I hate soccer, sorry. But who cares ? You, maybe. Because, you see, I enjoyed Red Card more than a soccer-hater like me should have. Red Card is the missing link between the deadly serious simulation like International Superstar Soccer and the deadly fun punchbag like Sega Slam Soccer. In Red Card, you have access to most of the real teams and players (15 teams don't display the real names though) as well to some visually impressive and fun to use power attacks.

By using a boost gauge, you can perform some super pass, super tackle or super shot, in other words, you can make your player a superman just the time of an action. And well, it feels good. You don't need to be a soccer fan to enjoy being a super man who kicks the ball so hard that it makes a line of fire and throws the goalkepper into his goal. The effect is enjoyable too, a nice explosion sound, zoom, slow down; grab some pop corn and you feel like being the star of Shaolin Matrix Soccer. What makes it good also makes it weak, because Red Card unfortunaly doesn't have much more to offer than this. Once the fun coming from the super soccer has worn out, and it can be gone pretty quickly, you don't have many options left: enjoying the game for his single mode, a tournament in which you gain some secret teams (they are crazy: samurais, dolphins, martians... but they play like normal teams) and stadiums, or enjoying it with another player, which is frustrating as you can't play in the same team.

Both the soccer fan and the video game addicted will regret the lack of options (no statistics, not enough detailed information, no real team editor, too few game modes). The sound is good, especially in the european version with commentaries in 5 different languages, try them all it's cool, but the graphics are average. So, in the end, Red Card is kind of disappoiting. The fun starts high but falls gradually and quickly. His main quality is to mix real soccer and super powers. Red Card could prove itself a good choice still, if you like quick&easy fun or regret the bad Captain Tsubasa isn't released outside Japan.