2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa for Wii Reviews by Gamers

Playing sports games other than Tiger Woods on Wii can be tricky at times, especially for hardcore gamers. Those expecting to find true to life representations of their favorite pro sports are typically left out in the cold unless they've got either an Xbox 360 or PS3 in their entertainment cabinet as well. That's not to say that the arcade depictions of these sports aren't fun, but they're certainly strong deviations from their HD counterparts carrying the same name.



The same is true for this latest iteration of FIFA that's now making its way to Wii. It features colorful character models, unrealistic physics and some crazy-insane slow-mo effects to really bring out the all-important "cool factor."



But all that "cool" packed into one package seems to be detrimental to the overall soccer experience. As with FIFA 10, your effectiveness on the pitch is largely determined by a momentum meter that sits at the bottom of the screen. As you work the ball up the field to a good offensive position the meter builds. The more full the meter, the better shot you're going to be able to pull off. If you nail a shot when the meter is around half-full or more, you'll get a wonderful little Matrix-style slow-mo effect. It's pretty cool when you first see it, but the fact that it can be used (and it usually is) every time either team makes a trip down the pitch gets grating with time. I would have preferred it if they had changed up the mechanic a bit to make the shots that feature the slow-mo ability really special.



The rest of the gameplay feels very old school with only eight directions available for movement. It makes it very tough to have effective runs up the field and even tougher to turn the corner around the defender you just left in your dust. It's something that was common in older soccer titles, but with the advent of 360-degree movement in FIFA 10 on 360 and PS3, this just feels archaic and not conducive to quality soccer. I understand that HD visuals and highly detailed models aren't possible on Wii, but surely they can figure out how to make players run in a circle rather than an octagon.



Other annoyances come when you try to intricately weave passes through the defense. Having through balls and standard passes on the same button is a real mistake. You can no longer hold down the pass button to determine its power, as holding it down now triggers a through ball. Too often the player I'm trying to pass to was too far away for the game to realize where I was trying to go with the pass. Instead of it auto-detecting the distance and delivering a slightly faster-paced kick, all I got was a tap of the ball that then rolled five feet in front of my player. If you have a Classic Controller, I'd recommend using it. The results are much better than what you'll get with either the Wii Remote and Nunchuk combination or just the Wii Remote.



Thankfully most players won't be as unnerved as I was with these inaccuracies. Those looking for an arcade-style soccer game that still has some of the pageantry of the World Cup (and all of the real players) will be able to find it here. Not only that, but there are just enough features to give you an adequate distraction from the standard World Cup tournament.



The best of the non-World Cup tourney features is Zakumi's Dream Team, a fairly lengthy challenge-based mode where you play as a squad of bad players to start. As you knock off teams that are arranged by levels in order of their quality you'll get to steal their best players for use on your team. As you move up to different levels teams get harder and the players you're using get more and more noteworthy. It's a simple mode, but it does just enough to separate itself from the regular World Cup.



Elsewhere you'll find Global Elimination, which is nothing more than a four-player offline tournament mode, and online play. I'm glad to see that you can play two-on-two online here (just as you could in FIFA 10) but they really could have done more to solidify the latency problems I experienced.



Much like the gameplay, the graphics in 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa are very kid friendly with bright colors and cartoony looking player models. No one has anything approaching a realistic look, but that wasn't really the aim here. As a colorful, low-detailed package, this performs well enough, but I would've liked to see the developers squeeze either more graphical fidelity out of the Wii or more versatility in the animations.



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