Wild Cup Soccer

STORY / GAMEPLAY:
The marriage between sports game and beat-em-up is a bit shaky, with neither aspect coming out any the better. The sport gets in the way of the violence, and the violence in the way of the sporting action. There are some power ups to be collected, usually by accident and matches that are drawn result in a penalty shoot-out using real guns. In between matches, you can change the team line-up from offensive to defensive, buy and sell players and tool up your team with anything from swords and shields to handguns and rocket launchers. Too often the game degenerates into frantic waggie-fest as you just hit fire repeatedly to duff up the opposition. To me, there is just no feeling of control the action, as every time you score you know it was not due to any premeditated tacit paying off.
The isometric viewpoint (looking down at the pitch from one corner, just like FIFA Soccer) counts against the game, and causes problems by making it difficult to see where other players are in relation to yourself, so any precise passing is mostly ignored.
The violence is nicely handled though, with showers of blood coming from every collision, and the occasional decapitation (!) from a well-timed flying tackle. The downside comes when you try and actually control what is going on.
The clumsy controls is the most annoying aspect of the game, which reduce the game to a random mess of punching and occasionally making a run for goal.
Overall, although its cool visuals and sound, I think Millennium really messed on this one. There's actually a pretty good football engine in there, driving a game which might just have stood up on its own merit, without the need for blood and beheading.

GRAPHICS / SOUND:
As said, the isometric viewpoint counts against the game, especially when involving precision or skill, as the ball is often lost in the midst of the players. A combination of the letterbox-shaped playing area, large character graphics and an isometric view means that you can only see a tiny amount on the screen at any one time.
Sound is functional too. There is a pleasant enough tune at the main menu, while the in-game sounds are just your basic kicking noises, some crunches when players thunder into each other and crowd noise. I would expect some more excruciating sounds due to the violence offered in this game.