Review: FIFA 10 For Wii

EA Sports’ FIFA franchise strives for realism, to approximate the experience of being a footballer or managing a club. When you see the gaudy, arcade style interface of FIFA 10 for the Wii, you realize this will be a very different game.

Creating for the Wii constrains developers. The game needs to be simplified. The Wii’s processor is not as powerful as the XBox 360 or the Playstation 3. It can’t handle the graphics. The controls cannot be too intricate for the Wiimote. The target audience is more casual. Most serious console gamers would buy the game for another console.

FIFA 10 for the Wii is essentially an arcade game. There’s little strategy. The difference between players and teams is negligible. It resembles a generic early 1990s style sports game, but with real players and better graphics.  It does looks nice.  Even if it’s a cartoon Fernando Torres, you can tell easily that it’s a cartoon Torres.

It plays entirely differently. In traditional FIFA games you must aim your shot, on the Wii, a mere shake of the wiimote will sends a Michael Essien-style missile straight into the net. There’s no artistry in scoring goals. The only skill, if it could be called that, is finding a modicum of open space to launch.

This game should never be played alone. The more intricate game modes aren’t realistic enough to be worth it. It’s best head to head with a friend in a simple exhibition.

Though, it’s only a short time before you both figure out to slide tackle like a mad man and launch shots from anywhere inside the opposition half. More often than not, there’s a striker waiting to pick up the rebound.

While FIFA 10 was intriguing to mess around with for a few hours, I would not recommend buying it. Even for a Wii aficionado looking for a multiplayer football game, Super Mario Strikers is more fun and more intricate, if you can stomach playing as Luigi rather than Leo Messi.