Soccer Kid, by Richard Teather www.soccerkid.co.uk $9.95
Reviewed May 2002

If you were looking for Euro Mario, you've just found it. Soccer Kid, developed by Richard Teather, is a fast paced action game with a soccer twist. The Nintendo looking graphics and animation, superb action moves, multi-category treasure hunt, and 15 long levels of unique environments make this game look as good as if it were running on a Nintendo.

The story: The game opens with a cartoon movie. It tells the story of an alien ship that came to the finals of the 1994 World Cup Soccer game and stole the World Cup trophy. An asteroid hit the alien ship while on its way back to the galaxy, and the trophy broke into 5 pieces. These pieces were scattered all around the world. The Soccer Kid decided to travel around the world to recover the 5 pieces of the World Cup. If you know how big soccer is in Europe and Asia, you can imagine how courageous the Soccer Kid's journey is.

Game play: The character of Soccer Kid is an adorable creation. Not only you can make him do sorts of soccer tricks, but you can also change the way he looks by changing his uniform. There are total of five countries with two locations and 3 zones in each country: London and Hometown in England, The Riviera and The Ruins in Italy, Red Square and The Battleship in Russia, The Factory and The Train in Japan, and The City and Babe Beach in USA. You must complete all 3 zones and retrieve the pieces of the World Cup. While you're at it, you'll also collect all 11 soccer cards to qualify for a level-end bonus game and to gain a password for the next country. What you need to do is to use soccer balls to hit enemies and obstacles, and run, jump or swing to collect items. There are also hidden places that you need to fall into or kick the soccer ball to break walls to find.

You start out with 3 lives with two hearts, a certain number of soccer balls and a time limit to complete the zone. The time is usually generously long, but if you finish the level with some spare time left, you will get a higher score. Hearts represent health. When hearts run out, you loose a life. However, you can pick up extra health points and hearts in your journey, as well as extra lives. There are information signs, save points, treasure chests and soccer cards through out the journey, as well as some power-ups: Clock gives you 15 extra time units, Hearts for extra stamina, T-shirts for temporary invincibility, Soccer Kid Picture for an extra life and Boots for some extra speed.

The cartoon-ish graphics are extremely sharp with smooth movements at 50 frames per second. The animations show a lot of talent and creativity. On the title screen, instead of just displaying "press start", you will sometimes see a construction worker throws the words on to the screen, or the famous tenor Pavarotti sings "press start". If you wait long enough, you might just see a dog chasing a kid or a kid chasing a construction worker. Just the title screen alone could amuse you for a while. This game has over 20 multi-channel music tracks and ton of sweet sound effects. You have the option of turning music and sound off as well as testing the volume levels.

The game controls are very smooth. The game can be displayed in either portrait or landscape mode, though currently the landscape display is only in the direction where your hardware buttons are on the left hand side (go lefties!). The game developer will add the alternate landscape direction in a future update. Instead of using the buttons, this game offers a hidden in-game menu that allows you to exit the game or go to the options. Just click on the bottom left corner (relative to holding the Pocket PC in normal orientation).

The game takes up less than 2 MB of storage space and runs nicely from a CompactFlash card on my Jornada 568.

Playing Hints and Tips

If you want to find out where the soccer cards are and the World Cup pieces, go here. (Major spoiler)

Here are some tips from the game developer:
· Before you play, take time to familiarize yourself with Soccer Kid's controls and skills.
· Levels may contain more than one information symbol. Hit them with the ball whenever you see them.
· Kick the ball over spike pits, you may hit an off screen adversary.
· Look down before dropping into a gap - there may be danger below.