Wii Version of 'FIFA 13' Almost Identical to 'FIFA 12'

Game Rant

By Anthony Taormina

Published Sep 29, 2012

Those gamers unfortunate enough to pick up 'FIFA 13' for the Wii have discovered the game is nearly an exact copy of last year's iteration, 'FIFA 12.'

While it could be argued that the Wii versions of many of EA Sports' highly anticipated franchises like Madden and NHL get a bad rap, their port of FIFA 13 for Nintendo's console is the worst yet. In past years gamers have typically wondered what changes were made between last year's iteration and this year's. For FIFA 13, answering that is question really easy.

As it turns out, literally nothing was changed for FIFA 13, aside from new kits (jerseys) and rosters. A non-FIFA fan that picked up FIFA 13 might never notice these "changes," but several attentive gamers have discovered the shameless re-packaging.

Over at Nintendo Gamer they have a full set of screenshot comparisons that show just how closely FIFA 13 on the Wii resembles FIFA 12. Needless to say, the results demonstrate that EA Sports, rather than provide a roster and kit update, tried to squeeze as many $40 purchases out of sports fans as they could.

Furthermore, this FIFA 13 rip-off further paints the franchise, and sports games in general, as the copy/paste products that a lot of gamers already see them as. It's not uncommon for the next iteration of Madden to be referred to as the $60 roster update for Madden, and now this Wii version of FIFA 13 further perpetuates that stereotype.

Though we may never know why EA Sports didn't introduce many of FIFA 13's new features — like the realistic player faces or first touch controls — into this Wii version, our guess is it has something to do with the looming release of the Wii U. EA has been pretty bad about providing launch content for the Wii U, but they do have several of their forthcoming sports titles slated to release on the console.

We wouldn't be surprised if the FIFA 13 that shows up on the Wii U is a more accurate representation of the FIFA 13 experience, and that this Wii version was merely a last gasp for the franchise.

Any ranters out there pick up FIFA 13 on the Wii? How do you feel about this blatant copy and paste job by EA Sports?

~~FIFA 13~~ FIFA 12 is out now for the Wii.

Source: Nintendo Gamer (via NeoGAF)