A wise man/woman once said "if it ain't broke, don't fix it". Following on from last year's FIFA 11 on the Wii, a stonking, accessible arcade football game that was so much fun, we gave it a 10/10, comes the imaginatively titled FIFA 12, the obligatory yearly update that brings with it new teams, updated strips, and a whole lot more. But sadly, it seems EA should have listened to whoever came up with that old proverb, as none of the new additions actually make the game any better - but a fair few make it worse.
On the surface, FIFA 12 appears to be much of the same. With a whopping roster of over 15,000 players, and 500 officially licensed teams across 30 leagues, there's no denying that if it's credibility you're looking for in your football games, FIFA is still the game for you. But whereas last year, the emphasis was entirely on the fun, for FIFA 12, it's been somewhat diluted, with the game simultaneously being made more realistic, and a bit more urban, with the addition of a street mode to the game, at the expense of most of the things we really enjoyed last year.
Luckily, though, at its core, the actual footballing part remains pretty much the same. Letting you and up to three friends either play together, or against each other, FIFA 12 is smooth, accessible, and still a lot of fun. With a wide range of control schemes on offer, you can choose to play exactly how you want - if you're looking for total control, you can either use the Classic Controller, or plug a nunchuck into the Wii Remote. If you'd rather let the computer worry about the technical bits, but still want to help out you can choose "All Play" mode, which lets the computer move your players around for you, with you just pressing A and B when you want to pass or shoot. And it's entirely possible to win games by playing in All Play, even if you're playing on your own - we've just played out an entire game in All Play and won 5-0. With lots of nice little touches to make it easier for those who aren't entirely clued up on the rules of football to find their way around - like the flag that appears over a player's head if they're offside, to warn you not to pass to them, there's plenty of fun to be had here, and unlike other games, this doesn't feel like it's been designed to catch novices out. You don't find yourself giving away fouls every few seconds because your player's done something you didn't want him to do, you don't have to decide on a power for your pass before you make (unlike other more realistic football games have more recently) - and the range of control schemes means it lends itself perfectly to novices, experienced players, and families alike.
Your FIFA City. Strange, isn't it.
Boot up the game, and you'll be presented with a picture of your FIFA city - initially, nothing more than a collection of a few fields - which serves as the hub for your very own town and football team, which will be entering the Intercity Cup, one of this year's new additions. In a brilliant twist, you get to name this town yourself, and choose a logo for your team - which probably explains why ours became known as Hypnodeer FC. This FIFA town actually makes up the menu for this year's game too - it's where you'll choose to launch your career, take a player from Streets to Stadium, or just delve in and have a quick match. But what of this Intercity Cup, we hear you ask? Tying all of the other game modes together, the Intercity Cup is a sort of overarching career mode, which you can only progress through by earning achievements in each of the other modes. Perform certain feats in matches - such as scoring a hat trick, winning by four goals, or keeping your opponent's team out of your penalty area for the duration of a match, and you'll be rewarded with more citizens for your town, which in turn grows your rank, and allows you to enter higher levels of the Intercity Cup, playing against other rival towns. It's possibly a bit of an odd idea, but with over 100 achievements to earn, there's plenty to keep you going.
But here's where things start to get a bit iffy. You see, there were plenty of things we loved about last year's FIFA, but most have those have been changed this year - and not for the better. One of the things we loved was the fact that the manager mode, which saw you running your own team, playing every game over a number of seasons, had been simplified - rather than having to manage boring salaries and outgoings, you simply had a number of star points you could spend on players - anyone you made an offer to would undoubtedly accept your offer, regardless of whether you were any good or not. This year, Manager Mode's a lot more serious, and as such, gives you a lot less freedom to create the ideal team of your dreams. Gone are the star points, replaced with cold hard cash; gone is the freedom of only having to worry about putting together your ideal squad - now, you'll be expected to invest in training and medical facilities to improve your club's reputation, and you'll have to play the transfer markets like a pro. Players won't come to your team if they don't think you're good enough - a far cry from last year's game, and a move that's sure to disappoint the many children who play the game, who, from our experience, love putting together Accrington Stanley with a team of Wayne Rooney, Messi, and Ronaldo.
It may not look as fancy as its console brothers, but it's even more fun.
While last year's FIFA manager mode equivalent, the Battle For Glory mode, the whole thing was designed to be played in multiplayer. It had little goals you could set yourself before a match (such as keeping a clean sheet, or scoring a hat trick), which, if you were successful, would reward you with power up cards, which turned your team from a fairly accurate representation of real life into the stuff of dreams. Power ups like 100% accuracy (which let you shoot from pretty much anywhere on the pitch, and score), unlimited sliding tackles, which let you just move around the pitch by performing sliding tackles (it was sometimes quicker than running), and one that made the referees more lenient made the matches even more fun, and gave you that extra little thing to think about while playing, and that extra incentive to win. Sadly, there's none of that here, at least in the manager mode.
The setting yourself goals idea does sort of exist, however, in the Streets to Stadiums mode, but again, it's not quite as good as last year. Here, you play as a budding footballer (of your own creation), who has to work his way up the ranks, from street teams, to small clubs, before finding his footing in the big leagues. The problem here, of course, is that the street games are dull, and somewhat awkward encounters, despite the effort that's been put into making them more lively. Played in a variety of run down looking streets, or inside nice shiny arenas, these games pit 5 on 5, and give you a variety of power-ups to use that you earn at random occasions, whether it's the ability to shrink the opposing team, or turn every shot into a curve ball. But no matter how much it tries, the street games just aren't that much fun. What we want is something similar to last year - crazy power ups with proper, 11 on 11 games - not this strange mix of FIFA Street with FIFA 12. It actually defaults to locking you into playing as a single player for the duration of the match - although luckily, you can turn this off in the settings.
Even when you eventually graduate from the street games, it's still not as much fun as last time. With no control over the team you end up playing for (as you can't jump straight into the big leagues), you'll likely end up playing for a squad you don't really want to play for. And then, although you can play along with up to four friends, even though the choose-an-objective system still exists, every single goal will be based around that single player, not the entire team, meaning your entire game ends up being a "pass it to player one" affair, rather than the proper team effort it should be.
And this is why we're divided over FIFA 12 on the Wii. Although it still has the same, easily accessible football fun, with the same great choice of controls, the modes that are meant to encourage you to keep coming back to the game have effectively been neutered of the very things that made them so much fun, in favour of a FIFA-Lite approach, designed to ape the more serious 360/PS3/PC versions. At least part of the problem with FIFA 12 on the Wii seems to be that they've decided to shoehorn FIFA Street into it - probably because, somewhat inexplicably, the upcoming FIFA Street won't be seeing a release on the Wii. So instead of making two games that'll presumably appeal to different audiences, we've been left with one that tries to appeal to both - and you've just read how well that's ended up. Although there's still plenty to like in the actual football, everything that gave you a reason to play the matches before has been watered down, and simply made to be nowhere near as much fun. And after all - isn't that the reason we all play games in the first place?
Format Reviewed: Nintendo Wii
