Reviews

Let's face it, major international football tournaments that your own nation fail to qualify for are incredibly boring affairs. Likewise, if your team do qualify and get knocked out early, the rest of the tournament just feels hollow. That's where the world of video games come in handy. Recreating the tournament either on a TV screen or in the palm of your hands allows you to right the wrongs, and live those dreams that have been snatched away through no fault of your own.

UEFA Euro 2008 brings all the atmosphere and excitement of the European Football Championships to your PSP, with EA once again demonstrating their clear knack for creating well-presented football games. All the nations that took part in UEFA Euro 2008 are involved, and that doesn't just mean the finals, it means all the teams from the qualifying groups too.

Naturally, the main meat of the game is the recreation of the tournament itself. Not happy that your team didn't make the finals? No need to worry, as you can simply go through all the qualifying groups once again, and make sure that your nation does get the required number of points to make it to the finals. Alternatively, take one of the teams that did make it, and shuffle the qualifying groups around, giving them a tougher set of opponents to face on their way to Austria and Switzerland.

Stadiums are lovingly recreated

Of course, if you just want to go straight to the finals with the 16 teams that did qualify in real life, then that is also perfectly possible. No doubt that there are plenty of Spanish fans who would love the chance to recreate their nation's lifting of the cup over and over again!

The PSP offering unfortunately doesn't feature the "Captain Your Country" mode of some of the higher-spec versions of the game, though it does instead have the relatively unique European Campaign mode instead. This mode works as a sort of challenge mode, offering you the chance to play different nations from throughout Europe, with each match having specific objectives.