Adidas Power Soccer Review

It's not a game, it's an advertisement!

Soccer (known as football to our European friends) is the most popular sport in the world. One of the top manufacturers of soccer equipment is adidas. One would think that when adidas sponsored a soccer video game, it would be one of the best to grace the market. Not true. In fact, this game does not even come close to VR Soccer '96. The game itself is mediocre, but what really hurts this game are the countless ads. It's enough that the consumer buys a game with adidas' logo blasted across it, no need to subject them to ads during the game itself.

The graphics for Power Soccer aren't all that impressive. In no way does it compare to its earlier competitors for either the Playstation (the aforementioned VR Soccer) or the Saturn (An old game, Worldwide Soccer). Power Soccer also has some problems with realism. For some reason, when you run as fast as you can, stars fly out from behind the player. Pretty cheesey. To top it off, the cartoony hand of the referee looks totally out of place when it hands you a yellow card. Having seen high quality of the graphics in Psygnosis's (try to say it 5 times fast) games in the past, this one looks like they didn't even try.

The sound and music don't even play a role in Power Soccer. The crowd sounds like they are at a funeral while you play the game. Only a few times will you ever hear any noise from them. There aren't any chants to egg you on to victory. It's hard to believe that they put so little effort into the actual noises of the game.

Even worse, however, is the announcer. On kickoff, he invariably says, "Well, there's a lot of time to go in this game yet!" The game hasn't even started yet, of course there is a lot of time to go! Sheesh. Also, if you play video soccer anything like I do, you love to hack at opponents. Unfortunately, this causes the announcer to state, repeatedly, that "this is a good argument for the addition of the third eye." One game, he said that six times! Talk about repeating oneself. How hard is it not to repeat yourself? Repeating oneself is a hard thing to do . . . Uh, anyway. To top it off, they give him an Australian accent to make the gamer believe that he actually knows what he's talking about! The announcer is easily one of the worst aspects of this game.

The main saving grace of Power Soccer is the wide variety of moves and options. Each character can do many of the moves that professionals do. If someone is about to slide tackle them, they can flip the ball in the air and hop over the opponents feet. You can even add spin to the ball as you kick it! Of course there are also the usual bicycle kicks and such. Every option was also thought of. You can choose your teams from France, England, or Germany. You can choose the season, from the snows of winter to the greens of summer. You can even choose to make the referee blind! It's a lot of fun when no fouls are called.

As it stands, this game probably would have gotten a C+. That is, of course, if adidas didn't get their grubby hands on it. Every single half-time, they show an FMV telling you about the amazing Predator shoe with all it's fins and jets, or about how their gear will make you the best player on the field. All these ads just make the gamer feel used! They even go as far as to call every other goal a "Predator Kick" and show you their shoe again. I don't care if the Predator will make me as good as Pele, I will not buy it. If you don't want to spend fifty bucks on an advertisement for adidas, do not buy Power Soccer.