ESPN MLS Extra Time 2002 Review

The most popular sport in the world is soccer, a.k.a. football in many European countries, where it originated. All of the pride and glory of their country’s come from soccer; it is like their second religion. Is ESPN MLS Extratime the total soccer experience for these die hard fans or should they just stick to the real deal?

Graphically, this soccer experience doesn’t really deliver compared to other games of the genre. The players really don’t look like their life-like counterparts at all, except for their skin color. The grass of the stadium looks good, as well as some of the game’s animations like the bicycle kick, slide tackle, and headball. Other animations aren’t nearly as well done. Framerate is solid and not that big of a problem, but it could use an upgrade.

Game commentary is very simple and that makes it bad. All you hear really is the person’s name who has the ball and if they pass. When you score, you know it because the commentator yells his lungs out. Field sound effects are good, but they are missing the most important element of it; trash talking. All other games ESPN has endorsed has this, yet soccer is lacking it.

Extra Time is a simply designed game and easy to play, but scoring is extremely difficult. It takes a while to master the shooting mechanism within the game. If you go into the practice mode, you will get some type of grip on it. Everything else in the game can be done by the press of a single button. This is good and really simplifies the rest of the game.

There are 6 different gameplay modes you could select to take your team into the top. There is a create-a-player mode, but it stinks because you are limited in a very small amount of stat points and your player sucks compared to the real ones. Actually, I think Soccer Slam is more creative.

Overall, ESPN MLS Extratime 2002 is a good simulation of the soccer world. With over 40 national teams and all of the MLS team, this game brings a simple soccer experience to the table. Worth a rent, but maybe not a purchase unless you find it cheap. Diehard soccer fans should really enjoy this soccer game, however mediocre it may be.