PlayStation 2
Released in 2005 by Sony Computer Entertainment
Grade: B-
“Good in a vacuum” feels like the right description of this game. It’s a nice-looking, ambitious soccer sim that can produce some exciting moments. But considering that it was in competition with EA’s FIFA and Konami’s Winning Eleven, which both did a better job with simulation soccer, it’s pretty easy to ignore.
Where it falls in the series
It’s the last of four editions in the PS2 generation. On PS1, Sony released two “This Is Football” games that were only available in Europe.
Praises and gripes
You can certainly have some fun with World Tour Soccer 2006. The controls are easy to pick up, the graphics are easy on the eyes (but be sure to switch to the wide camera angle), and it has lots of realistic things happening out on the field.
In no time, I was intuitively relying on my soccer instincts to string together passes, make sprints down the sideline, and create scoring chances. The ball seems to take natural bounces and goalies have realistic abilities, forcing you to play smart offense.
On one of the easier settings, I was also having no trouble stopping my CPU opponent and taking the ball away with a couple different types of challenges. Games were competitive and I wasn’t seeing the same patterns of action over and over.
The big flaw in this game is that it’s not consistently fluid. The controls are generally very workable, but the players often snap into robot mode, suddenly whooshing into an animation that doesn’t seem to match everything else happening. If you start to ratchet up the difficulty, this can be terribly frustrating. Your opponent might make some wicked sidestep that’s hard to stop, but trying the same thing on the other end of the field is a crapshoot.
The end result is the feeling that this game is “almost there” while also missing a core element for a soccer sim: giving you full control of soccer’s subtle actions.
It’s certainly worth a try for soccer fans with some PS2 nostalgia. It can be fun in the early stages, but you probably won’t want to spend a lot of time with it.