Lost somewhere between Winning Eleven 8’s spectacular gameplay and FIFA 2005’s visual flair, you’ll find World Tour Soccer 2006, a soccer game without a definitive identity. The lone progressive feature is all about identity—not the game’s own (sadly), but yours. The EyeToy camera puts your unflattering visage onto a player and into the game. While this doesn’t sound groundbreaking, it is: Instead of a snapshot that gets grossly slapped onto a player model (THUG, anyone?), this is the real deal. The process takes a few minutes, but you’ll look as good as the game’s brightest stars (in part because Henry and Rooney and Figo don’t look all that bright).

While there’s some level of cool with the EyeToy, there’s a higher level of “who cares?” Putting your face into a game is old news, and it doesn’t make up for the jerky, uneventful gameplay that’ll make you wish you’d bought Winning Eleven 8. Players seem to move in tandem with oddly similar jogs, and very little in the game drives you to the different season or career modes. That’s if you make it through the challenging, miniscule typeface on the menus—not an easy task.

WTS makes very little attempt to be special or to stand out from its competitors, and the result, instead of a solid, grounded operation, is a game that comes off as ordinary. Scoring opportunities are too easy and mean too little, and the “wow” moments—scoring a goal, beating a defender—serve up more yawns than adrenaline.

PROS EyeToy feature is tremendous, loads of teams, including Premiership clubs

CONS Milquetoast graphics, yawning gameplay, jerky camera, horrific replays

VERDICT Kick this one to the curb

Pub. Sony CEA Dev. Sony CEA ESRB E MSRP $39.99

Copyright © 2005 Ziff Davis Media Inc. All Rights Reserved. Originally appearing in Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine.