Latest reviews on Game Console NZ – April 2012

FIFA 12 is a magnificent game, but one thing that can’t be said about it is that it captures those small-scale battles: the night-time kickabout on a floodlit court, the astroturf burns, the jumpers used as goalposts.

FIFA Street is a step in that direction, taking the bones of the FIFA 12 engine and controls, stripping away the large-scale stage, and diluting the action down to the bare necessities. Street is a celebration of small-scale soccer, or Futsal, and it’s as far removed from the grand stage of FIFA that you would ever want to get. The game is different and strategy has to change – often games are played out on pitches with walls, the goal mouth tends to be smaller, and the rewards are as much for showmanship as they are for winning.

The game comes with a language all of its own; if you are not a savvy street footballer then pannas, beats and even the name Futsal may well be new to you, but rest assured the learning curve isn’t all that long. The game is set, as the name implies, in the street; however, the street is a wider term for some of the more exotic locations such as basketball courts and rooftops. There is some imagination at work here, and the courts look and feel great.

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Read the rest of the Fifa Street review here.

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SSX review from a newbie point of view, I do consider this a second opinion behind our recent Reagan Morris review, this excerpt is linked to the post at Game Console.

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There’s a first time for everything and I guess snowboarding games are no different. SSX is the latest in a franchise that appears to have a fan-base and also seems to have benefitted from the ongoing social gaming revolution that is coming out of EA.As a newbie, the game did a good job of easing me into the world of snowboarding. The basics are a walkthrough and you get a glimmer of the swathe of unlockable items and costumes that are on offer. The front end menu is simple and uncluttered, and zooming around the globe looking for new slopes to carve certainly makes for some cinematic viewing.This is where the Ridernet will become apparent, and most importantly it is a much better name than Autolog was in Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit. As expected, there is a wall populated with news from your friends and rivals and drilling into friends’ records can swoop you around the globe, quickly setting you up to try to shave a couple of seconds off the top scores.

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Read the rest of this review here.