System: Microsoft Xbox 360

Also available for: Sony PlayStation 3, Nintendo DS

Publisher: Electronic Arts

Reviewer’s rating: **1/2

ESRB rating: Everyone

Game type: Sports

Kind of like: If the Harlem Globetrotters played soccer.

Best feature: Ample opportunities to talk trash.

Worst feature: There’s no player creation tool or career mode to keep you coming back; playing defense is nearly impossible.

The bottom line: If soccer really looked like this, apathetic American sports fans might finally come around. In “FIFA Street 3,” flashy five-a-side games are played in parking lots and on rooftops, with players juggling past defenders, flipping off walls and performing gravity-defying bicycle kicks like it’s no big deal.

Yeah, the game features an international flavor with real-life superstars such as Ronaldinho, Thierry Henry and Wayne Rooney — but that’s pretty much where the realism ends.

While casual fans will probably appreciate the style-over-substance spectacle, purists may cringe at the idea of “the beautiful game” being dolled up like a $20 whore.

The deepest single-player gameplay comes in the challenge mode, where you meet certain objectives to unlock the game’s full roster of 250 characters. In one game you might have five minutes to score as many goals as possible. In another, you could be asked to score five volley or header goals. Unfortunately, there aren’t many variants, and the action gets a bit mundane after a while.

Multiplayer tilts fare a lot better, although our experience with online action was occasionally marred by considerable lag issues. Still, burning your buddy with a nutmeg and then roofing a one-timer is priceless.