An Interesting Concept: A FIFA Without Buttons

By: Sneakers O'Toole | June 29th, 2009

When you’re about to kick a ball in real life, do you think, “Push B and aim far post”, or do you cock your leg back and let fly?

Thank you for the demonstration, Agostino.

Unless you’re some sort of crazy robot or cyborg (who is also conveniently controlled by an XBox controller), the answer is the latter. So why did the concept totally boggle my mind when someone (I can’t remember where. My apologies if the person was on this blog) asked why FIFA or PES hasn’t made steps toward not using buttons to control how the ball is kicked, trapped, etc.?

It’s an interesting proposal. MLB 2K…whatever edition has made passes at the thought. Instead of pushing a button to swing the bat, they have a hitting mode where you pull the right stick back to ready yourself to swing, and as the ball comes to home plate, you flick the right stick back to start your motion and forward to swing and either throw out the player’s back or obliterate the ball.

Shooting seems like the most logical place to start. Flick the stick forward for the classy toe-poke finish, or pull all the way back with the left stick and unleash hell Stevie G style. Headers would be a whole different story, but it would still be doable.

Passing could work the same way, and I’m sure you could put spin with the right flick of the stick. After all, the ball does not care whether your intention is to pass or shoot; it just reacts. That’s how it works in real life. That’s what we’re going for right?

The part that I find is perplexing is how one would dribble with a similar system. I know I use my feet to dribble, and I’m a decent dribbler. If I had to translate that into left stick, right stick…I don’t know. Would one stick be used exclusively for dribbling and the other one for feints, step overs, etc, or would each stick control a foot?

Thank goodness they created Arena mode. I think a FIFA players would spend way more time figuring it all out, or trying, if they actually did something like this.

How would it happen? Hell if I know. Anyone who has read one of my entries knows my opinion of the goof balls at EA, and this would be in no way simple.

How would you guys feel about this kind of thing being implemented in FIFA? We’re assuming PES’s clock is ticking louder and louder, as they are not supported by a video game dynamo and they are slowly losing their following, so exclude them for this conversation.