game sucks if you're looking for soccer simulator, but for pure arcade fun... it's grrr-eat! how i rate it for my kids,
wow. that's all i can say. wow! it's so much fun, there's a lot of nuiance to the controls, yet it's just straight forward enough to make it easy to pick up. the game has many cute animations, though you see pretty much all of them in the first 10 minutes of playing, most of them don't get old.
there's very little soccer involved, it's all arcade fun. you get 1 team captain, 3 temmates and the croc goalie for each match. you run back and forth across a field that resembles a soccer pitch, and you kick a checked ball back and forth, trying to score in the opposing teams goal. it's at this point the illusion just sorta falls apart. which for me, is just fine. there's 'power ups' you get for doing various things (or have things done to you...) and you can use them to try and give yourself an advantage, increasing your chances of getting that lob to score. of course, the other team will have tricks up their sleeves as well.
here's where the problem comes in, i started out in rookie mode, and did alright, but as i played, i tired to imagine my children struggling to beat the computer on the easiest mode. i moved the difficulty level up slightly, to professional (there's 3 more difficult modes after this, i believe), and watched as the opposing team began to score left and right, while beating the snot of my yoshi and his crew of koopa troopers.
it's not what i would call an easy game, this is where the troubles come in, as long as my girls play against each other, leaving all physical damage in the game, it should be alright, but neither of them are likely to get past more than a few matches of any cup on rookie without a certain level of frustration.
it's sadly, not really for kids. they're still going to get the game, but i've also picked up copies of luigis mansion, battalion wars, and replaced their old copy of mario kart double dash, because i have a fear that this one might just graduate to 'daddy's game cube collection' right there next to all the resident evils... and my xbox games.