Reviews are out of four stars.

'FIFA Street'

Following in the concrete-jungle steps of street basketball and street (American) football comes this latest incarnation: street soccer. And it just might be the coolest game yet to hit the streets.

With all the other soccer video units hitting stores in the footy-friendly springtime, there's none better for pure virtual-kicking enjoyment than "FIFA Street" (EA Sports Big; PS2, Xbox, GC; $39.99; Rated E). It doesn't have the breadth and depth of other games on the market, but it's simply a blast.

To put Brit superstars David Beckham and Wayne Rooney on the same side in a four-on-four match -- counting the 'keeper is an exhilarating notion by itself. Then pit them against the rival Irish, plunk them on a New York City playground basketball court a la Rucker Park, and play them in a nighttime street bash ... man, Americans would flock to see this stuff were it real life. It would be indoor soccer colliding with street hoops, with a Euro flair: a veritable "White Chaps Can Jump."

Alas, art isn't imitated anywhere but on this baby birthed by the aptly named EA Sports Big division. Kids will love the Trick Stick that allows you to make the world's greatest footballers -- which is what the rest of the world calls them -- do some daring stunts: cartwheel kicks, dribbling through opponents' legs and over heads, you name it.

Taunting is encouraged, as well. The Training area allows you to learn and practice a game that's all about style, so you can glean, as the Brit announcer tells you, "even more humiliating tricks."

Yet the realism amazes, too, down to passing cars and awesome graphics. The music rocks and the controls flow easily in even middle-aged ears and hands. Let's have a go at it, shall we, Becks?

'World Tour Soccer 2006'

For the lad or lass serious about their footy, this game offers the opportunity to play a virtual match with almost every paying team on the globe. From Aaru to Zagreb. From Arsenal to Wollongong. You can be the manager (that's coach, in soccer speak).

The makers of this unit (Sony; PS2; $39.99; Rated E) contend that you can choose among 19,000 players on 935 teams from 32 different leagues. No sports video game gets any deeper than that.

Yet with all those volumes of game-playing information, how come they only offer 28 stadia in which to play? Consider it venue challenged.

The faces aren't the greatest -- what do you expect, when you're dealing with 19,000 of them? -- but the play, the crowd, the surroundings and the goal celebrations all look splendid. As in reality, you might miss something until you see it on the vivid replays. You can even throw yourself into the action, with an EyeToy camera and Digimask to input your 3D image.

'World Soccer Winning Eleven 8 International'

In the inverse of the Scholastic Aptitude Test, these guys immediately lose points for spelling their name correctly. Come on, can't they come up with something shorter than that? If they cannot top World Tour Soccer in depth -- this unit boasts 4,500 players on 136 teams -- do they really need to try to match up with a title that's, what, 19,000 letters long?

The opening trailer of what we'll call WSWE8I (Konami; PS2, Xbox, PC; $39.99; Rated E) is so stunning that it resembles a movie. The game comes close to matching that in quality, but not quite -- the usual tease. Still, it has nice graphics, restrained announcing and super replays, amazingly down to clearly recognizable player names across their shoulders.

Controls are easy to maneuver and come with a instruction manual written in detail, as opposed to the billions of button-stroke charts illustrated by other games. And this is another title (albeit a wordy one) that makes excellent use of a Training mode.

'FIFA Soccer'

Not to be confused with the street game aforementioned -- by the way, for the American unwashed that acronym stands for Federation Internationale de Football Association -- this unit is made for the new PSP handheld devices. That means you better have good eyesight to follow the ant-sized players on the screen.

It's a neat game, nonetheless (EA Sports; PSP; $49.99; Rated E). The production team smartly added markers to illustrate who controls the ball and a little graphic at the screen bottom to tell you the name of the player you've highlighted.

It displays a rich crowd, an environment so detailed that shadows begin to creep onto the pitch and replays from three different angles. Interesting to note, even though it includes only 300-plus teams, this little game provides even more venues than the 19,000-player World Tour, with 30 stadia. Not to be critical.