REAL GAMES - 90 MINUTES - EUROPEAN PRIME GOAL

Let me make something perfectly clear before I go on.  I hate sports games.  Very rarely is there a sports game that I can tolerate, much less actually enjoy.  So 90 Minutes was a delightfully rare experience for me.

90 Minutes - European Prime Goal is a soccer game.  That pretty much sums everything up.  It doesn't offer anything new to the genre.  It will not dazzle you with fancy graphics.  You will not be amazed by its realistic AI.  So why is 90 Minutes a good game?  For one reason, and one reason only.

GOOOOOOOOAAAAAAALLLLL!!!

Regardless of who scores, you are presented with this wonderful scrolling text, and an excellent voice rendering of the announcer screaming GOOOAAALL!!  Win or lose, this ensures that whoever is playing is having a good time.  How many other games can say that?  Anyway, let's get on with the rest of the game.

Controls, every button does something, but the only one that will ever be used is power kick.  This is the ONLY way to score, as well as the most effective way to get the ball.  Keeping it simple is definitely the way to go with a sports game like this.

As for the game's sound, there is really just the GOOOAALL!! effect, and nothing else.  But in all honesty, is anything else needed?  Maybe if the crowd was blowing vuvuzelas like at the World Cup, but that would probably get old real quick.

BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ!!

Graphically, this game is a joke.  This could easily be mistaken for a regular Nintendo game.  However, this game is further proof that graphics DO NOT make the game.

And finally, when we break down the gameplay, it is a fairly simple game.  As long as you pick a good team, and mash the power kick button, anyone can win this game with little to no effort.  There are different modes of play, from the quick 1v1 against the computer or a friend, to league and World Cup championships.

90 Minutes is an average sports game made better with simplistic controls and amazing voice rendering.  Unfortunately, the novelty wears off and it suffers from a lack of replayability once you have beaten it.  Therefore, I give this game 3 vuvuzela blowers out of 5.