FIFA Street 2 review

Bring soccer to its basest form by removing it from the manic arenas and abundance of regulations and what do you have? Well, fewer fatal riots for one, but more importantly you'd get FIFA Street 2 on PSP. It's rebellious against the Fédération Internationale de Football Association to a fault, but unfortunately that's far from its only foul.

What FIFA Street 2 boils down to is three guys and a goalie per team, trying to score a handful of goals first while still notching some showoff points. Despite the fact that aiming your shot with the analog stick is spiffy, gameplay for the most part is flat.

The controls are sluggish and inconsistent. At times you'll be jamming on the pass button in futile fashion, only to have your guys execute a barrage of rapid-fire passes several seconds later. The computer can play decently, but it too is across the board. You never know what kind of game the opposing squad will bring to the court - comatose one match, and playing like their lives depend on it for another.

Both tackles and tricks (aka "beats") - the essence of FIFA Street 2 's gameplay and updated elements of the console version - don't deliver on PSP. Tackles rarely reward you with ball possession.

Meanwhile, manual trick input is all but broken, forcing you to be content with random "beats" as they occur. There is a positive to all this: it requires you to be a smarter footballer and perfect your ball movement and one-time proficiency.

Rule the Street mode does, in fact, rule. Create a player, draft his teammates and set out on the looooong road for greatness. Earned skill points allow you to upgrade your main man, but the team's improvement relies on your ability to recruit defeated rivals. At least you can personally outfit all your homies; it's staggering how much time can be spent giving everyone a unique uniform using designated team colors.