Ultimate Beach Soccer

"Soccer Light."

Introduction
Let me start by saying that I am not a soccer fan. Yet, I still look for fun soccer video games. This game has all of the basics of soccer, but the scores are much higher. Because this game is so fast paced, I think Ultimate Beach Volleyball is worth a look.

Game Modes
Ultimate Beach Soccer has three main modes of play: Exhibition, Beach Soccer Tour and Tournament Mode. In an exhibition match you select your team and your opponents, then one of the four beaches and go to town. In Beach Soccer Tour, compete against other countries to win the trophy. There are 32 international teams that compete against each other. It starts out as eight pools of four teams; the winner of each pool will move on to compete in an eight team playoff, in which it is single elimination. In Tournament mode, Cup has 8 teams and League, compete in five different tournaments, one for each of the four levels, also single elimination

There is also a training mode with no opponents, rules or time limits. Simply press start to find out the different commands and controls. The training modes will teach you the basics that you need to rack up a lot of goals. Practice, practice, practice.

Gameplay
Like soccer there are two teams in a game, but there are only five players on a side, including the goalie. These two teams play a game on a relatively small stretch of beach. You can select the length of time for the game. Your choices are three periods of three, six, or nine minutes. There are three difficulty levels to choose from. The easy level is just that. It is entirely too easy.

Passing and shooting will be your offensive weapons. Once you get the hang of it you can control all kinds of skills like one time shots, pele kicks and through passes. For instance, juggle the ball and pass when it is high in it's arc and you will perform a headbutt pass. It's pretty fun to style and profile in this game. There is a "State of Grace" meter. When you perform well by passing or scoring and generally using good teamwork, the meter will increase. Once it is filled up, you will enter a “State of Grace”. During this time, your shots on goal are kicked with more power. Like soccer, there are also free kicks (you select which side of the goal you want to aim your kick at) and penalty kicks (select what area of the goal your goalie's hands will block).

Control
The controls are fairly smooth and shouldn't take too much time to master. They are simple yet very precise. On offense, there are different kinds of passes using the B button or the R Button + B or A. You can try to kick a goal with the A Button. Juggling the ball with the L Button helps give you some ball control and makes setting up kicks on goal easy enough. On defense, press A to execute sliding block/tackle or B kick to try to kick at the ball. The player on defense automatically changes to the one closest to the ball and the computer controls the players when you don't have the ball.

Sound
The game features the same music constantly. Just do what I do with most GBA games, turn the music off. However leave the sound effects on, as they are great. There is really good sound for the crowd and they will cheer and boo like crazy.

Graphics
The animations are very smooth and the overall picture quality is highly detailed. The players sprites themselves are not overly detailed, but they are boldly outlined and colorful. There will be no mistaking who is on who's team. The animations for when you score a goal are neat. The people who scored get pumped up and shake their fists. The people who were scored on will drop to their knees and pound the sand. There are numerous animations for when a goal is scored.

Recommendation
If you are looking for a fast paced high scoring soccer, then you definitely enjoy this game. The games go by pretty quickly, but none the less, a save feature during the tournaments would have been nice. All in all, Ultimate Beach Soccer is a fun sports game to turn on and run with for a while.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 01/13/06