Being european and following soccer (well it's going on around me - i have little choice but to take at least some of it in), I can now tell you all that this is one of the most non-sensical names for a game I have ever come across. Prime goal? What the hell does that mean? And 90 minutes? Funnily enough, there is no 90 minute option in this game (unlike fifa). Some would call things like this false advertising, I call it names of games being thought of by people in absense of a solitary clue about the sport. The game itself goes about its business graphically in a way very similar to International Superstar Soccer - the direction of play is horizontal and this is generally a good idea as it's what it looks like on TV and it allows ou to see most of the pitch. There is, however, a problem with this game which will make it venture a little bit from a soccer "simulator", namely that it is designed my namco. Namco design arcade games - little effort is placed into realism. This should (and does) mean that your main ways of scoring are, by default, crosses and rebounds. The major downfall of any sports game is whenever you find a set way to score. What's even worse is when there's only a couple of them - it tends to make for very dull 2 player action.

After some scrutinous play, I finally managed to get the hang of this game and found it to be awfully static. When you pass the ball, your players tend to run from it. When the ball lands in the general direction of one of your players and you want to control him, dont expect the computer to let you without a fight. It usually allows you but you should expect a delay. Any form of kicking is the same - get written permission on the bloody field before you kick the damn thing. All your headers seem to be ridiculously overpowered and very difficult to judge - especially on kickouts when the player-change problem rears its ugly head again. Oh and did i mention? When you jump, dont expect to hit the ground for a while - michael jordan couldnt stay up in the air that long! Fatigue is a foreign concept as well with it being quite possible to run the length of the pitch with your full back and not see any slowing down. The set pieces are also poorly designed - forget about guidelines here - its wherever you're pointing! There are, however, a few novel little things that work to raise the standard of the game. Little things such as there being celebrations when you score a goal (which screw up sometimes if players dont get in line fast enough), the arcade feel (it can be a good thing too you know), the training mode (you can train up your own player and have him specialised in whatever fields you see fit) and there is also the allstars mode which allows you to pick your own little team comprised of (fictional) players from a variety of teams, you then proceed to play the other half of the teams you chose your allstars from.

This isn't really enough to save the game from failure. I mean it's definitely playable, even if not spectacularily so, but the little things its forgotten about doom this game such has having a single official tournament without having to make one up yourself (even an arcade mode would have done!), not having real names etc - these all take from the game in fields it really should have been scoring highly in to keep this game afloat.