Usually when you hear that EA is releasing another year’s worth of sports game you won’t even think twice about it, but FIFA Soccer 08 on the Wii should help break this trend of thought. Similar in nature to the PS3 and Xbox 360 iterations, the Wii version sports control schemes for both beginner and advanced gamers to create fun for the whole family. Sure some shortcuts had to be taken in the process, but on the whole you won’t feel like you’re playing another lazy Wii port.

Hand Ball!

While it seems relatively easy to make a game like golf or tennis for the Wii, soccer is a whole different matter entirely. The in-game Soccer Academy takes you on a step-by-step tutorial covering all of the basics from passing and shooting to corner kicks and special moves. Furthermore, at certain points in the game an icon will appear in the corner of the screen that demonstrates what motion you should be making just in case you forget in the heat of the moment.

To pass you simply hold ‘A’ and swing the Wii Remote in the intended direction, while holding ‘B’ instead will lead your teammates in the direction you’re aiming towards. A power shot is performed by quickly moving the remote upwards, while striking it down will perform a finesse shot. On paper this seems pretty easy, but when you get involved with the nitty-gritty moves it’s easy to feel overwhelmed. For instance, combinations of holding ‘A’ and ‘B’ can either cross or clear the ball, so if you’re just starting out don’t get too discouraged if you accidentally launch the ball into the stands a few times.

Using the control stick to move is really the only option the developers had, but it seems unresponsive at times. If you’re sprinting straight at an opponent and want to make a quick dash to the side at the last second, more than likely your character won’t turn and your rival will have the ball instead. In this scenario, you’re supposed to hold the ‘C’ button and swing the remote in order to stop and fake your opponent out. Executing tricks by pressing a series of buttons in succession doesn’t exactly feel natural, and it would’ve been cool if you could fake your opponents out by performing some type of juke with your hands.

Another problem for beginners revolves around the motion control sensitivity. How fast you swing the remote or how long you hold down a button effects how far the ball will go. The motion controls simply aren’t sensitive enough to utilize this feature accurately, so as a gamer you don’t have as much precision as the developers planned for. For instance, when you want to cross a ball you’ll either kick it limply to the goalie or hit it so hard that the defenders have plenty of time to react. Likewise, getting goal kicks to go on target is incredibly difficult because you have to use the Nunchuk to control spin, but there’s no meter to gauge how much spin you’re putting into your kick. Throw-ins, which are performed almost identical to the way you would throw a soccer ball in real life, are fun except if you get the cord tangled around your neck.

Now just because FIFA Soccer 08 has its control flaws, this doesn’t mean that it’s a god-awful mess of a game that shouldn’t be played. Once you make your way through the Soccer Academy most of the actions will be inherent. Sure you might forget how to chip the ball over the goalie’s head and your corner kick might not always go to where you’re aiming exactly, but on the whole gaming here is fun. Slide tackling a friend from behind is great fun, even if it will more than likely result in a player’s ejection from the game. Furthermore, it’s hard to be instilled with a great sense of pride if you fake out a few defenders, cross the ball, and then have your star center bicycle kick it right into the net. The pacing of the gameplay is fast enough so you won’ get bored, but at the same time it isn’t totally unmanageable like some arcade style games can be.

Unique to the Wii version, there is also a “Footii” party mode comprised of three quick mini-games that are designed to be fun for the whole family. Although the idea isn’t horrible, the execution is downright poor. The foosball game is near impossible to control, so your players will spend most of their time spinning unresponsively. A juggling type game where you have to press buttons or shake the Wii Remote at a specific time is interesting for about a minute, but the lack of difficulty makes it a real bore after that. Lastly, a shoot-out type game merely has you swing the remote in the direction you want to shoot. Young children might have fun here for a little bit, but if you buy this game don’t expect to spend any time in the Footii mode.

A League of their own

FIFA Soccer 08 certainly expresses its dominance over other Wii titles in terms of the multiplayer components. Offline there are over fifty tournaments based all over the world and the custom tournaments add on to the bulk even more so. Here you’re essentially just playing games against your buddies though, whereas the online play has more of a greater cause.

Once you register with EA, you can participate in interactive leagues based on real-life events. For instance, if a big game is just around the community gamers across all platforms can attempt to simulate the match. The scores will be pooled together and eventually some end result will be reached. If you have a favorite team it will be fun to track them and hope you can make them rise to stardom, and even if you don't follow soccer it's still interesting to see how other matches turned out. For the rest of the online play you can expect the occasional dropped connection or laggy game, but considering how the Wii is just starting to see online games this is just something we have to deal with for now.

Surprisingly enough, the pre-game cinematic sequences look downright gorgeous. When you start your first game, you’ll be amazed at how lifelike the stadiums look and feel and the characters move with such fluidity that it’s hard to believe that the Wii is considered to be so technically inferior to the other next-gen systems. Now, the bulk of the game is viewed from a zoomed-out camera so the level of detail isn’t high for an entire match, but even on penalty kicks and the like you can be immersed into the action.

In the sound department, there’s nothing that will blow you away, but at the same time there’s nothing to gripe about either. The announcers are charming at first, but like in most any other game you can expect to hear repeated phrases the more you play. The sound effects aren’t overly impressive, but as a whole everything fits together nicely. The soundtrack is comprised of some tunes that fit into the background during loading screens and menus, but in-game your left with only the sound of the crowd and players.

Conclusion

FIFA Soccer 08 on the Wii undoubtedly has room for some tweaking, but that doesn’t prevent from being an outright fun soccer title. Mario Strikers Charged was a fun game at times, but it’s easy to see how some gamers could be easily be frustrated by certain characters’ special powers and luck-of-the-draw items. With FIFA 08, you’ll get a nicely paced soccer game that offers a great balance between strategy and outright coordination. In short, if you’re looking for a relatively realistic soccer game with tons of game modes, this will be a great title to add to your collection.