Do you know that Nike commercial where some of the world's most famous football players play in a ship's cargo hold? The one where they pull off some unbelievable moves and get away with the roughest tackles? Urban Freestyle Soccer is just like that. Except it doesn't take place on a ship. And it doesn't feature Ronaldo & co. Or an Elvis remix as soundtrack… Mmm, perhaps the resemblance is not that big… Just keep on reading and find out why this is no ordinary soccer game (or football game - two words for the same thing as far as most Europeans are concerned).

An ordinary soccer game…that reminds me: how many of those do we have on the Cube? FIFA 2003 is all right and there's ISS, though that one has a more arcade feel. Football sims are few and far between but that doesn't seem to bother developer Silicon Dreams (not to be confused with Silicon Knights, creators of Eternal Darkness). They take the 'same game, different rules' (slogan of Red Card Soccer) approach, a genre where supply has been better, Sega Soccer Slam and the before mentioned Red Card Soccer for example. But enough for my plea for a GameCube version of Pro Evolution Soccer and let's see how Urban Freestyle Soccer is shaping up.

UFS takes place on the streets, where teams from different neighbourhoods challenge each other. They need very few rules: each team has four players; the team that scores the most goals wins the game. That's about it. No fouls, no free kicks, no penalties. Got knocked down by an opponent? Avoid them or hit back. Tripped over a garbage can? Watch where you're walking or jump over it. No referee is going to help you.

Besides the emphasis on rough, accessible play, UFS is also about showing off. Players can perform incredible tricks like in the other Nike commercial featuring Ronaldinho and soon you'll score goals never seen in an ordinary game. Great actions are rewarded by points, and though these are mainly for the ranking tables, great moves will also fill up your netbuster meter. When full, you have ten seconds to obtain the ball and perform a netbuster move. If done correctly, the camera zooms in on the player who shows some of his (or her!) best tricks concluded by a cracking shot on goal. Chance of scoring with a netbuster is very high, so using tricks to earn them is advised. The need to pull off beautiful combinations makes up for the depth lost in deleting rules, without slowing down the game's – high – pace.

However, an intelligent trick system can lower the games accessibility. Silicon Dreams avoided difficult button combinations and made performing tricks easy. This makes it fairly easy for beginners to make some flashy moves, since the players perform some tricks automatically. This may get irritating for more experienced gamers because your players sometimes don't seem to respond at once as they're keeping the ball up a couple of times before shooting on goal. For the rest, it seems the Silicon Dreams has got the control system right. Our beta-version played nice though the controls haven't been fine-tuned yet – a bug sometimes even caused the shoot and pass buttons to change.

The various locales where the action takes place are attended with much detail, such as skaters in half pipes and trash cans in a corner of the pitch. The environment affects the game, e.g. when the ball rolls in a small alley (while the game continues) or when obstacles on the turf hinder your players. The graphics are shaping up nicely, though the camera could use some more work. The fixed camera works fine, but a few more angles would be appreciated. Only real complaint is limited visibility when playing on nearest side of the pitch. Most of the environment becomes transparent when the action comes close, but some fences remain solid, leaving you guessing for the ball's whereabouts.

Various playing modes will be available in the final version, such as a training mode, stunt mode and, as any self-respecting game these days, a story mode. Important for this type of game, a four player mode will be included to assure UFS' success as a party game. A nice soundtrack of rap and rock (Wu-Tang Clan and Foo Fighters, among others) complete the package.

Overall, UFS seems to become a decent action packed sports game which may please a lot of sports fans, although it may not appeal to all fans of football. The game has as much in common with NBA Jam and NHL Hitz as with a traditional soccer game, so don't purchase it blindly just because it says 'Soccer' in the title (though I'm sure well-informed C-E readers couldn't be accused of such behaviour). UFS' release is planned for the last week of October, so expect a review about that time to see if you should score a copy.