After bringing us soccer on a global scale with its FIFA series of games, EA Sports turns its attention to just the European flavor of the sport in UEFA Champions League 2006-2007. It would have been easy for EA Sports to simply cut most of the teams out of their FIFA game, update the European rosters, and call it a day, but in UEFA you’ve got a new game that provides a different experience from FIFA.

First of all I want to be sure that I don’t give you the impression that the decrease in the scope of the game doesn’t mean that there are not many teams available for play. The game comes with 268 teams spread among 17 leagues, so there are plenty of teams from which to choose. For those of you not familiar with the UEFA, it provides a Champions League Cup tournament that brings together Europe’s best teams to try and settle the question of which team is truly the best on the continent.

You can certainly pick a couple of teams and then jump right into a match, but the game’s heart and soul lies in its Treble mode. Here the name “treble” refers to winning your league championship, your country’s championship, and the Champions League Cup all in the same year. This is quite a feat to pull off but it’s your goal in this mode. What makes this mode particular interesting is that it’s not your typical sports game season mode. As the year progresses you’ll constantly be given short-term goals to accomplish. At the start of the season these may involve simpler goals such as trading for a player at a particular position or winning a game. As the season progresses they become more challenging, though. For example, you may find yourself dropped into the second half of a game down a goal and challenged to pull out the win. Failing to accomplish a goal won’t end your game, but you’ll miss out on scoring points that can be used to unlock things and if you’re falling short of your goals odds are you’re not winning much either. This mode is an enjoyable change of pace from the traditional season mode and I found that it made the games more exciting with the pressure to do more than just win games. However, some of the goals are pretty tough and can be a source of frustration to those of us who are not video soccer phenoms.

There are other modes of play available in addition to the quick match and treble modes. You can play your way through a Champions League tournament or challenge yourself in The Ultimate Challenge. This challenge mode recreates great moments in Champions League history and tasks you with either repeating or changing history – fun stuff for some quick and exciting play. The game also includes a trio of mini games: Wall Attack, Juggling, and Quiz. Wall Attack tosses balls at your striker and you must connect with the balls to make shots on a wall of targets. You’ll need to target specific blocks to score points and combos, but I found the control a little iffy and the rules overly complicated to make this mode too much fun. Juggling is a more enjoyable diversion that has you turn your PSP on its side to control a player juggling a soccer ball. The game plays like a dance game, with you needing to match the directional arrows displayed on the screen at the right moment to successfully connect with the ball and keep it aloft. Quiz has you moving a player up the field to score a goal by answering soccer trivia question correctly. I’m not enough of a soccer buff to do particularly well at this game, but I can see its appeal to true fans of the sport.

As for the gameplay itself, the game plays a good, albeit fast-paced, brand of soccer. Shooting can be a little tricky thanks to the PSP’s analog nub, but passing and working the ball upfield works well enough. If you’ve played the FIFA games on the PSP, then you won’t find anything significantly different in the on-field action.

The highlight of the game is definitely its Treble mode, and UEFA Champions League 2006-2007 is worth a look if you don’t have a soccer game in your PSP collection. The Treble mode can be challenging, though, so the game’s not for the gamer with only a passing interest in playing soccer on the go.

In The End, This Game Hath Been Rated: 76%. UEFL Champions League 2006-2007 is sure to appeal to fans of European soccer.