Pure Football
Soccer and see.
On the pitch it's five-a-side, a bit like FIFA Street, Mario Strikers and SEGA Soccer Slam, all of which it shares a lot of DNA with (there's a roasting joke in here somewhere, but I'm spent), and it's viewed from above and behind one of the goals.
Control isn't one of the game's strong points. You can pass the ball and slide-tackle and lob and shoot and do through balls in standard fashion, but input is severely lagged, and the antique ball physics and behaviour make for an awkward, exaggerated cartoon spectacle, albeit one that operates within parameters you figure out relatively quickly.
Defending is frustrating, however, even when you get the hang of it. You can "strafe" to line up for a "step-in tackle" according to the tutorial, and later you open the manual and discover you can do the standard PES or FIFA-style pressing with one or two players as well. In general I rely on a mixture of the latter and the slide-tackle, but it's never much of an art.
As with the more violent end of the non-simulation football game market, you can also massacre people from behind with vicious tackles, but Pure Football limits that with a foul meter that fills up once you put in more than a couple of two-footed reducers. Once full the other team gets a penalty, even if you fouled them in their own half, which does a good job of regulating your behaviour.
Things get more interesting in attack. When you're running down the flanks a little blue arrow appears under your player to indicate a team-mate is open for a cross, and if you hold the long-pass button until a power bar hits the green area (or preferably white - "Pure"), you'll play it straight to his head.
The action then zooms to that guy, and you reach for the shoot button and wrestle with the shooting power bar. Green or white guarantees a shot on target, and then it's up to the angle and skill of the goalkeeper as to whether it goes in.
Shots from distance are the same - you don't even need to be facing the goal, you just need a little bit of space to avoid a tackle - and by holding one of the bumpers you can make the target areas on the power bar smaller but increase the likelihood of a successful attempt. Positive footballing actions also power up a pure meter, which guarantees a pure shot the next time you have a crack at goal.
The AI is frustratingly predictable. Providing you can marshal your foul meter and learn a few tricks (move slowly into the opposition half on the touchline and defenders will back off and leave you to it), the game stops being anything like football and plays more like basketball: back and forth, back and forth, with the only margins for error largely out of your hands.