I’ve been waiting for a new Fifa Street game in what seems like forever. Last year Fifa got me excited with their “Volta” mode but ultimately didn’t quite deliver. I don’t want a Fifa Street light but a full-on over the top arcade-style street football game. Street Power Football by SFL interactive and Gamajun games tries to fill that void.
All things “street”
Street Power Football embraces every aspect of the whole street football thing. They have the classic 1v1, 2v2, and 3v3 games under the name Street Power but also host a whole bunch of different street disciplines. Street football has become bigger over the last decade and Street Power Football tries to capture every aspect of the sport. With Panna, Freestyle, Trickshot, and Elimination added in they covered everything. The Street Football community has its own heroes who show their skills on the regular. Street Power Football made sure to include a lot of the key names in their roster of “heroes”. With 2008 freestyle champion Sean Garnier guiding you through the game as a big bonus.
Style is important
Hardcore football fans often look down on the freestyle community because it is often not deemed “real”. Street football and ‘normal’ football rub shoulders but are indeed a lot different from each other. The tricks street footballers perform are so out there that they (for the most part) couldn’t be used on a normal pitch but that doesn’t mean they aren’t legit. To perform these tricks you must have persistence because these types of skill moves don’t come overnight. Years and years of practicing goes into performing these moves well enough to be able to perform with style.
Scoring more goals than the other team is important but in Street Power Football the style in which you do it matters even more. Getting past other players with stylish moves is mandatory to perform well in Street Power Football. Each successful move boosts your overall performance and makes scoring goals much easier. In the Panna mode, you even get rewarded 2 goals if you can perform a successful nutmeg. Once you start the freestyle mode it’s all about style. Combining breakdance, somersaults, football tricks and even some basketball tricks might earn you enough points to win the competition.
Become the king
The fun thing about Street Power Football is the fact everything is unlocked from the start. You can immediately choose your favorite mode and start humiliating your opponents with skill moves with no limitations. However, each game mode requires a different set of controls which can make jumping in straight away a bit confusing. That’s what the “become a king” mode is made for. It’s essentially an adventure mode throughout the different types of games Street Power Football offers. You are being guided by Sean Garnier every step of the way to make sure you get a grasp on each mode. With increasing difficult challenges offered before you can advance, you’ll soon start to master each mode.
Freestyle, Trickshot
While Street Power Match, Elimination, and Panna felt right at home for a seasoned Fifa player like myself, Freestyle and Trickshot felt a lot different. In Freestyle, you compete alone and have to perform moves in order to earn style points. With a small list of tricks to start with you’ll soon earn more tricks when leveling up. Linking these tricks together goes hand in hand with the music, making this mode essentially more rhythm-based. My favorite mode was the trickshot mode in which you have to hit certain targets in order to earn more time and points. I found this mode a nice break from the normal way of playing soccer and genuinely spent way too much time on it than I’d like to admit.
Arcade
Street Power Football looks like an arcade game and obviously plays like one. Your players all have real-life skills but most are exaggerated in this game to give them even more style. To top things off, even more, they included power-ups and superpowers. The Power-ups appear randomly on the field and when picked up they can be used strategically with a press of a button. Some of these power-ups include speed boosts, goal block, Power bar max, and many more. Once the power bar is maxed out, your player can use their superpowers which is an unblockable finish move which can be very helpful when the game is clutch.
Controls
Ultimately with games like this, it comes down to how the game controls. I won’t say the controls don’t work but at times I felt the responsiveness could’ve been better. The control layout is also something I’m not quite a fan of. For instance, to perform a high pass you need a combination of two buttons which could be fine but in reality, felt finicky. The way the ball snaps or doesn’t snap to a player’s feet when he/she is close was also wonky. Often I found I should’ve been in control of the ball while a player who stood significantly further suddenly gets the “ownership” of the ball. Not game-breaking at all but there were times I got annoyed. A patch might solve this in the future.
Conclusion
Street Power Football looks great, plays OK. I had fun while reviewing but sometimes wondered if all the (totally) different modes really were necessary. A bit more focus on some parts of the game could’ve really made this a contender for the next Fifa Street. As it stands now, this is a fun game to play against your mates (multiplayer, couch co-op) but could’ve done with some more tweaking here and there.
