Sierra Soccer

STORY/GAMEPLAY:
Each player and each team have a pile of statistics based on skills such as tackling, attacking, pace, stamina etc. Before a game, there are displayed on a screen, and you have the option to change your tactics and formation before or during the game. Kicking takes place vertically but in a slightly angled birds-eye-view this time, with the section of the field scrolling neatly in all directions. The game adopted the tried and tested Sensible Soccer goodies and added some extras, especially regarding the visuals. The play is quick and the controls work in a similar fashion to Sensible Soccer. The aftertouch, short and long passing work fine, but the major problem with the game, particular in two-player mode is the way the ball is almost glued to the player's feet.
Tackling seems to be limited to the long slide - it's difficult to muscle in and take the ball off your opponent. Since the position of the relatively small but reasonably animated sprites in relation to the ball is sometimes difficult to estimate, despite the genre-typical arrows, it still takes some practice to move your players using the stick to make proper passes, shots on goal, headers or tackles. Receiving the ball is also relatively tricky, the handling problems are partly due to collision detection issues found. There is a replay function as well as a small statistic that appears at half-time and after the final whistle. If a player is fouled in the box, or the two teams have drawn after extra time, you get the chance to use the remarkably easy penalty system A cross-hair alternates between the posts and you have to tap the fire button when it’s in a position to miss the goalie and hit the back of the net.
Sierra Soccer is a pretty nice footy, with well matched atmosphere, although the few glitches described above.

GRAPHICS/SOUND:
The graphics themselves are fine, although I would expect some more detail at the surroundings which is in pseudo-3D, but are enhanced by some other nice details. For example, the referee runs after the sinner after a big foul and elegantly pulls out the colored card, or the team doctor rushes to the player who is lying on the ground, who then leaves the field on a stretcher. The game's visuals (though a bit empty) look fantastic, and they have a humorous style combined with some incredibly smooth and fast action!
The game's sound is soccer classic and consists of sampled crowd cheers, tinny jeers for fouls as well as decent sounds for kicking the ball while passing or shooting. A few bits of English voice acting and digitized sound FX come out of the speaker, which are very similar to those from Sensible Soccer too.