For those who know nothing about the FIFA street games they can be summed up fairly simply. They’re the kind of over the top 5 a side football that you saw in those old Nike adverts, where famous footballers played ball running down city streets doing amazing tricks - so you can switch off your serious football brain and get ready for some pure arcade action. But while that may have looked great on the screen, and at times looks great in the game, many footy fans don’t feel FIFA Street 3 actually manages to put enough game play meat on the bones of what sounds like a fantastic idea on paper. That was a concern in the previous FIFA Street games and something we were hoping had changed for this year’s game. But it doesn’t seem to have happened.

There have been some changes to the FIFA Street formula. The first thing that’s different from the previous FIFA Streets is there there's no more street mode - instead you’re presented with challenge mode. This is where you play through different challenges and game types in order to unlock new teams and players. The teams have unique abilities, so that instead of picking and choosing the players you want they’re grouped together depending on their abilities. So you can decide you want to pick the play maker’s team, best passers of the ball, crosses, or the enforcers - the best defenders.

Aside from challenge mode you can play head to head with players locally, or you can play against others on Xbox Live, with the added option for picking countries as well. And that sadly, is pretty much it as far as mode choices go. We would have expected a lot more variety from the third outing of a series, and this feels a little bare and lazy. You can play a single match, do a challenge, or take on friends in multiplayer and that’s it. There is some variety in the match types, but the basics are the same. You can play matches with Gamebreaker goals only, Gamebreakers turned off (our personal favourite), header and volley goals only, as well as timed or score (first to 5, for example) matches.

The main problem with FIFA Street 3 is that the AI balance in solo matches is pretty much non-existent. It’s either too hard or stupidly easy and when it’s hard it’s almost impossible to do anything. This is especially obvious during close games when the computer suddenly gets a dose of steroids and stops you doing anything. This becomes really frustrating as it nullifies even the most basic part of the game like passing and shooting. And at the same time as you’re struggling to do anything, the opposition is making every pass and tackle. It’s uncannily able to swoop down and claim every free ball, scoring on every shot.

Team AI is also sketchy and it just it never seems to contribute to you winning. Your players go through the motions- running back forth- but you can never be too sure that if you push the ‘change player’ button your players are going to be in the correct position. Making attacks then becomes iffy, meaning you either get a show of classic 1970 Brazilian football or pure rubbish. Then there are the special attacks to deal with, which can take frustration to another level.

The Gamebreaker is a powerful special that you build up to by showing off with fancy footwork, and it can be the difference between winning and losing. Your players take on a faint glow (that’ll be the steroid s then-Ed) and as your shots become almost undefeatable. Our first problem with that is we’d expect a whole lot more graphical razzmatazz when using a special this powerful. Characters can already run up walls, do bicycle kick passes and slow down time before shooting, would it have been so much trouble to have some sort of fireball released on shots? The Gamebreaker’s effect very much seems to justify it. Once activated each player turns into Pele, Maradona, Bergkamp & Cantona all rolled into one. They’re virtually unstoppable. This is great, unless you’re defending against the computer, as nearly every shot ends up in the back of the net. It all results in a lot of swearing and repeated shouting of the phrase, "CHEATING COMPUTER!!!!!"

For those who believe that defending is a key part to winning football games, you’re in for a shock. It doesn’t seem to exist in this game. Tackling the opposition is so random that you’ve a better chance of winning the lotto than making a solid tackle. This turns multiplayer games into a whole bunch of one player twiddling the left stick to dribble, while the other just mashes the tackle button in a frantic attempt to get the ball.

While the game play leaves a lot to be desired at times, FIFA Street doesn’t look half bad. Even though the simple character animations don’t possess any of the realistic graphical features of other games, they work really well for this sort of game. Animation is nice and smooth and everything flows reasonably well. The cartoony style gives each player enough personality to be pretty much unmistakable to the average footie fan. (Rooney looks like Shrek in real life as well-Ed) The courts and background are simple but quite well designed, with nice little touches, from the way gates rattle when the ball is kicked against them to the detail of the graffiti on the walls.

The sound in FIFA Street 3 is pretty good, with an international musical mix that does the job of being ‘streety’ background music. Other extra touches which give it that street feel are that the "DJ" stops the music when the ball is knocked out of play and you get some nice random banter from players like, "don’t let him shoot" just before another Gamebreaker shot smashes past your keeper.

When looked at overall, FIFA Street 3 is an improvement on the previous versions, with more emphasis being put on the team aspect of passing and shooting during games. It’s no longer just all about a one man trick show. Still, much of the game relies too much on doing tricks just for the sake of doing them. Even worse, the problems of having worse defensive qualities than Derby County and the unstoppable Gamebreaker really show up FIFA Street 3’s gameplay flaws. The challenge mode isn’t a bad idea, it’s just not as satisfying as creating your own team to become number one. The limited game modes available don’t really feel like you’re getting enough value overall. To begin with FIFA Street 3 is a fun game, but that doesn’t last long as you soon realize that the flaws in the game heavily out way its good points. Any footie purist should avoid it, as it will have you smashing controllers and screaming heresy. This is one for the passive fan who wants to play a game of football without the complications. But given its limited depth, even they won’t keep playing for too long. Street football looks great in the ads, but never seems to make a good game. Definitely worth renting before you think of buying.