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| From: Electronic Arts
Category: Video Games
List Price: $19.99
Buy New: $14.48
You Save: $5.51 (28%)
New (7) Used (6) from $14.48
Avg. Customer Rating:  17 reviews
Sales Rank: 1813
Platform: Nintendo Wii
ESRB: Everyone
Media: Video Game
Autographed: No
Memorabilia: No
Batteries Included: No
Age: 5 - 20 years
Operating System: Nintendo Wii
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 0.1 x 0.1 x 0
MPN: 15526
UPC: 014633155266
EAN: 0014633155266
ASIN: B000RHXPGM
Release Date: October 9, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
| Showing reviews 16-17 of 17 | | « PREV | | |
 Fun game, better than expected October 11, 2007
5 out of 6 found this review helpful
I was waiting on this game and knew that I would get the Wii version since I'm not ready to plunk down the extra change for the Xbox 360. Knew of course that the graphics were not going to match the level of the Xbox 360, but what was produced for the Wii was definitely better than I expected.
The gameplay is what really made this version enjoyable; the easier FamilyPlay mode which only uses the Wii remote is a great way to start before hooking up the nunchuck to play in Advanced mode. FIFA08 makes excellent use of the motion sensing capabilities of the Wii. It may seem trivial, but having to lift both hands overhead and go through the motions for a throw-in was cool. My arm also became a little sore from flicking the remote for way too many sliding tackles which resulted in way too many yellow cards during my first game. (An added bonus was, as a Man Utd supporter, having the console pick Liverpool as my first opponent.)
The extra FootiiParty games with Ronaldinho are a nice side addition. "Serious" gamers may scoff at them, but they look like something fun to play with younger children or other more casual game players.
 FIFA 08...Lite October 11, 2007
20 out of 30 found this review helpful
Well, let's get straight to the problems I have with this game:
1) No manager mode. If you're not familiar with football/soccer games, manager mode is basically the same as Franchise Mode on Madden and Dynasty Mode on NBA Live. There's added depth when this is available on soccer games because the top leagues across the globe sport a primary and secondary league and you can take a team from a secondary league and advance them from (making this familiar via baseball) the minors to the big leagues. You can also transfer players, acquire players on loan, loan out, and watch as your players develop (actually progress or regress in stats) during the course of one or several seasons. None of that is here for 08 on the Wii.
2) No create players feature. Some people don't care at all about this type of feature, but I think it adds a nice element of depth to any sports game. Nothing like creating you and your mates, throwing yourselves on a national team, setting up a custom tournament, and playing the madness of 4 against the computer AI. Or there's always the fun of filling a horrible squad with yourself and your mates as you try to turn it into a respectable club. None of that here.
3) The graphics are very underwhelming. I wasn't expecting a whole lot here, because I know the Wii isn't a powerhouse, but come on...I have an HDTV and component cables and this looks slightly better than 07 on the PS2. Of course, when I played that I didn't have my current tv or component cables, so I'm wondering if there's really much of a difference at all. It looks a bit cleaner during gameplay and you can tell the frame rate is better during animations, but the players still move like hunched over robots and some of them look nothing at all like their real-life counterparts. There have been a few animations now where players appear to have transparent hair, which just shows laziness from a design standpoint. I know there's only so much that can be done on the Wii, but I've played a couple of games now that look leagues ahead of this one and I suspect EA is more to blame for this than the console itself.
4) The gameplay is...okay. I have to pause before saying okay, because that's now unsure I am of that statement. I think EA did a decent job utilizing the wiimote and nunchuk, but there should be multiple control schemes available. Yes, there's the advanced and family play, but for a serious sports fan family play is just a joke and I don't see myself ever using it unless I happen to lose a hand or something of that nature. I'm saying there should be options for different schemes within the advanced play. It's a bit awkward when you're attacking and you want to signal the players you aren't controling to charge downfield, but the button to send them running happens to be next to the sprint button you're already holding down.
5) The Footii Party games add about 10 minutes of extra fun to the game. Seriously, could EA have not spent some time adding features with real depth to the game instead of this nonsense? The three games are less involved than any of the Wii Sports games. It's obvious now that they focused on promoting this feature to gloss over everything the game is missing, but at best this is just a cute side item and shouldn't be ever considered as an actual reason to purchase this game. I was looking forward to trying them out and then, as I was playing them, found myself sarcastically thinking, 'Wow.'
6) Audio options. It's been nice in the past few years to see the wide selection of songs EA puts into its sports games. What's been even better is having the option to disable the more annoying songs so your ears don't have to ever be assaulted by them again. There's no tracklist here, let alone the ability to pick which ones you'll actually hear.
7) The stripped down profile. Yeah, I'm a football geek. In the past I've really enjoyed browsing the in depth stats of my profile to see how many goals I've scored, given up, when I've scored them, average rating of my opponents, etc. You can't view any of that here. You can't even name your profile. You get a generic Profile1 and so on.
8) Limited use of national squads. You can use national squads in a Kick-Off (Play Now) setting, but you can't use them in a tournament. So you set up a 16 team group and knockout tourney. All you have to do is fill it with national squads and you have yourself a mock World Cup. But wait! You can't! That's really freaking awesome, EA. Thanks so much.
There's really no end to the sarcastic thank you's EA deserves for this joke of a game. The good things about it are it looks a bit nicer than the PS2 version, having online play is nice, the AI is better than in past years, it's nice having the ability to customize formations, the Soccer Academy is a nice way to get to know the new controls, and...yep, that's it. Definitely not enough to warrant $50. Even if this game had cost $20 I'd come away from it asking, 'Where's the good version?'
More than anything, this game has made me look forward to (with no lack of impatience) the realease of Winning Eleven: Pro Evolution Soccer early next year on the Wii and hope it's better than this lark of a football game, although I don't know how it couldn't be. If you haven't already wasted your money on this game, I'd advise you to do the same.
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