Sega Soccer Slam

"You'll have a blast!"

I recently ordered four games online, Sega Soccer Slam was one of them. I didn't expect too much, it's just that my collection of games was almost full and there weren't that many games to choose from. I don't remember exactly what attracted me to the game but I wanted it. And so it arrived in the mail three days later.

I booted it up and the first thing I noticed was how colorful the screen was. The next thing I noticed was the characters moving across the screen. They were well animated and full of life. I also saw that there were numerous modes of play including quest, challenge, and arcade. The players were still moving on the screen and they were creative and inspired looking.

So I started up a game in the arcade mode, choosing team Tsunami against team Sub-zero. I started to play, and the controls felt quite natural in a short period of time. What action! I quickly noticed that this was a very fun game. Sweeping steals, dekes and pin-point passing were among the highlights. Turbo and special buttons added to the experience. A sports game where you can actually punch your opponent in the face?! Sign me up! I continued to deke, tackle, punch,pass, and shoot to all the way to the games exciting conclusion. I won seven to six, scoring a goal in the final thirty seconds to take the lead. What a game! At this point, I was loving Sega Soccer Slam.

I played a few more arcade games with each being an intense nail-biter. Now I was going to try challenge mode and attempt to unlock players. My friend who was also loving the soccer action and I were alternating playing halves. The players are so varied and interesting, they even have there own stories. Quest mode was next, the road to the continental cup. Sort of a ten game season with mini-games and an allstar game. The cool thing is one or more of your teams players can make the allstar team and lead them to victory. For my Tsunami team, Kahuna made the game because he had scored most of my goals up until that point. He ended up scoring his teams first five goals en route to an eight to seven victory. What fun! This game is so underrated and so cool, I highly recommend it to both sports fans and non sports fans. I won the continental cup after a two round playoff and got to see my teams ending. Do yourself a favor and pick up this outstanding multiplayer game. You can thank me later.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 05/31/06