For years now we have been waiting for a new
game that can satisfy that Street Football
itch. And after the failure of VOLTA Football,
this dream seemed to fade. Now, Street Power
Football has emerged from the shadows to attempt
to give us the true arcade-y street football
experience. I’m Sam Incze from The Beta
Network, and today I will help answer the
question, Should You Play Street Power Football?
I am just going to say that this has been
one of the most difficult reviews I have ever
had to do. Street Power Football seemed as
though it would bring back that over-the-top
action style arcade football that was reminiscent
of the incredible FIFA Street Franchise (I’ll
be mentioning this series a few times throughout
this review)! It looked so stylish in the
various trailers, with each skill move dominating
and embarrassing opponents with great panache.
However, once I sat down and actually played
it for myself, I found it to be an incredible
mess. Each player felt very sluggish to control,
with significant input lag often causing me
to miss scoring opportunities or tackle at
completely wrong times.
All skill moves are restricted to one button,
meaning that I was unable to choose the type
of trick that I wanted to do. For a comparison,
in FIFA Street, you could use the right analogue
stick to decide which type of trick you would
like to pull off. Add to that the ability
to modify each move with the use of the bumpers
and triggers. In Street Power Football, repeatedly
pressing X (or Square) at random intervals
would sometimes pull of a trick, whereas other
times, nothing would occur. This meant that
I would spam the trick button in the hopes
that it would succeed.
There is no fluency to the tricks here either.
In FIFA Street, there are obvious animations
to show that you had tricked out an opposing
player to get past them. Here, it is not obvious
at all. This lead to me trying to beat an
opposing player by pulling off a trick, and
having thought I had beat them I would begin
dribbling toward goal, only for that same
player to strip the ball from me immediately
from behind.
One interesting mechanic that is used in Street
Power Football is the curve mechanic. You
can adjust the angle of a shot whilst holding
down the shoot button for a cool looking curve
shot, which often will end in a goal. However,
it does take a fair while to pull off, so
don’t be surprised if the ball gets stolen
from you before you can finish the shot.
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There are multiple game modes available in
Street Power Football, with some being average
at best, and others completely falling short
of the mark.
Street power is the most traditional game
mode, with the objective being to be the first
team to score 5 goals. You can play in teams
of up to 3. As mentioned previously, due to
the stiff controls and the sluggish animations,
this game mode becomes very lacklustre.
Become King is Street Power Football’s career
mode. However, I use the term career mode
very loosely, as it is just cycling through
a series of matches made up of the other game
modes. This title attempts to make you feel
like your progressing in Become King by sometimes
having a narrator appear onscreen to explain
what challenges await to try to get you excited,
but there is no real excitement to be found
here. I found myself just trying to push through
for the sake of completion rather than savour
each moment of this excessively drawn out
mode.
Trick Shot is the most underwhelming mode
in this title, as the whole premise of this
mode is to hit objects either behind obstacles
or in various places that requires you to
aim and curve a shot to hit them. The main
issue with this mode is that it basically
boils down to you aiming an arrow to pick
your direction, adjusting the arrow to allow
for a curve shot, and then charge up the power
of the shot and shoot. Just imagine if the
free kicks in FIFA 2002 were a whole game
mode; that is Trick Shot.
Freestyle is an interesting mode as it is
essentially a rhythm game of sorts which involves
pressing a combination of buttons in time
with the music to increase your score. There
really isn’t much more to say here, but
hey, that’s Freestyle for you.
Elimination is another mode which is quite
interesting. It features a 1v1 style match
that is played on half the pitch. The aim
is to score on your opponent, to eliminate
them. You must eliminate all 3 opposition
players to win. The mode itself is a very
cool addition to the game, but again, because
of the sluggish gameplay, it falls short.
The Panna game mode is easily the best of
the lot. The aim is to score 5 points on your
opposition by either scoring goals, or doing
a panna (also known as a nutmeg, which for
non-football fans is when a player kicks the
ball between an opponent’s legs). This mode
is plaid on a modified mini-court, which means
that the pressure is on all the time. Where
this mode really excels is in the Panna battles,
where a small Quick Time Event occurs for
both players. Whoever inputs the most buttons
correctly wins the challenge, which leads
to either a player being nutmeged or a nutmeg
being denied.
So, should you play Street Power Football?
Honestly, I would avoid this one. Whilst it
may seem like it could be a promising game,
it fails to deliver in almost every aspect.
If you are looking for a street football game,
try and grab a copy of FIFA Street 2, you
will sink many more enjoyable hours into that
than you would into this. To help understand
the difference in quality, I have played well
over 100 hours of FIFA Street 2, and I still
keep coming back to it today, whereas here,
I played purely for this review, and that’s
it. There is no reason to go back to this
game at all.
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