Played in fenced-off playgrounds in slums and ghettos from South London to South America, FIFA Street 2 doesn’t even pretend to follow the rulebook. It farts in its general direction. Sliding tackles and shoulder barges are the norm here, and seeing as there’s not a referee in sight, you may as well get used to it, because you’re going to have to play the way the Street dictates.

It’s not just about nasty tactics to gain control of the ball though. Once you’ve got possession, you invariably have to call on a mixture of juggles and tricks to dupe the opposition long enough to pass the ball up the pitch, let alone to shoot.

Once you’ve got the hang of this, you’ll be literally running circles round the opposition…And seeing as the AI seems to be psychic, more often than not you’ll have to pull trick after trick even to get near the goal.

But this has its benefits, as the more tricks you pull off, the more skill points you get…Your skill meter builds up, and if you play your cards…sorry, balls right, you can score some crazy Shaolin Soccer-style “Gamebreaker” power shots which can blow your opponent away.

To keep the interest going and break up the formula, some of the single-player game modes demand that you can only win by scoring with Gamebreakers – other modes it will be through skill points alone that you emerge victorious. Build up your rep and you’ll unlock different modes and harder games, and even the chance to play for your country.

All in all, this game probably isn’t for total football fanatics as it’s more about showing off with crazy on-pitch antics and arcade-style scoring (EA Sports had to pump in ways of earning thousands of points for the audience over-the-pond I suspect). But that said, it’s a big improvement over the original, and once you’ve got to grips with the trick system and completely disassociated Street 2 from the real thing, it’s actually pretty fun. Basically, it’s the Need for Speed Underground of soccer games.

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