Urban Freestyle Soccer

With the current crop of gaming consoles now in the proverbial autumn of their shelf life, the respective games market is pretty saturated. When the PlayStation 3 arrives then, yes, everything will be fresh and new again but, at the moment, there just isn't really room on the shelf of your average games store for 'another football game'. As a consequence, developers are having to find new angles to take and new spins to put on such games in order to keep release schedules healthy - a prime example of this is Urban Freestyle Soccer.

Removing the much-loved sport of football from its present day, showbiz-tainted glamour, Urban Freestyle Soccer instead dumps the beautiful game into the street. Garage doors for goalposts, few rules, no offside, and an urban setting in which rival gangs battle it out, rough style. Subsequently, gameplay is fierce, frantic and aggressive, with an emphasis on taking the sport back to its street roots and thus delivering a more arcade-like football experience.

The game features a host of different game modes, including the likes of training, challenges, mini games, and, of course the main single-player experience, which sees you choose from 16 gang-based teams and vie for the crown of 'king of the street'. As you'd expect, there's also a versus mode, so you can take part in the action either alongside or against your friends.

As is prominent in other such 'street' sports games, a heavily-emphasised element throughout UFS is the performance of over-the-top 'showboat' tricks and super moves. This is made possible by a combo system, which, as you master it, allows you to gradually add a range of moves to your repertoire, such as back-heels, juggling and scissor-kicks.

A welcome addition to the bulging football genre, Urban Freestyle Soccer offers a hip and funky alternative take on the sport, which, although unlikely to appeal to the stat-obsessed FIFA addict, is a great deal of fun for the rest of us.