95
This game is brillian, totally up to date, with teams and people. There are also damage systems - which affect your players.
The graphics are pretty impresive for the PSP. Loading times are quick - which is good, as some games take ages to load up.
I would recommend this game to anyone who likes football. I don't personally like football, but this game is amazing.
85
For a long time now EA Sports has had the market when it comes to soccer games. Their FIFA soccer series has sold millions of copies worldwide. Many people have tried to match the game but have failed, which surprises me because year after year the FIFA series is the same thing over and over again yet it still sells millions of copies with each installment. Being a huge soccer fan I decided to break from the norm and buy World Tour Soccer Instead of Fifa.
Does it beat FIFA?
World Tour Soccer for the PSP will give gamers a pretty good soccer experience. However, it isn't better than FIFA. This doesn't meant that it's a bad game, in fact it is a good game in its own ways.
If you played last year's World Tour Soccer 2005 on the PS2 you will know what this game is all about. Where FIFA is more of a simulation, World Tour Soccer has a real arcade feel to it. The gameplay is very quick, and is easy to pick up and play, which is great if you want a quick game of soccer. It is also great for the biggest soccer fan who is looking for a challenge. One thing you will notice is the lack of any sort of league competition. This is one area FIFA excels, it is kind of sad that you cannot pick your favorite team and go on and play a league and be crowned champions. However there are a ton of competitions and bonuses to to unlock in World Tour Soccer!
You will see on the menu screen that there are a number of options and tournaments to choose from. There is a quick game option which randomly selects teams for cup competitions, exhibition modes, multiplayer match up’s, and an excellent though all too short challenge mode. The main mode of play is the cup competition. From here you can choose to play in the World cup, European Championships, Champions League, the Asian cup, the South American cup, the Americas cup and the Africa cup. The goal is to complete all of the competitions on all the different skill levels (Amateur, Pro, World Class and Master Class). Everytime you complete the tournament you will unlock hidden extras like great teams from the past, new stadiums, different styles of soccer balls etc. When you win the tournaments you will also receive tokens so you can buy the teams that are locked, then you can play as the team you just purchased, which is a pretty cool idea.
When playing Amateur you will be able to score goals from anywhere very easily, the AI is not very good at this level and sometimes the computer players will tackle their own team mates! Switch to Pro and you get a better game. The other two settings, World Class and Master Class, are next to impossible to play, the computer teams are way too hard to play against.
The challenge game mode is excellent as well but it could have been so much more. You pick a team to play as and the computer chooses a team for you to play against. The idea is to play the most attractive soccer that you can. String passes together, do skills and tricks with the ball score long range goals etc. Every time you complete a pass, do a trick, tackle an opponent or score a goal you will be given points. Every time you lose the ball, make a bad tackle or concede a goal you will lose points. Every skill level has 3 different point targets. For example, in Amateur, if you score 1500 points you will be awarded a bronze medal and a hidden team.
All in all there are 245 real soccer teams, which include international, club, classic, and special teams, most of which you have to unlock before you can use. I think that is a pretty good feature and it will keep you coming back for more. In addition to the single player games you can also play multiplayer via Wi-Fi, however you can only play exhibition matches during multiplayer which sucks. I think it would have been great to have been able to play each other during the challenge mode as well. For the most part, the multiplayer game was smooth, but every now and then the frame rate drops dramatically which can really hamper the play.
Gameplay
Controlling the players in World Tour Soccer is very easy. You can use either the thumb stick or the D-pad to move, the shoulder buttons are used for tricks and running, and the triangle, square, circle and cross buttons perform the defensive and attacking actions that you would expect from any soccer game.
One thing I love about the WTS games is that you have the ability to deliberately dive. Time it right and you could be awarded a free kick or penalty, time it wrong and your player will be sent off for unprofessional behavior, this is a neat feature. The game moves rapidly and the controls are smooth and responsive, it is a joy to play!
Look and sound
The graphics in WTS are by no means ground breaking but they do their job. There are some rough edeges here are and there, but there is no slow down except during multiplayer which is awesome. The players look like their real life counter parts, so you could pick David Beckham out from a crowd. The cut scenes are good but are very short, when you win a trophy the cut scene will last maybe 10 seconds, which is fine unless you like to bask in your glory of winning the world cup.
The sound is also very good. The commentary is performed by Peter Drury. He is a great commentator from England. The commentary is pretty basic, players names will be said when they receive the ball or take a shot at a goal, but that is about it. The music is pretty decent too, mostly rock music on the menu screens.
Overall
From the nicely presented main menu screen, to the great graphics and cool music, World Tour Soccer looks, feels and sounds like a great game. There are plenty of game modes and hidden extras to keep you playing for hours. While not better than FIFA, the result is still a lot of fun to play.
75
When I first got it to say the least I was very dissapointed. But along the game it gets more an more challenging. This is truly an on the go game -- fast paced, short loading times, no frills.
Graphics
The graphics are certainly not the best a PSP can do but they're acceptable.
WiFi
I was dissapointed with the so called WiFi challenge thing. You can't challenge people that are across the world, no, they must be using the same WiFi access point as you. That was my main buying point and that was what I was led to believe.
Challenge Mode
It's quite silly actually. You get points for tackling, passing, scoring, etc and lose points for losing the ball, missing a tackle, fouling, etc. The challenges rise in difficulty from Amateur to Master Class.
Cups
There are a variety of cups which are challenging (depending on dfficulty level) and a great deal of fun. There is the World Cup, African, Asia & Oceania, Euro, Americas, South Americas and the Champions League. The cups are all decent in length. Each time you win a cup depending on the difficulty you will earn a certain amount of Tokens to buy teams.
Teams
Loads and Loads of teams to unlock which results in alot of playing to earn Tokens so you can buy them. The teams aren't expensive ranging from 10 to 100 tokens, with 10 being a one star team, 100 being a 5 star team.
Overall
In my opinion this is a great, under-rated game, but I was very dissapointed with the WiFi Capability. The graphics aren't awesome but they will do.
22
Pretty poor game and I wouldn't reccomend it. I'd say it was a pile of crap.
90
This game is pretty good, lots of fun, lots of teams.
88
So i bought this game at EB's and was totally excited! Over 200 Teams! And even my national team, IRAN! Fifa doesnt have alot of International teams, thats why I got this instead.
Load times are ok, but take a bit too long. AI is made up of mostly Elementary School dropouts, but you can raise their IQ by 150 points by having the highest difficulty. It's FOOTBALL!!! Anyone who plays can not put this game down. GO BAYERN MUNICH! GO IRAN! GO GERMANY! USA! USA! Just kidding I'm such a dork.
89
This is a well put together soccer game and has plenty to keep you interested. In my opinion it its a cross between International Superstars Soccer (Winning Eleven) and FIFA. The best this game has to offer is the ability to use teams from the past, such as Celtic FC from the 60s. Others include Real Madrid, Inter Milan and so on.
Good game, however, I would suggest getting FIFA now that this is available.
73
Americans and soccer, two things that go together like President Bush and brains.
It’s therefore quite a surprise that not one, but two soccer games are coming to the PSP in it’s launch-window (Although FIFA seems to have fallen out of this window, let’s just hope it gets a safe landing).
As a Belgian (or how do you call people from the great, but oh so small country Belgium?) living in Canada, I get almost beaten to death with hockey-terms. Wherever you go, people are talking about it. And although there is no hockey this season, they still manage to show this great North American sport on television every day.
I love the game called soccer (or football if you are English). I love to watch it on television and I get near ecstatic when there is a Champions League game on television that promises to deliver the goods (goals, drama, incidents and more goals). I told myself (and my wallet) to wait for the FIFA game, as the World tour soccer games on the PS2, are mediocre at best.
But the EA game has slipped to late April, so World Tour Soccer it is. While I am a real fan of the Winning Eleven series on PS2 (Pro evolution soccer called in Europe), I had no big expectations for this one.
But to my surprise, it was not all bad. It has some decent features and some captivating game play.
When I first turned the on-knob on my PSP for this game I was pleasantly surprised to find some very decent and clean menu’s. After the obligatory quick-match, I started to look for a career mode. After a length search, I thought I might had to go back to the shop. My World Tour Soccer didn’t include this essential element in a soccer game. A look in the booklet took away my last hope. No career mode in this game. What you do get is a cup mode, challenge mode, multiplayer and the previously mentioned exhibition mode. A bit disappointed about this, I started, although reluctantly (yes I am some times a little child when I don’t get what I want) playing in the cup mode. It was however the challenge mode that got most of my attention after a while. Here you rewarded with point for almost every move you make. You make a world goal, you will see your total increase rapidly, you get a yellow card, point are deducted. Cool, I thought, but what was I going to do with this fictive points? Well it turned out that with this points you can unlock a whole bunch of goodies, going from the ball they used in the 5o’s to England’s famous 1966 team. Nice touch and very addictive.
It took me a while before I could find a person who I could try the multiplayer with. Everybody I asked said : “Soccer? No dude, but what about a round of Gretzky?”. Silly me, But my search delivered me a guinea pig and I must say, Multiplayer rocks. Although there is some frame rate drop in some places, that you don’t see in the single player, it’s refreshing to play against another human. Too bad this is the only 989’s sport launch game that doesn’t include online play.
When the PSP was announced, nearly PS2 graphics where promised. While games like Wipeout pure and ridge racers are gorgeous on my PSP, World Tour Soccer is definitely far below PS2 graphics. The view while playing the game is from far and the players are badly detailed, with sometimes faces without eyes, ears,.. etc. The only time players are shown from close up, you do see some resemblance with their real life counterparts. But don’t blink or you will have missed it, because the replays are extremely short. The players move in a realistic way, but their legs are blurred while running, because of this they seem to have three legs. Bizarre to say the least. The slidings and tackles are realistic although your players seem to have unlimited energy, they just keep running.
The major problem besides the graphics, is the AI of the game. Your opponent sometimes seem to be a spectator, rather then really participating in the match. And this is where the differences with a game like for example Winning Eleven is made, in the details. At a certain time I shot on goal, the ball clearly missed, even in the replay, but still the PSP insisted I made the equalizer. Passing is intuitive and fast and controlling your players feels natural. Although if you use the directional buttons, I found the players going in squares, switching to the analog stick, made this problem disappear.
The team has nearly 250 teams and the commentator know all their players by name. But that’s it. When a player receives a pass, his name is mentioned, when he tries a shot, his name is yelled. The commentary is very sparse and I missed some nice anecdotes or remarks. The audience and the ball sound is on the spot.
Overall I found World tour soccer not a bad game, but it’s not good either. It has some nice game play, and I keep going back to play it, but it’s AI gaps, mediocre graphics and small mistakes make it far from perfect. I am expecting that FIFA will be better but it will only until the release of Winning Eleven on the PSP (scheduled for late this year) that my soccer need is satisfied. Until then I will be playing World tour soccer, and have fun with it.
Pro’s : fun game play, great challenge mode
Con’s : Mediocre graphics, troublesome AI at times, small mistakes
Overall : 73 / 100
90
Originally I was looking for the FIFA soccer but this one was available only, so I bought it, as a first game for my next-day-arriving PSP.
Game is good, surprisingly good and I particularly like the camera movements, except at throw-ins - it's very far view by default.
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