Namco kicks out more 360 soccer details

At Microsoft's Tokyo Xbox summit this summer, Namco announced a new soccer game for the Xbox 360 named Love Football. Fans ready for the pitch had only a short trailer to go on, but the company has finally released its first details.

Love Football is currently scheduled for release in Japan in spring 2006. The game will include approximately 60 teams from around the world, complete with rosters featuring real athletes.

Love Football has one major difference from conventional soccer games, a feature that Namco considers as its biggest selling point. Most sports games are played from a third-person perspective, but Namco wants to give gamers the true feeling of playing soccer from an athlete's point of view. To do this, the developers of Love Football have adopted a first-person camera angle, where the gamer sees the action from the view of a single soccer player on the field.

Love Football producer Nobuhisa Mikoda explains that the new perspective gives the gamer all the experiences of competing as an on-field participant, including fighting for the ball against other players, the pressure of getting marked by multiple opponents, and getting into defensive position when someone else has the ball. Of course, the game also allows the gamer to switch to other characters on the field.

Although the feature will probably be unique to the Japanese version's release, one of Love Football's core gaming modes will be a "Japanese representative story mode." Gamers will be able pick their favorite Japanese national team member and get to experience the joy and pressure of competing on the field as an athlete in the spotlight.