Straight out of limbo, via last year's World Cup second round, and taken off Eidos's hands by the prolific THQ, Michael Owen's World League Soccer 2000 challenges console football's big guns.
Martin Kitts

In the absence of a 1999 version of Konami's International Superstar Soccer, and with EA's latest round of FIFA updates set to bypass the N64, World League Soccer 2000 is the last N64 football game you'll be able to buy this millennium.

So why would anyone want to abandon their soccer cartridge of choice in favour of this upstart? Well, WLS2000 has a unique feel to it, particularly for N64 owners who might not have seen the original World League Soccer on the PlayStation, or even Actua Soccer, to which it bears a passing resemblance. And because it does things its own way, it'll take practice before you can pass and score at will. The most difficult thing to get used to is the way the ball doesn't stick to your players' feet when they're running. At first it's just annoying, and during your first few games you'll lose count of how many times you try to take a shot and end up watching the ball roll away for a corner while your striker kicks at thin air.

However, perseverance ultimately reveals how to use the run button to your advantage. Tapping it knocks the ball ahead of your player and produces a quick burst of speed to get past a defender. Hold down the button when you catch up with the ball and it'll stick to your feet just long enough to loose off a real piledriver of a shot. Like most of WLS2000, it's a godsend once you get used to it.