like around the world while keeping the ball in the air. I was hopeless at it. Even picking the most skilful English player of the era, Joe Cole, didn’t help me, and I didn’t make it onto the leaderboard. Leaving the Skills Challenge as quickly as I entered it, I then clicked Play Now.
My brain was assaulted by a violent case of vertigo when I noticed the camera angle change. In FIFA Street, the view is from the side of the cage, which was restrictive and frustrating. FIFA Street 2 offered a whole new perspective from behind the player.
This was a massive upgrade and really added to the realistic nature of the street football experience. Scoring goals felt amazing, and it was far more achievable because you have much more of the goal to aim at. I won easily with Brazil and scored some really satisfying goals.
Not Every Change is a Step Forward
There isn’t a major upgrade in graphics, but the gameplay certainly felt more fluid. It’s a lot more difficult to tackle compared to the first game, but I did still manage to block my opponent’s Gamebreaker. When I had earned my own, though, I couldn’t figure out how to use it. Frustratingly, the bar emptied, and I hadn’t even taken a shot.
I don’t like the exaggerated way the players fall when they’re taken on. When I did manage to tackle my opponent, the ball ended up in my net. You can’t score unless you’re in a very specific area of the pitch. Anywhere else, and the goalkeeper is saving your shot every time.
The icing on the cake was that every player on the pitch was wearing different colours, which made it impossible to work out who was on whose team. Come on, guys. Have you never heard of bibs?
So, Which Game is Better?
FIFA Street 2 was fine and definitely improved on some aspects from the first game. For me, though, it just doesn’t show the same personality that the first game does. The MC is a lot livelier in the original FIFA Street, and the skills just felt more realistic. It’s a lot easier to foul opponents, and the Gamebreaker system is vastly superior. With each shot delivering plenty of joy and destruction in its wake.
The first FIFA Street is so iconic, and while FIFA Street 2 isn’t a bad game, it just doesn’t compare. I remember enjoying competing in tournaments as a kid, but I do also remember finding the games frustrating. Playing it again, it doesn’t really live up to the memories I have of it. Yet, in comparison with other street football games, I’m picking the original FIFA Street every time.
Verdict
My overall rating for the original FIFA Street is 7/10, while FIFA Street 2 gets a generous 6/10.
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