European Soccer Challenge

STORY / GAMEPLAY
This is a soccer game so there's no actual story, except of a main goal: to score goals! You can select your favorite team from a total of 130 from 36 European countries. The full gamut of soccer rules and actions are implemented, including tackles (stealing the ball), throw-outs, and penalty flags to remove aggressive players. Players run, steal and defend better depending on who you select. The game offers quite responsive controls though some would find them a bit complicated to master. Shooting is done with the A and B buttons for high and low shots. Holding down a button lets you aim and set the strength, allowing you to run one way and shoot towards the other. Note that the player's control goes automatically to the player closest to the ball, which might be a bit confusing at the beginning when too many players involve on the action.
Other that the last, this is a playable, well designed and quality sports title for the Atari Lynx.

GRAPHICS / SOUND
The graphics are really good, as all game screens are made with some neat pitch details and colors. The sprites, although small, are showing sufficient detail with an average animation while the scrolling is fast and adds to the overall gameplay.
The game's sound is rather poor and the only in-game sounds are the referee's whistles and the almost quiet thud of a kicked ball plus some short loops between games, but nothing really special.