The game of indoor soccer can be a breathtakingly fast and highly skilled display of the world’s most popular sport. Don’t base it on what you may see of MISL games. Quite frankly, the caliber of gameplay there leaves a lot to be desired at times. Head down to a local indoor venue and see the game live. Or better yet, play it.

The game is fascinatingly fun. It’s all about fast-paced game, and foot skills – which is something that FIFA Street 3, from EA Sports, captures very well. And with the Street franchise, the goal has always been an “over-the-top” approach, which means outrageous moves and larger than life teams. FIFA Street 3 also nails that element. But where the game falters is in the variety of gaming modes. It’s a shot off the crossbar, in this case – a near miss. There are several gaming modes, but it all comes up on the arcade side of the genre and truly has little you can hang your hat on and expect to play for a great while.

The game has taken on a bit of a new look, with the players (more than 250 are represented here playing on 18 of the top international teams) sporting a bit more of a semi-cartoonish look that works very well here. But while the looks of the players have changed, they are still the licensed athletes from the international soccer game. That means you will see Ronaldinho, lean and lanky with ponytail flying behind to emphasize his quickness, playing for Brazil.

The game controls extremely well, with the thumbsticks used to not only navigate the direction of the play (left thumbstick), but your ball handler will make some impossible moves (courtesy of the right thumbstick) that would come close to snapping tibia, femurs or blowing out knees if performed in real life. But while this game controls very well, it has been simplified to the point where anyone can pick it up, play it and have a great deal of success. Case in point, the default difficulty setting was medium. A testing player, who had never played any of the Street franchise before, was winning match after match and thought the game was on the easy setting.

(It should be noted that the same code was used for both the preview and review, and while there were some flaws in the preview code, there is no way of telling whether these have been corrected in the review release.)

The AI in the game is smart, and will knock the opposition off the ball, but what’s good for the goose is good for the gander, and banging is part of the game. Players have two tackles to choose from: the standard attack/tackle, and then a spin move that would seem more appropriate in a martial arts tourney, but even then might be declared an illegal leg sweep.

The Game Breaker is back, along with the meter that fills as you perform tricks. But rather than the Game Breaker being unstoppable, in this iteration is it defensible. A blazing shot can be turned aside by the net minder, or a defensive player can block it down. But the game has four different types of players – tricksters, enforcers, playmakers and finishers. The names explain what they are capable of doing. The game environments are nicely diverse, ranging from South America to Asia, from alleys to rooftops. While there is a nice mix here, don’t expect the venues to play a factor in the game play. You will be able to semi-climb walls and perform flips off them, but these are stock moves that carry over to whatever street pitch you are on.

A new game mode has been added to the mix – the Street Challenge mode, which amounts to a head-to-head competition between the player and CPU, with various goals and difficulty levels. The reward is unlocking street teams and players that can be taken online if so desired. This is the core of the game and is likely what is intended to be the ‘career’ mode, or the mode that draws players back to the game time and again. It’s fine, but hardly a mode that will have players glued to the game.

There is a nice graphical fluidity to the game, and the sound is really a tribute to both the international flavor of the game as well as the on-field sounds one would expect. Players will talk to one another, just like in a real game, and the music is drawn from bands throughout the world.

FIFA Street 3 is an entertaining arcade title that does have a very nice presentation, but it is the lack of modes that will be the next challenge for the development team. Still, this game finally brings the franchise some needed respect and performs well, but only if played in short bursts of time.

Gameplay: 6.8
The game control scheme is so easy to learn that anyone can pick it up and play – which means that the game does come down to strategic attacks and counters. Unfortunately off-the-ball movement by the player-controlled team can be hit or miss. And while the multiplayer is decent, the single-player experience comes up a little short.

Graphics: 7.5
The stylized look works well here and the animations are very nice indeed. The courts are diverse but all they add are aesthetic qualities.

Sound: 7.5
A nice musical mix and the exhortations of the players on the court add a decent feel to the game.

Difficulty: Medium

Concept: 7.0
Credit must be given for the graphical revamp of the game and the control scheme.

Multiplayer: 7.0
Online modes are available, but this was a debug code and the times attempted to test the online element found connection issues (as in servers not available). Head-to-head on the same machine is available and entertaining with up to seven players participating.  

Overall: 7.0
With the graphics firmly in place, and the gameplay simplified, this is a game that really should build the foundation for a major step into the limelight. FIFA Street 3 is fine, but lacks a robust variety of game modes, and thus suffers for it.