Soccer - the world’s most popular sport. Soccer - a sport that most American’s could give two craps about. Soccer - the sport that I have to do three different reviews for, where all of them stink.
Ok, let’s jump right into this review - it was painful to play, I don’t want to make it overly painful to review. The second soccer game on the PSP comes from 989 Studios. You may know 989 from their reputation of making mediocre or bad sports games. They do a wonderful job in continuing the tradition with Would Tour Soccer.
The graphics for the game are decent. I was pleasantly surprised by the animations and overall look of the guys on the PSP. It’s not as detailed as the PS2 version, but it’s in the same ballpark. You do get a slightly blurred feel to the game because it’s kind of fast paced, with a lot of action. It’s not enough to really drag the game down though.
The sound effects, however, aren’t all that great. The announcing is the pits, they don’t say a whole lot, and none of if really adds to the game when they do speak words other than player names. The crowd sounds more like static than thousands of cheering humans.
The modes of play were lacking. There was no long-team season or dynasty game, it was exhibition or cup. The multiplayer options were ad-hoc, not infrastructure. In English that means you need someone within line of sight to both own a PSP (unlikely) and this game (if they own this game, you may want to not associate with them anyway). I wish developers would take the extra effort and make their games playable online with the real internet, not this local wi-fi stuff.
The controls - to me - were an issue. I found it MUCH harder to actually kick the ball with the correct amount of power and aim vs. say, Fifa. I frequently kicked the ball wide or higher than the goal. I understand soccer scores are usually 1-0 or on a crazy day it’ll be 3-3, but I like to score once and awhile. I played this game quite a bit and the handful of games that I did win (where I took the best teams vs. the worst teams) I won 1-0. The rest I lost 1-0. That’s not very fun.
Speaking of fun - the game just isn’t fun. It’s fast paced; it’s got that going for it. The controls we talked about - not too swift. The graphics and presentation are better than anticipated. Heck the game even has some of the more advanced editing options for your team that the console version did. It just wasn’t fun. It was a boring time, and a hassle to play. Fifa wasn’t much better, but I did enjoy it a little more.
Final Verdict
In conclusion - if you really need a soccer game for your handheld, go with the SLIGHTLY better Fifa. It’s the lesser of two evils. If you don’t like soccer, bad games, or sports that don’t involve someone being knocked unconscious now and again, stay away from World Tour Soccer.
Score
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