I've seen plenty of games that oversold themselves, but rarely do I see one that completely sells itself short. Disney Sports Soccer has a wealth of gameplay, but you wouldn't know it from booting the thing. Now, looking at the graphics you can tell there's been some quality time put in on the game, and every field is dripping with sweet visuals. Little touches like light, activity out of bounds and the motion in the crowd all really make for a nice experience, but you'll mostly dig the action on the field. Just about every single Disney character you could want is here in full force and looking good. Mickie, Minney, Donald and Goofy all play star roles on their teams, and other teams featuring more incidental characters are available for play. The sound of the crowd, the whistle when you foul and the voices of the characters come together to produce the weird feeling that you really are watching some blend of Disney and ESPN.

Replay, slo-mo shots and the views behind the ball during throw-ins or goal kicks are some of the special effects that make for nice soccer, Disney style. I could have done without all the replays, all the time, but an especially nice feature is being able to 'freeze' the replay and walk through it frame-by-frame from different angles to analyze what went right or wrong on a play. The presentation during play is nice, with informative screen elements like a map showing all the active players, a timer and a visual line to see where your kick or pass will go. Learning to analyze the shot-meter and adjust your style is tricky, but there are gauges on screen for this also. Once you move past the play-by-play commentary and start getting into the plays yourself, you'll be able to enjoy the game visually, but at first it can come off very frantic.

Millions of soccer-moms in America can't be wrong. The sport that once was a strange thing Europeans and other non-Americans did because they couldn't pull a Football team together is proving to be a very trendy football game indeed. Advertising, minivans, American soccer teams that actually win games...everything points to some nice advances for the sport. And, the videogame industry is always happy to ride the trend and oblige a public willing to put their money where their lifestyle is.

Disney Sports Soccer does many things, but it fails to provide much of a Single-Player experience. Now don't get me wrong. Technically, there are lots of chances for a single player to enjoy himself, modes that would purport to be just as accessible to 1 as they are to 3 or 4. But, the reality is that without any kind of Tutorial mode or adequate information in the game manual, I was completely in the dark when it came to figuring out how I should be playing the game. And I got my butt kicked. And kicked again. When I tried to get up, I got kicked down again. It was ugly. The learning curve for the game is brutal, and only if you start by playing the slowest, least accurate, lunky team do you actually get a chance to score some goals. The fact is that control is hardly intuitive. An example is that passing maps to the small 'B' button while shooting is on the 'A' button, so you end up throwing away the ball trying to pass because 'A' is the bigger, more accessible button. Too bad a person spends way more time passing than shooting... This, and the complete lack of anything beyond the printed manual to let you know what your players are capable of, makes things really frustrating. Many people will drop Disney Sports Soccer like a hot rock, thinking there isn't any gameplay there to be had.

If you can hang out and suffer through the learning period, you'll find a very decent game after all the odd beginnings. Sure, the CPU is always cheaper than you can imagine, and you'll get stuffed so many times by some teams that you'll feel like flushing your Wavebird down the toilet. But, since there is a solid engine running things, practice may well make perfect. Nobody said it would be easy, but Disney Sports Soccer rewards the faithful gamer. Special items can be earned, points gained from winning matches can be spent on upgrading player statistics (something the manual doesn't even mention), and you can bring in 3 of your pals to either play against you or with you against the CPU. Good stuff. Playing the Gamecube version, you'll be able to link with GBA and share items or open up other secrets not available to gamers without a portable system. Several competitive modes are available for multiple players, single players and against different team round-ups. Single Player modes may lack the balance we'd want to see, but the ability to plug in with 4 people completely erases unfair barriers and gives you only yourself to apologize for instead of cheap CPU action.

Nothing about watching Minnie head the ball in on some 'stellar' play I can't begin to duplicate makes me want to do anything except smash my controller, television and entertainment center to bits. And then burn the bits. Could be Minnie's comments on the field have me rattled, but more likely it's the fact that her team never fouls me (but gets fouled all the time), never fails to shoot and score every time they're near my goal with the ball, and always crowds my goalie like he's not there even when I can't seem to be able to return the favor. Customizing players helps to balance the scales toward whatever quality your team is lacking to win, but trial and error as a method of playing the game gets old. Rather unscientific of me, but I just went and found the slowest team I could and beat them silly to be able to practice my moves. Sure, there are challenges that come across as manageable, but more often than not you'll be facing long odds, down by too many points to count (my first feeble attempts had the opponent scoring like it was a basketball game) and still trying to figure out the controls. The feeling you're left with, unless you have a friend on the scene to play with, is one of being ripped off and cheated. And that says about all there is to say where difficulty is concerned. What happened to a Tutorial Mode or at least a complete rundown in the manual on how this game can be customized and how you can strengthen your team?

There's certainly a solid engine running behind the scenes in Disney Sports Soccer, but some of the goodies are just plain distracting. Replay definitely gets old, and the frequency with which I seemed to be able to foul the other team (He turned at the last minute, really!) when I wasn't even trying says there are some kinks that could have been worked out in balancing character action on the field. Learning the controls takes time, but the basics of movement are pretty simple. You don't even have to do much except when you get the ball. Multiple players will find they are able to block and run plays, but for a single player you'll just watch everyone around you acting like they know exactly what to do while you scramble around trying to figure out who you are so you can try and put the ball in the goal. When the ball comes your way, such as on a goal kick or throw-in, you can charge it, steal it or accept the pass. After you get the ball, you can press the C-Stick to show a line that gives you a target path for your shot or pass, and you can control the strength by how long you press on the Shot button (A) and how you use the right shoulder button to change the height of the shot. The shooting/passing piece of the interface is helped greatly by that little 'cheat line' you can activate, but shots really get to feeling almost random. Put enough of a lead on your pursuers, and you can make it to the goal in time to fake-out and beat the goalie. But, trying to run through the pack of players from the opposing team is dangerous, and a quick way to lose the ball. Tackles, slides, special shooting moves and passing strategies are also things you can control once you have a player footing the ball. You'll pretty much have to learn by doing, so even though the game isn't lacking in options or good solid mechanics, knowing nothing about them from reading the manual may mean consumers pick this up and get frustrated. To give up without all the information is to be cheated out of a pretty fun gaming experience, if you can get past the cheap AI! Linking up with a GBA that has its own copy of Disney Sports Soccer lets you bring earned objects over to the little version and utilize new abilities your players earn on the Gamecube version.

Nobody hates being a Negative Nelly more than I do, but Disney Sports Soccer comes across as a half-finished game. Sure, there's lots of fun Soccer action, and the multiplayer rocks out. But, for the casual gamer who might never have more than a passing interest in customizing players and inviting 3 friends over to play will be mightily disappointed by the scattered presentation in the manual, no hands-on training accessible through the game, and AI that makes you want to cry. The people who need to be out buying this game are probably soccer freaks, love Disney, and don't mind if the game only has limited 'fun' potential for young gamers. And, I suppose that if you're not too young to appreciate these silly Disney characters and enjoy the idea of playing as your favorite cartoon character instead of your favorite ESPN star, Disney Sports Soccer has a lot to offer. With all the neat stuff it has, the biggest surprise is how hard it is to dig down through the problems and find out what Disney Sports Soccer is all about.