Street Power Football is here to stay?

Since I was a kid, I’ve always ventured into promising football games, starting with Ataripassing through Because, Snes, Arcade and making graphical leaps for more current games. Football is the first contact that many boys have with the sport in childhood, in third world countries, besides being fun, it can be one of the great reasons for its worldwide popularity.

Over the years, the game industry has made numerous attempts to get out of the conventional way and introduce new dynamics to games in this modality. In Capcom’s Soccer Shootout, from A-Max and Capcom, the company already had its visionary vision to allow matches off the pitch, going to the indoor courts; (of salon).

In FIFA 97, there was a clear attempt to do the same, but without the same success. games did not faithfully represent the rules of indoor soccer, without the existence of the ball out to the side, for example, facilitating a table.

A decade later, the first attempts at indoor courts on consoles arrive. EA would launch the style again, this time in a different way, putting current football stars on the court. With the game titled FIFA Street.

Being the company’s first football game without the focus on lawns. Focusing on street football dribbles, with fetched and even special moves for each player. The game featured four titles with the last being released in 2012, describing it with a reworking of the previous titles, to erase some criticism thrown at the franchise. In fact, the game would fall into limbo and would not receive another title. Until, in 2019, EA would return with the genre, now renamed “TIME”, mode within (FIFA20). Replacing the trilogy of “The journey” starring Alex Hunter, the game’s central character. With some more realistic mechanics than Street, the mode puts the player in street football competitions, traveling through different countries around the globe.

However, the Maximum Gamesalong with the SFL Interactiveannounced their game Street Power Football (in the US, Street Power Soccer). It’s Street Power Football that will be our focus going forward.

Street Power Soccer brought the promise of transforming the player into a true “soccer king” street, with several competitive modes, in addition to the “Story Mode“. It revealed a game with great potential to be pointed out as brilliant, if it weren’t for some execution errors.

I became king!

Become King, of course it will have all the foundations of the modality and where we will venture into several disputes. We count on the “mentorship” of Séan Garnier, explaining the whole logic of the game that must be made.

But, my experience in the concept of the feeling of control of the game, was a despair. Even, being an enthusiast of the genre, it was a bit complicated to learn and memorize all the information of the commands in the “tutorial”. When trying to reinvent simple controls that work in other franchises, they end up complicating when there is still no usual experience of what is being developed. At the end of the explanation, I no longer remembered the first commands that should be executed.

Every dynamic explained by Garnier is interesting and exciting, in fact, he knows how to stir the players’ spirits.

Graphically, the scenery and all the characters have a cartoonish and stylized look, which is even “ok”, for the standard proposed by the developers. It is also possible to customize the characters with tattoos, clothes, sneakers, among others, all of this is excellent.

Speaking of characters, the game has several athletes who are participating in SPF, such as Yoanna Dallier, Andreas Freestyle, Yo Katsuyama, Kazane Flower Boy Shimazaki, Cris Freestyle, Peter Karasek, Laura Biondo and Boyka Ortiz. In addition to the phenomenon of the Easyman category, the King of Panna (Jeand Doest) and the Brazilian athlete Raquel Benetti and much more. Each of the athletes has their own styles.

The scenarios try to represent the essence of each city or place, to set the scene for the region. Brazil has two iconic locations such as the beach of “Copacabana” and another in the favela, with a characteristic look probably inspired by “Rocinha”, in the city of Rio de Janeiro. You can even find a “Barbershop Zé do Carmo”, all this is a positive point to the game.

Trail

The developers took great care in the soundtrack, including established hits and highlighting the remix of “The Rhythm of the Night”, originally performed by Brazilian singer Olga Maria de Souza from the group CORONA — Not related to the coronavirus.

However, it’s not just a setting and track that makes a game. The body of work will be valid if it is a landmark in style.

COVID-19

Many game developments have been clearly affected by the pandemic, leaving the world in a global crisis, delaying and tightening the schedule of game releases.

I can’t say that Street Power Football did the same in its development, but it was clear that the game was delivered in a rush.

About the game modes I preferred to emphasize only in the final part, considering that the game is worth a lot for a verdict!

It should be noted that SPF is more of an RPG-oriented football game than a simulator or arcade. Its game modes do not encourage casual games, on the contrary, they are all intended to transform the player into a true “King of the Streets”, with dribbles to humiliate the opponent. Always take this into account.

the game modes

If you want to have “Freestyle” freedom, it will be something like make your own style, a combination of commands that must be executed at the right time, already famous in games like Guitar Hero.

In Panna, it is a real scuff, since it is necessary to make a “Pen” on the other. The problem is the response of the controls, almost always it is not possible to have the sensation of the dribble or they simply do not respond to our actions.

Tricky Shot, is the mode that I liked the most among all that I tested. It presents some challenges, without much difficulty, it is interesting. In addition, aiming with the arrow at some objects, and having an accuracy of the force of the kick, in addition to tabulating with elements of the scenario is challenging. This is possible to get obsessed with getting everything done in a timely manner. It was the least I encountered technical problems.

Street Power Football is casual, playing 1v1, 2v2 and 3v3; in this mode it is possible to apply the fundamentals of a true street player, however, it can prove to be a real nightmare for those who are playing. Honestly, the game’s camera is not intuitive and cannot follow the moves and we are left with our hands Ooops… our feet are tied, unable to define the move, due to this problem.

Twisted, and generic camera

When we play in 3v3, the way we use to call a teammate is bad and everything is done manually, which doesn’t work exactly. Another frustration is knowing that the shot on goal has the same dynamism as the automatic sights in “FPS” games. Yeah, aim, shoot, “it’s a goal” —; Enough to be boring, since there is no difficulty in aiming. I expected a better experience. As I mentioned above, the track is extraordinary, which makes me happy when playing this mode. This does not end all problems. In a football game the crowd is essential, it is at this moment that we observe the budget deficit, the crowd sounds are generic and do not represent all the heat of a game.

The last mode “Become King”, which is a combination of all the aforementioned modes. In it you must go through these challenges to become the King of the Streets, and show everyone that you master all styles of Freestyle.

Verdict

With good ideas, but not able to deliver what they promised in a satisfactory way. If someone asks if the game is worth it, I’d say, if the person has any “faith” to wait for future updates from the developers to fix all technical issues, it’s a gamble. Otherwise, it’s not a game to have fun with friends, even with a multiplayer and online mode.

Last month, I released a video of the game with a casual gameplay that you can follow on the direct link on Youtube.

The game is available for Xbox One, PS4, PC and Nintendo Switch.