Sega Soccer Slam

"Ole! Ole-Ole-Ole!"

So here we have Sega, pumpin' out the titles since the death of Dreamcast. Sonic was ok...this is much better. If you like soccer ( football in the rest of the world ) and you liked NHL Hitz or NFL Blitz...you owe it to yourself to try this sucker out.

You're a member of an elite soccer team, who's only goal is to reach the Championship of the Continental Cup...and win.

Graphics (8): Solid! Nothing super flashy...however, the characters are large and richly animated. The soccer moves are both authentic and over-the-top. Cool bullet-time effects and slo-mo dominate, and the characters are filled with expression and life. A well done job.

Sound: (9): You'll come for the gameplay and the graphics. You'll stay for the sound. Each and every character is voiced perfectly with cool...( albiet stereotypical ) character voices. Each character is equipped with a bevy of quotes that are lip-synched quite well.

Killer Kicks come along with a cool explosion sound... and the crowd chants along to the beat of the game nicely. The neatest part of the whole sound scheme is during the Spotlight Kicks. These kicks are player-oriented...and whenever one is happening, the sound dims and the crowd chants a character-centric tune.

For El-Diablo..children ( fans of his wrestling act ) chant his name. When it's Rico..the old school chant of ''Ole! Ole-Ole-Ole!'' starts up. It's awesome...and it incites the player to try Spotlight Kicks with as many characters as possible.

Gameplay (7.5): Simple, pick up and play Gameplay. One-Timers, One-time passes, lobs, kicks, flip-kicks, dekes and protects are all done mostly at command. The exception being hard shots taken after passes, and taking control of the gameplay. Otherwise it's nearly perfect.

Presentation (9): This game is ALL presentation. Several different teams from different parts of the world, with very stereotypical ( in a GOOD way ) characters that make you wanna play them. ( The only exception is maybe the Japanese scientist. Man she annoyed me. ).

The only thing I thought could have been improved was the presentation of the actual Match itself. A better TV-style presentation ( with camera-men and all that...like in the demo ) would have been cool. But eh...c'est la vie.

Replayability (6): Once you've gotten the cup with all the teams, received all the upgrades, and brought all the pics... there's not much else to do on the One-Player front. It'll take a while though...and the 2-player's a blast!

Overall (8): A solid, superfun game, especially in the one player. As any English soccer announcer worth his salt would say: GOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAALLLL!!!!!!!!!!

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 03/28/02, Updated 03/28/02