Game | | Urban Freestyle Soccer | Format | | PS2 (version tested), Gamecube, X Box, PC | Publisher: | | Acclaim | Release date: | | 13 February 2004 |
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I was not optimistic when given this game. The name is just annoying in itself. It made me think of baggy-assed skate kids listening to R&B and trying to play soccer. I was not wrong! Now most skate kids only really become skate kids 'cos they are rubbish at football. If they weren't then they would not waste their time pushing a plank of wood around trying to do a 720 upside olly or whatever. So how wrong is a game that virtually turns these antisocial freaks into the next Maradona? Very wrong in my book! Every single player in this game is the "street" equivalent of Cristiano Ronaldo on nonprescription drugs. The array of stupidly unnecessary tricks that can easily be pulled off by your players is just silly. Trick-after-trick-after-trick, it's like watching the working girls down Sparkenhoe Road! All of this getting in the way of what would be an otherwise mediocre four-a-side game. The gameplay is essentially a footy version of Acclaim's NBA Jam basketball game, just with footy moves substituting basketball ones.  | | Urban Freestyle Soccer fails to impress Secret Level. |
There is even the opportunity to essentially copy the various mad slam-dunks of NBA Jam; with tricks and possession building up a "netbuster" meter which then allows for a completely over-the-top shot which is unstoppable and defies the laws of physics. I think all the programmers have done is made the court/pitch bigger and applied the basic rules of footy, no real effort went into the graphics and the sound is annoying at best. The really worrying thing about this game is that young 'uns may actually like it and will think this is how footy is played. It's bad enough most young players make themselves so dizzy with their twists and stepovers they never actually pass the ball properly. Games like this can only make things worse, so let's stop the rot now! Isn't it enough that we have to put up with pale, fleshy, and untoned versions of US cheerleaders at the Walkers Stadium at half-time? If we ban Americans from playing or doing anything associated with "soccer" now, we may just save the beautiful game.. Overall NBA Jam meets Cristiano Ronaldo in an urban stylee, innit!
3/10
Dr Leevil | 
