Part of success -- maybe the biggest part -- is playing to strengths. Rather than try to "out EA" Electronic Arts, World Tour Soccer 06 is a nice continuation of a title that evokes solid gameplay and style. The style betrays some arcade leaning, but that isn't a bad thing. I'm probably more inclined toward this anyway, since realism ramps up the learning curve and may not add much to my experience. World Tour Soccer 06 is not "arcade" in the sense of flaming kicks or over the top antics, just in the gameplay. Instead of licensed fields we have nicely designed, generic venues that represent host countries. The quality and speed of the engine in the online play is commendable; the game was just as responsive and full-featured online as it was offline. The top-down viewpoint doesn't create the same visceral reaction that I get from FIFA, but this isn't intended to be a FIFA-killer. Instead, World Tour Soccer 06 caters to fans of the previous game and those who may favor strong gameplay over branded presentation. Luckily, World Tour Soccer 06 has enough of the presentation to keep you engaged while you work through the various modes.

And there certainly are a lot of modes here! Luckily, they are bite-sized, which creates great flow and a fast pace. Classic Challenge is the game you'll recognize from previous installments, and which is much like standard soccer fare. Based on a point system that rewards specific actions, you play an opponent under standard rules, fielding a team of your choosing. Other modes like All Rounder, Check Point Challenge, Player Tag or Pass Clock measure how skilled you are in moving the ball between all the members of your team. Standard rules still apply to the actual game, but think of these special modes like mini-games. Shot Clock and Time Attack predictably involve racing against the clock to shoot or win. The Zone tests accuracy, and two special modes - Totally Outnumbered and Challenge Plus - are just free-for-all against heavy odds. And if you just don't like all the scoring and hoops to jump through, Exhibition gives you the opportunity to just play and score goals.

The Multiplayer is fantastically implemented, both for Ad Hoc and Infrastructure. Going online is simple and the games available are listed clearly in the lobby. The same mechanics apply online, in terms of play, and the same modes mentioned above are available for online play. From the lobby, you can choose among a group of players who have a particular type of game on offer. Or, if you don't see what you like, you can start your own match with your own rules and wait for a partner. After and before the game, there are chat features, and there's a nice leaderboard showing overall player rankings.

The quality of the soccer is good, if not actual simulation. I liken World Tour Soccer 06 more to some of the old-school sports/arcade titles I grew up on, which is a good thing. The yardstick for this is simple: how long does it take to pick up and play a game? World Tour Soccer 06 does a great job of being fun and accessible to a player who may have minimal knowledge of the rules of soccer, and may not want to go through training just to learn to play a soccer videogame. The sweet part comes once you are hooked, when you realize there are layers beneath, and the depth of World Tour Soccer 06 opens up to you. Additional modes, on-field moves, team management... It's all in here.

The point I make about this being pick-up-and-play doesn't mean it's a lay-down in terms of difficulty. We wouldn't want that. Teams are rated for ability and you can see where they rank before you jump into a game. Low-skilled CPU teams will tend to fumble passes and miss kicks on goal. More difficult teams will pass smartly and will tackle you mercilessly if you don't move the ball around frequently. Once I got online, I could tell that the human opponents were equivalent to the good CPU teams, so dedicated players will probably gravitate toward the online play for more challenge. Even offline, there's plenty of challenging play, and if the standard rules get boring there is a wealth of choice among those special modes I mentioned before.

My biggest criticism of the game is here, because the more advanced controls are not intuitive. Rather than use button combos, World Tour Soccer 06 leans on some fairly arbitrary button assignments for special moves. These aren't open to change by the player, so it falls on the player to fit into the established box. Some things made sense to me, such as using the square button to kick and holding it down longer to get more height. Aiming shots with the analog stick is also intuitive. The problems come with attacking and defending, where it almost feels like "any button goes" and the combinations of buttons aren't set up to resemble each other. The shoulder buttons are underutilized, in my opinion. Assigning a button or buttons to non-ball activities like tackles, slides or dives would have been smart. Instead, these actions are spread across almost every button. And, when every group of actions is spread across every button, it is much harder to learn combos.

The steep hill that players have to climb to use the more advanced features in the game may dampen some enthusiasm for this part of the game, which would be a shame. Clearly the developers put much thought into loading in lots of great soccer action, but someone should have kept things aligned with a strategy that stressed ease of use. Some gamers may really be looking for the branded, licensed experience - which is obviously FIFA. But you would be making a mistake to pass up World Tour Soccer 06. Soccer fans will love everything here, and find they have a great, big game to explore. Casual soccer fans are probably better off here than with FIFA, due to the stress that World Tour Soccer 06 puts on "just playing." Gotta go, and I'll see you on the leaderboard!