Much like basketball, soccer (AKA football) is a difficult sport to pin down on a phone. There's just too much going on, too many players and too many moves to cram into a tiny handset. However, Gameloft has done a very good job capturing the sport in its latest title, 2006 Real Football. It's nowhere near as complex as the soccer games available for consoles and even the handheld systems, yet it offers up a decent amount of fun in short bursts.

Unlike other games in the genre, Real Football has a wealth of options to mess around with. There's Instant Play for when you just want to hop into a quick game, but there's also Friendly (it's basically Exhibition), Go For 2006 (similar to the actual World Cup), Cup (which contains four different tournaments), League, Penalty Kicks (in which you take...well...lots of penalty kicks), and Training, so there's definitely lots of things to check out. Plus, there are more than 25 teams (some need to be unlocked), several stadiums, and you can set the match times and mess around with three difficulty levels.

Aside from the options, the gameplay is quite entertaining. You can get all crazy and run around using the number keys, but Gameloft kept things simple by allowing the user to play the entire game with just the Home/Ok key (moves/passes) and Zero (takes a shot). You can still perform slide tackles, but so long as you get your little men to the ball it's not always necessary to play dirty, particularly because doing something underhanded sometimes rewards the other team.

As for scoring goals, whenever you approach the net you'll see a yellow arrow quickly zipping back and forth. This takes the place of aiming with an analog stick, so if you want to kick to the left, just wait for the arrow to move into place and hit Zero. There's no guarantee that you'll make the shot, but at the very least you can pick your spots. However, it appears that the developers intentionally made it a bit easy to score, just to keep things from getting too intense. Bumping things up to Pro difficulty makes the AI more aggressive, but by and large, you should still be able to score with some fancy footwork.

While the gameplay and options are decent enough, I'm quite disappointed with the game's presentation. The players will do somersaults after goals and hold their legs when they crash to the ground, but the crowd barely utters a peep. Then there's the music, which is all kinds of lackluster. It just fails to get the blood pumping.

2006 Real Football is the best soccer...err...football game that I've ever played on a mobile phone, but its ho hum presentation keeps it from superstardom. However, it's a feature-packed and enjoyable sports title that comes recommended if you're into the sport or just looking for a fun game to mess around with.

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