FIFA 10 Preview [Wii]

15 Jul 2009 at 16:59:22 by Andy Alderson

“It was very important for us to move the Wii game in a new direction,” says EA Sports’ Sid Misra as we discuss the upcoming FIFA 10 for the Wii. It seems like a slightly strange decision when you consider that FIFA 09 All Play (the last Wii instalment) reviewed pretty highly, or indeed very highly in some publications. “Ultimately we're building games for fans,” he adds explaining that community feedback is driving the development of the new game.

FIFA 09 offered a mish-mash of game modes, attempting to strike a balance between authentic football and casual gaming, although from listening to Misra it seems as if he thinks 09 didn’t quite nail it. He says that the fans reacted well to the overall gameplay and the idea of stylization, although the Mii-centric 8 vs. 8 game leaned too much towards the younger crowd. “This year we were looking for a marriage of both within the gameplay and then finding an art style that really suited and was a bit more approachable to all ages,” he says. The result is a game which aims to carve its own niche somewhere between arcade and simulation football, although from our hands on with the game, it seems to be leaning more towards the former.

The most noticeable difference between FIFA 10 and its predecessor is the visual style. Gone is the split personality of ’09 (realistic players in 11 vs. 11 and Miis in 8 vs. 8) and this time around the game sports a single art style. “We wanted there to be detail on the players, but we still want to do it in a stylised way, so you'll see a bit more beveling in the features of the players,” says Misra. Players certainly resemble their real life counterparts (“You have to know that Torres is Torres, and Ballack is Ballack”), albeit in an exaggerated, cartoony fashion.

The gameplay in FIFA 10 has undergone a similar shift towards the arcade. While the nunchuck and Wiimote control system returns – A to pass, shake the Wiimote for a shot/sliding tackle – the new gameplay mechanics give the game a dramatically different feel. One significant new feature is the momentum system which Misra describes as “almost a gameplay intensity meter.” It works by moving the ball up the pitch like you normally would, which now fills up the momentum meter. Lose possession and the opposition will steal some of your momentum, but if you manage to hold onto the ball and fill the meter then your shots receive an accuracy and power boost. It’s at this point that the other major new feature of the game, what Misra calls the ‘Wow moment,’ comes into play.

The Wow Moment is essentially a dramatic tool. We see our first Wow Moment as we tear down the left wing and cross the ball towards the opposition’s 18 yard box. Just after we’ve flicked the Wiimote to perform a header the game slows down and the camera zooms in. The timing of my shot has already been decided so this slow-mo moment is all about theatrical effect, as we see the striker and defender both jump for the same ball. It appears I’m in luck on this occasion - my player reaches the ball before the defender, the game speeds up and the ball rockets into the back of the net. “Yeah, there's a lot of tension in that moment,” says Misra. “There's a great feeling – especially when you're the attacker – if you get the header, and it goes into the back of the net, it just explodes back into real life and the crowd goes nuts.” He goes onto explain that this new feature really comes into its own when playing against human opponents as you both down tools for a moment to concentrate on the drama.

And, thankfully, playing against a human opponent should be a whole lot easier this time around.  The FIFA Wii community’s biggest complaint about the last game was that the online mode was horribly unreliable, resulting in frequent disconnections.  “We've fixed those issues, and we've got a lot of systems in place to prevent those issues,” Misra assures us. In addition to the standard 1 vs. 1 online mode, there will also be a 2 vs. 2 option, allowing for two players on the same console to play together online. There will also be some social gaming features implemented in the multiplayer modes. You can play a single match against a friend, or extend the challenge into a best of three, five or seven aggregate match. If both you and your human opponent have created profiles, the game will save your results and stats and track your performance against each other. Should the net code hold up a little better in FIFA 10, we suspect the online modes will prove popular.

It’s hard not to admire Misra and his team for the creative shift we’ve seen in FIFA 10. It’s undoubtedly a brave move to implement such big changes to a game that reviewed so well last time around. While we’re not exactly sold on the Wow Moments yet (we’re all for tension, but they have the potential to become annoying over the course of a match), the new art style is certainly more consistent and the community features should make for some great ongoing battles.

Comment