HIGH It’s a tried-and-true formula.

LOW Only diehards are going to spot the improvements in gameplay.

WTF We need a change in digital soccer.

Every year, sports fans brace themselves for another round of promises from annual game updates. Tighter gameplay, smarter AI, deeper modes, all wrapped in another sleek package that does just enough to justify the price of admission. Most years, the actual results fall somewhere between ‘incremental’ and ‘wow.’ Unfortunately, EA Sports FC 26 lands squarely on the lower end of that spectrum this season, bringing users a competent entry that shows a modicum of improvement on top of a core experience that still feels frustratingly inconsistent.

When I first loaded FC 26, I expected more of the same — refined controls, another minor Career mode adjustment, and a handful of Ultimate Team tweaks. As it turns out, that’s essentially what I got, though not in ways that reliably improves the experience.

The biggest change is the addition of two distinct gameplay presets — Competitive and Authentic.

Competitive mode caters to the online crowd, and is designed for the fast, responsive pace of FUT and Clubs. I found more enjoyment using Authentic mode, which slows the tempo, adding more weight and realism to each movement. In this setting, defenders more accurately hold their positions, midfielders fight for spacing, and goals feel earned, rather than expected. It’s a split that acknowledges how different the FC audience can be, but it also feels like EA is hedging its bets, rather than committing to a cohesive vision.

Player control remains an odd juxtaposition of schemes. Dribbling has been reworked, but often feels sticky and predetermined. In turn, players move with better agility in the open field, but the responsiveness isn’t always there when needed in tight quarters, typically around the goal. Plus, input delay creeps in during crucial moments, making skill moves feel more like happy accidents than strategic maneuvers.

I should also mention that there’s an odd rhythm to FC 26. While I enjoyed moments of fluid, effortless movement, there were more than a few where it seemed like the ball only went where the game wanted it to. By this, I mean opposing teams often anticipated passes prematurely, with passing accuracy seemingly random. When I lost possession of the ball, it was often hard to tell if it was my fault or the AI.

Speaking of which, the AI has improved in some areas — most notably in defensive positioning — but it still makes baffling decisions that lead to easy opportunities, completely breaking immersion. Likewise, the goalkeepers have improved for the most part, tracking shots and parrying realistically, though they still have bursts of inexplicable foresight. As discussed, scoring can feel earned, but it just as often feels as if the game had a different narrative in mind at certain junctures.

Happily, Career mode gets some overdue attention. Manager Live Challenges offer dynamic objectives, like steering a mid-table team into Europe or rescuing a struggling squad from relegation. (Fans of FX’s “Welcome to Wrexham” will appreciate these additions, for sure.) The new manager market evolves as seasons progress, with clubs hiring and firing AI managers who change tactics, formations, and even player roles.

There are also random events sprinkled throughout a season, adding unpredictability to a mode that needed it. By and large, it still feels somewhat mechanical and lacks the depth other sports games have achieved, but progress should be commended here, even if it’s difficult to get excited about features that should have been implemented years earlier.

Moving on, the Archetype system adds a layer of identity to Player Career and Clubs. Building a player as a creative midfielder or commanding center back now carries more meaning, with perks that accentuate a preferred style. It deepens immersion somewhat, though the grinding required to unlock meaningful progression remains tedious.

Ultimate Team and Clubs remain familiar. The interface feels more intuitive, matchmaking is less punishing in theory, and onboarding for new players is easier thanks to structured objectives before unlocking the transfer market. The Live Events and new knockout tournaments create reasons to return each week beyond simple pack grinding. That said, since it’s become a point of contention in all my EA reviews, I should mention that the mode’s monetization structure remains intact and as pushy as ever.

Finally, online play was solid, reliable, and enjoyable overall. The lobbies seemed oddly sparse during my time online, but navigating the menus and finding matches was seamless and lag-free. Unlike the more vibrant experiences in Madden and NBA 2K, the FIFA/FC crowd is always a little different, so user mileage may vary.

If my tone sounds a little flat in this review, it’s probably because it reflects how this game impacted me. Ultimately, FC 26 is a solid, if unspectacular, soccer title that makes incremental progress in some areas while stagnating in others. It’s competent enough to deliver moments of enjoyment, but the inconsistent controls and gameplay hold it back from providing the same thrills as the company’s American football titles this season.

Real talk, this entry won’t convert anyone tiring of EA’s approach to the world’s favorite sport, and longtime fans will likely feel the same frustrations they’ve felt for years. However, for anyone who still finds joy in a well-timed through ball or a diving header in extra time, it can deliver a good experience. It captures enough of football’s rhythm to be a good purchase for dedicated fans, but the execution just isn’t as sharp as I expected at this point.

Rating: 6 out of 10

Disclosures: This game is published by EA Sports and developed by EA Vancouver. It is available on XBO/X/S, PC, SW2, and PS4/5. This game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the XBX. Approximately 17 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and the game was not completed. Approximately 3 hours of play were devoted to online multiplayer.

Parents: According to the ESRB, this game is rated E. This is a realistic representation of professional soccer. Some animations and injuries may concern some parents.

Colorblind Modes: Colorblind modes are available in the Game Settings menu.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: FC 26 features subtitles, speech-to-text, and numerous tactile feedback features in all modes. The game is easily playable without sound and is fully accessible.

Remappable Controls: No, the game’s controls are not remappable.

The post EA Sports FC 26 Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

HIGH Addicting, fast-paced gameplay.

LOW Egoistic teammates.

WTF Bicycle kicks for days!!!

From French developers Sloclap, Rematch delivers an arcadey, action packed spin on the beautiful game. Differing from the beat em up genre of Sifu, Rematch doesn’t include any fighting, unless fighting with the controls count. The multiplayer soccer (or football) simulator focuses on teamwork and skill to create stunning goals fit only for the largest stage. Rematch executes this idea very well, but a few glaring issues sometimes lets the game trip over its own feet.

Rematch offers 3v3, 4v4, and 5v5 casual modes, and ranked 5v5. The player cycles between positions with multiple outfield ones and a goalkeeper, controlling a character in a third person point of view. Rematch doesn’t focus on realism, but instead gamifies soccer to make it less about actual tactics and more about the action – running, jumping, and diving. The arcade feel comes from everything being sped up. The pitch is similar to the one in Rocket League, with borders that the ball can ricochet off of. The actual playable area is small, and paired with rapid sprinting, aggressive slide tackles, and acrobatic kicks, the ball seems to never stop bouncing. Dribbling and fancy skills let the player live out their professional player dreams with adrenaline pumping plays that further make Rematch more of an action game than a soccer one.

Rematch uses the classic W,A,S,D controls to move, with a few special keys implemented. E for tackling, Q for jumping, and the mouse buttons for passing. Sprinting and slide tackling use the shift key and keys like F can change the type of pass. The mechanics of Rematch are easy enough to understand, but incredibly difficult to master. As the player advances divisions, people only get smarter. Learning how to properly use each key takes time, but the satisfaction of moving past opponents and scoring majestic goals makes the time commitment more than worth it. Even if the player isn’t into soccer in real life, the competitive gameplay still makes the game addicting.

In terms of graphics, Rematch uses bright colors and stylized art to further add to the arcade feel. Each game takes place in a unique stadium like a jungle, a desert, or even outer space. The settings are inspired by an environmentally friendly utopia, and the stadiums combined with nature highlight that. The colors are beautifully integrated, and sometimes I found myself stopping just to look at the background. Player customization is also diverse, with a large variety of attributes and colors to choose from.

While Rematch has a lot going for it, it does have some big negatives that need to be addressed. The most frustrating issue is passing, particularly on PC. Passing is done with the left mouse, but the sensitivity is turned up a lot. Just a tiny change in the mouse direction will cause the pass to go to a wildly different place. I frequently found my passes to go accidentally behind me, which really hindered goal scoring opportunities. Most other functions work well, but since passing is a huge part of Rematch, the unoptimized controls make it hard to deal with.

In my games, I also encountered bugs. These weren’t frequent, but when they happened it literally made the game unplayable. In one of my matches, I couldn’t touch the ball. It would go straight through me, which turned a fair match into a 5v4. When these bugs get patched, I expect the game to run much smoother.

My last complaint isn’t specific to Rematch, in fact it extends to all multiplayer games, but I still feel like it should be brought up. No one is Messi, and trying to dribble the enemy team while playing goalkeeper is not a viable strategy. Some teammates in Rematch let their egos take over, making selfish decisions and costing the team crucial goals. This happens way too often, and especially in ranked, feels enraging. Hopefully Sloclap will introduce a report button to help with this.

Rematch is a great example of when developers take a popular topic and put their own spin on it. Some might describe it as a “Rocket League without cars”, but it is so much more than that. The creativity Rematch encourages creates an engaging team-based game that incorporates every player. With easy to learn controls and flashy skills, fans and non-watchers alike are bound to enjoy this chaotic adaptation of soccer.

Rating: 8 out of 10

— Eddie Guo

Disclosures: This game is developed by Sloclap and published by Kepler Interactive. It is currently available on XBX/S/PS5/PC.This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on PC. Approximately 38 hours of play was devoted to the multiplayer mode. There is no set completion mark. There are no single-player modes.

Parents: According to the ESRB, this game is rated E. There is nothing explicit and Rematch is safe for all ages.

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes available.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: This game has player dialogue that does not affect gameplay. Voice chat exists but visual cues allow communication without talking (in fact, I turned voice chat off to stop toxicity). Informational text is communicated through text boxes that cannot be altered/resized.

Remappable Controls: Yes, this game offers fully remappable controls.

The post Rematch Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

HIGH Fast-paced gameplay and nice visuals.

LOW Lack of content.

WTF Anyone wanna draft a fantasy football team made up old cartoon characters with me?

Looney Tunes: Wacky World of Sports is an oddity of sorts, because there aren’t a lot of modern, mid-budget sports or party games based on licensed cartoon characters these days. As someone who’s covered everything from licensed platformers to racers based on classic cartoons, I feel as if I’m kind of an expert on this tiny niche. I’m also a huge sports fan, so any dev that manages to mix these elements into something is going to pique my interest — and for the most part, I’m satisfied with what’s offered here.

In Wacky World, players control one of nine Looney Tunes characters and take part of four different sporting events — basketball, tennis, golf and soccer. Each one has a different set of goals, control schemes and tutorials that teach both the basics, and the more intricate aspects of each sport. Gameplay is arcade-like, with plenty of over-the-top moves and offensive items like ACME-branded weapons to use during matches.

Gameplay is generally fast-paced, though oddly sluggish at times as characters seem to slow down at the weirdest moments, as well as a few noticeable framerate dips when busy moments happen. 

Looking at the sports themselves, Basketball is my favorite (both in real life and in games) and this is the one I spent the most time in. Running down the court on offense and shooting is satisfying, as is dunking in the most cartoonified, exaggerated fashion — something I appreciated. The aforementioned ACME-weapons include giant anvils and rockets that can be used to disrupt the opponents. I wasn’t a huge fan of these items, though, as they never felt satisfying to use since they slowed down some already sluggish gameplay and rarely landed when I tried to use them. 

The other sports feel solid enough, with soccer and tennis offering quick pick-up-and-play featuring enjoyable back-and-forth between offense and defense. Golf is the longest and most invoved of the offerings. It’s also the one I spent the least amount of time with, as I preferred the quicker modes. 

Wacky World‘s modes include a tournament, where players can set  a number of rounds and spin a wheel to determine which sport is played in gauntlet-style fashion. This can be played or with up to four friends locally, which is the only way to engage in multiplayer.

….And that’s about it for Wacky World. There’s a solid foundation here with snappy arcade play, but after putting in about an hour, I pretty much saw everything it had to offer. I would have liked a bit more, like a story mode or perhaps a few more sports. Perhaps American football or baseball, as those two sports are much more complex than what’s presented.  

Lack of variety aside, the presentation is solid. I love the cel-shaded visuals and the voice acting is a nice touch. If there’s one thing I appreciate in gaes, it’s when talkative cartoon characters are accurately represented, which it is here. The pre and post-game banter also adds a lot of personality.

Looney Tunes: Wacky World of Sports won’t replace my daily Madden NFL or NBA2K sessions, but they were a nice distraction and offered enjoyable arcade vibes throwing it back to an era that focused on simpler gameplay and colorful aesthetics. While I appreciate the final product, it’s ultimately hampered by a lack of variety, so if the developers follow this up, I’d love to see an expanded version. 

Rating: 5 out of 10

Disclosures: This game is published by GameMill Entertainment and developed by Bamtang Games. It is available on PC, PS4/5, Switch, XBO/X/S. This copy was obtained via publisher and was reviewed on PS5. Approximately 8 hours were spent in single-player and the game was not completed. There is multiplayer, but it was not played for this review

Parents: According to the ESRB, this game is rated E for Mild Fantasy Violence. According to the site: This is a sports simulation game in which players select Looney Tunes characters to engage in cartoony versions of soccer, golf, basketball, and tennis. Players can occasionally use power-up items to slow down opponents (e.g., falling anvils, cartoony bombs, sticks of dynamite). Damage effects are cartoony and over-the-top: brief explosions that leave behind charred figures; dizzy stars appearing when characters are stunned.

Colorblind Modes: Colorblind modes are not present in the options menu.

Deaf and Hard of Hearing Gamers: There are subtitles, but they cannot be resized or altered. There plenty of visual cues as well as constant UI elements that can guide the player. There are no audio cues needed for gameplay. This title is fully accessible.

Remappable Controls: The controls cannot be remapped but there are control diagrams.

The post Looney Tunes: Wacky World Of Sports Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

HIGH A unique mechanic for a roguelike.

LOW Very low replay value.

WTF How do I kick a bomb without it blowing up?

TRANSCRIPT:

Hi everyone! Eugene Sax here with another review from GameCritics.com!

I played a lot of soccer growing up, so I have a soft spot any time a game uses it as a mechanic in a more fantastical setting than the average FIFA match. Footgun Underground is exactly this, and gives me the option to use a soccer ball as a weapon and in roguelike fashion? Yes please!

Players take control of a protagonist who’s got a bionic leg and uses a deadly ball as a weapon. Players take a subway car through five different worlds, fighting enemies along the way and picking up money and upgrades as they do so. Players will occasionally find shops for additional upgrades like more health or kick strength, and ball upgrades like growing it in size as it bounces off walls or making it leave a trail of bombs as it’s kicked. At the end of each world, players will encounter a boss enemy they must defeat in order to escape this hellish subway ride.

Footgun Underground rewards players for skillful kicks in each room — bouncing the ball against walls to have it hit enemies multiple times with a single kick will be the most efficient way to deal spherical death, but depending on their build at the moment — remember, this is a roguelike — players might want to hit the ball off of a few walls first before it collides with the enemy, or perhaps the player might want to aim a single straight kick to deal max damage by hitting enemies directly.

While mastering ball handling in the way I’ve just described might seem like a novel way to approach combat, it’s a lot easier to talk about it in a video than it is to do it while playing.

While the hero does have the option to kick the ball while in place in order to take better aim, that requires them to stand still — not conducive to staying alive as enemies constantly attack. However, most arenas are small enough to not require much aiming. Simply kicking the ball again and again will get the job done in as much time as it would have taken to aim each kick. This is especially true in boss battles, as every one is a bullet sponge, er, rather, a ball sponge, and they take ages to defeat whether the shots are skillful or not.

However, while the ball handling doesn’t quite deliver on its concept, the biggest crime is that progression isn’t satisfying.

After each run, players can use currency to take a chance on a gacha machine for random items that will later appear randomly in each run. However, none of these upgrades felt worthwhile. One of the balls I unlocked was a turret which stuck to a wall and fired three shots instead of bouncing, but the shots didn’t do any more damage than the basic ball. Another upgrade was a “Bolt” ball. It dealt extra damage while it hit enemies, but the ball actively moved away from the player, making it extremely hard to kick. I understand good game design often deals in trade-offs, but these unlocks have to offer at least some joy, or else, what’s the point?

I had so much hope for Footgun Underground, but it fell short in so many ways. It has a unique concept and weapon, but fails to execute it in a way that kept my interest for more than a couple of runs. Many of the upgrades feel unnecessary, and the bosses have too much health. Players itching to try a new roguelike may find something to enjoy here that I didn’t, but there are so many other good roguelikes on the market right now that it’s hard to recommend this one. 

For me, Footgun Underground gets six unneeded unlock capsules out of ten.

Disclosures: This game is developed by Turtle Knight Games and published by CobraTekku Games. It is currently available on PC. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the PC. Approximately 4.5 hours of play were spent playing, and the game was completed. There are no multiplayer modes.

Parents: The game is not rated through the ESRB. Players will be kicking balls made of metal, lava, a bomb, etc. In one area, enemies will explode into blood splatters, while others normally explode into pixels and dust as they are killed. The player explodes into pixels without blood when killed. There is no text in the game for language. 

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: There is text in-game, but it is not resizable. Audio mostly serves aesthetic purposes and is not needed for gameplay. The game is fully accessible.

Remappable controls: Controls are not remappable.

The post Footgun Underground VIDEO Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

HIGH Defensive controls are an unexpected highlight.

LOW Offensive controls are alarmingly familiar.

WTF The coaches in Career Mode are impossible to impress.

Thanks to the World Cup (and maybe Ryan Reynolds and Rob McIlhenney’s lovably televised Wrexham team) international football has seen a recent boost in stateside popularity. This would seem to be an ideal time for EA Sports to deliver a truly next-gen, authentic soccer experience, but while there are moments that make good on this opportunity, FIFA 23 is ultimately the equivalent of painting fresh sidelines onto a well-worn pitch.

What’s even more interesting is that this edition likely represents EA Sports’ final go-round with the vaunted FIFA license. Though it’s unclear if the expensive elite tag will go to a competing franchise, or simply sit in game licensing limbo, one would think the company would try to close out nearly 30 years of history with a well-placed strike. Instead, the looming sense of passivity and familiarity may annoy longtime fans.

Don’t get me wrong, there’s certainly a lot to enjoy here. FIFA 23 makes a strong initial impression with improved character models, smoother animations on and away from the ball, and more realistic crowd audio. If it’s a sense of ‘being there’ gamers want, FIFA hits the right notes. Using the stock ‘high camera’ view of the pitch, offensive strikes look smooth and realistic, with fan noise ebbing and swelling at appropriate moments, rather than simply serving as a din of random background response.

When the camera closes in for replays, the animations are a little jankier and erratic than one would expect, but still show marked improvements from past editions. On new systems, there are also improved textures on player uniforms, more-realistic field deterioration, and outstanding weather effects that distinctly impact the on-field play. FIFA 23 might not be God of War: Ragnarok, but considering how much motion is occurring during every moment of gameplay, it’s impressive all the same.

Gameplay is either redundantly familiar or dramatically improved, depending on how users choose to play. While offensive controls are largely the same as past editions, with far too many through passes leading to breakaway goals, the new defensive controls are a welcome surprise of details. Users who choose to take on the more difficult manual defensive controls will be rewarded with far fewer AI breakdowns, as the computer-controlled teammates follow the player’s lead and adjust positioning accordingly. It’s certainly a challenge, but experienced FIFA enthusiasts will appreciate the new levels of accuracy and realism.

Beyond these improvements, fans familiar with the series are going to be able to pick up and play with minimal learning curve. In fact, they may even enjoy things more thanks to a slower, more deliberate pace that better reflects real-world soccer gameplay.

As a series, FIFA has always offered a nice range of modes to keep players engaged. The card-based Ultimate Team is back and remains a divisive part of the FIFA experience. On one hand, the new “Moments” feature within Ultimate Team allows users to recreate some of soccer’s most historic memories from the past few decades. However, as long as play continues to rely on excessive microtransactions to get a better experience, many gamers will ignore it again and again.

Unfortunately, Career Mode feels like another afterthought. In a world that has fallen in love with Ted Lasso and the aforementioned Welcome to Wrexham, it’s disappointing that EA’s team couldn’t craft a more compelling narrative than a week-to-week, RPG-lite grind toward the starting lineup. The player’s character is given countless decision-making opportunities that earn points with teammates, coaches, fans, and the like, but there’s little impact that stems from these decisions, and coaches seem to always be disappointed with the user’s efforts, whether it be in practice or in-game.

As an admitted fan of sports story modes, I was hoping for something beyond my faceless character doing redundant things to find my way into the lineup, but it never materialized. Before long, my enthusiasm turned to apathy due to knowing that my in-game successes would likely result in endless criticisms on the practices that followed. I didn’t ‘finish’ the story during my full month with the game, and I likely won’t revisit it in the months to come.

As most fans of the series will attest, FIFA 23 is best when keeping it simple. Play Now, Seasons, and the newly added World Cup mode present straightforward, no-nonsense football sim experiences that remind users of why unadulterated digital soccer is great, with nothing getting in the way of gameplay and atmosphere to deliver excitement, and maybe that’s the lesson here.

Football is the world’s most popular game across borders, cultures, politics, and creeds because it offers fans the same exhilaration throughout the world. FIFA 23, when stripped of bland stories, greedy microtransactions, and mind-numbing team management, is a pure, exciting videogame. It’s the excess that ultimately mires it down.

Disclosures: This game is published by EA Sports and developed by EA. It is available on XBO, XBS/X, PS4/5, and PC. This game copy was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the Xbox Series X. Approximately 19 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and the game was not completed. Approximately 3 hours of play were dedicated to online multiplayer modes.

Parents: According to the ESRB, this game is rated E. This is an accurate representation of professional soccer/football. Realistic tackling animations and injuries may concern some parents.

Colorblind Modes: There are colorblind modes available in the Game Settings menu.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: FIFA 23 features subtitles and numerous tactile feedback features within the controller, in all modes. The game is easily playable without sound and is fully accessible.

Remappable Controls: No, the game’s controls are not remappable.

The post FIFA 23 Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

HIGH A great tutorial.

LOW A long-winded story.

WTF 6’8” and 250 lbs. is not a middle schooler.

Captain Tsubasa: Rise of New Champions is an anime soccer game following title character Tsubasa in his rise to glory and fame through multiple soccer leagues, eventually going into a world cup against teams from all over the world.

Tsubasa‘s main mode is “The Journey” which has players select one of two stories. Tsubasa’s story follows the title character taking his school to win a national championship. Alternatively, there’s a “Hero” story which allows players to create their own character and play for a rival school. Playing Tsubasa’s campaign first not only serves as a good intro to the mechanics, but the end rolls right into the Hero half.

While Tsubasa’s narrative is linear and eye-wateringly cliché, even for anime, the story completes in a couple of hours and Hero is where things get more interesting.

Each match gives the player a goal — normally to get a high-ranking performance in something specific like passing, shooting, or dribbling. The better the player does, the higher their stats raise. Players will also get dialogue trees at moments that can raise friendship with characters and unlock special moves to use in a match. Once the hero story is completed, players can register their character for online play.

Mechanically, Tsubasa fits into an interesting niche. Games like FIFA and PES focus on realism. Games like FIFA Street focus more on flashy moves. Tsubasa lands somewhere in the middle — there are technical aspects, but it’s highly stylized in a way that compares to how something like Punch Out! relates to a traditional boxing game.

Take the act of dribbling the ball downfield, for example. Players have a dribble move which lets them fake out opponents to get past them, but there’s a rhythm to it that makes it feel almost like a fighting game. Press the dribble button too soon or too late, and the opposing team will still steal the ball. On the other hand, getting the timing correct gives players a boost to their stats so that it’s easier to pass or to have a better shot on goal.

One thing that always tripped me up playing something like FIFA or PES was shooting. Players must generally hold a button down long enough to get the ball in the right area of the net without going over. Shots in Tsubasa always go for the direct center of the goal, it’s just a matter of how much power behind the player’s shot — and for some characters, this may also trigger a cutscene and special effect.

While I am sad that there isn’t a traditional career mode going through a season, the Hero story gives players the option to go through it multiple times to train players in different positions, eventually creating an entire dream team of characters they’ve built from the ground up.

Online play has a league with an interesting quirk — if the servers can’t find a player online, it will put players against PC opponents until they hit a certain ranking. That said, it will eventually only look for players, so depending on the online lobbies, it may be a while to get into a match.

While the anime story grated on me, Tsubasa‘s gameplay kept me hooked since the animations are smooth and flashy, and it’s easy to pick up and play. Those who want a sim may not get the same joy out of this arcade-style soccer interpretation, but for me, it scratched a very specific itch that I didn’t realize needed to be scratched.

Disclosures: This game is developed by Tamsoft Corporation and published by Bandai Namco Entertainment.  It is currently available on PC, PS4 and Switch. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the PS4. Approximately 12 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and the game was completed. About 2 hours were dedicated to multiplayer mode.

Parents: According to the  ESRB, this game is rated E10+ and contains Mild Blood, Mild Language, and Mild Violence. The tackles in this game look and feel more like fighting moves than real soccer tackles, and some of the bonus scenes deal with violent scenarios. One scene does have blood coming out of a player’s head, and the game has a couple of instances of “hell” and “damn”.

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: All information is text and icon based, but there is no option for resizing text. Text boxes are fairly large, and there’s not much text needed for gameplay (see examples above and below). There are no audio cues needed for gameplay. This title is fully accessible.

Remappable Controls: The game has fully remappable controls.

The post Tsubasa: Rise Of New Champions Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

HIGH The match dynamics.

LOW Trick shots.

WTF That live action dub.

The arcade sports genre has been in decline since Super Mario Strikers — or if I’m being churlish, SEGA Soccer Slam. Simplicity seems hard to apply as games have got bigger. Sports devs have focused on simulation or split off into indie projects — ‘Boomshakalaka’ seems hard to find now.

Enter Street Power Football — a joint by SFL Interactive and Gamajun, based on the real-life sport of Street (freestyle) football. “Soccer”, to you Americans.

SPF is played mainly in third person and offers a variety of different disciplines — a QTE-based dance mode, a Trick Shot mode that plays like billiards, a Panna Cage battle mode that’s about controlling the ball and scoring points through goals and QTE-offs, Elimination mode where there’s ten seconds to score a goal, and finally, more traditional 2 vs 2 or 3 vs 3 matches.

Most of this is introduced through the single-player campaign under the premise that they’re is a brand-new street-level player who’s come under the guidance of one of the sport’s superstars. Players begin and then are required to move through different cities while proving themselves in each discipline. The mechanics are introduced gradually through tutorializing pass-then-shoot moves, supers (yes there are specials), and things like curve shots.

The campaign made me think about new strategies by introducing challenges — use specials, use trigger super shots, and so on — to complete alongside the main objectives. Unfortunately, like a chain, SPF is only as strong as its weakest discipline.

The Trick Shot mode (where the player is required to hit soccer balls at targets in a 3D environment) is fiddly and hard to predict, and the camera options it offers to aid these shots are less helpful than the standard camera angle. Worse, early challenges require the player to curve shots at targets, but the curve shot is a microcosm of the mode’s awkward, unpredictable controls with results that are wildly varied when shot from almost identical angles.

The rest of Street Power Football is incredibly entertaining, and it’s clear that a lot of care put into the animations. A personal favorite is when a player has a clear shot on goal and no one near them to stop them — the character will get down into a plank and push the ball in with the side of their head.

Less fulfilling is the local multiplayer. There are a number of one-off events that can be played cooperatively or competitively. They’re good diversions the first few times, but the 2 vs 2 and 3 vs 3 are begging for a tournament or league mode that would give the content more legs — it’s a glaring omission filled by pretty much every sports game that’s come before. On top of this, the camera isn’t suited for handling extra players and often fails to properly show the action for all involved.

Street Power Football is a good start at recreating an arcadey style of sports that hasn’t been common for a while, but this package needs further polish and a little more depth.

Disclosures: This game is developed by SFL Interactive and published by Maximum Games. It is currently available on PS4, Switch, PC and XBO. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the XBO-X. Approximately 7 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and the game was completed. 3 hours of play were spent in multiplayer modes.

Parents: According to the ESRB, this game is rated E and contains Users Interact and In-Game Purchases. This is about football and only about football — there’s nothing worrying here.

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes available in the options.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: The game is fully playable without sound. The text cannot be resized, nor can the color be changed.

Remappable Controls: No, this game’s controls are not remappable, including the Y axis.

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HIGH Easy to pick up and play in short bursts.

LOW Player substitutions are a little cumbersome.

WTF Some of the player headshots are… interesting.

Football Manager 2019 Touch is not something I would normally play. I’m not a huge soccer fan and sports management simulation isn’t high on my entertainment list. Fortunately, FM19 is a well-designed title that’s welcoming to non-fans like myself.

Players start by choosing to manage one of over 2,000 soccer clubs from 51 different countries. After creating a manager, I began reading scouting reports, negotiating contracts, loaning players out to other clubs, managing players on the pitch, and completing dozens of other tasks related to running a soccer team. FM19 is a text-based game and the amount of options and tasks to complete is staggering.

At times the amount of text on-screen can feel like information overload, but FM19 is still relatively user-friendly, and everything I needed to know was in front of me. For example, important events popped up and had to be read before moving to the next task. Each time a new objective appeared, the game would provide a brief summation of what could be or what needed to be done. In my view, the developers did an excellent job creating a sim that’s welcoming to newcomers.

Another great aspect of FM19 is how players can quickly complete chunks of it. Managing the actual soccer matches are given an “instant” option. When a player selects it, many of the smaller details (on-field formations, player substitutions, and in-game strategies) are completed in a matter of seconds. Not only does this help players who may feel paralyzed by the sheer number of choices that need to be made, but it enables sessions to be played through in short, quick bursts.

FM19 also controls well and allows both traditional controller input and full touchscreen capabilities. Onscreen options could be selected with a finger or by pressing the clearly-labeled button on the controller, and both inputs can be utilized at the same time. Controls weren’t something I was expecting to praise about FM19, but easily switching between a controller and the tip of my fingers was incredibly smooth and nearly second nature.

The only complaints I have with FM19 have to do with presentation, and both are minor issues. The graphics are decent, but nothing great — it looks like it was designed for a mobile device and not a home console. There’s also no sound outside of the simulated matches. During that time, players hear the crowd noise and the occasional whistle, but that’s all. It’s a little peculiar to experience a mostly silent game, but it’s not a dealbreaker.

I probably won’t spend hundreds of hours the way some do with Football Manager 2019 Touch, but I’m glad I gave it a try. It might not convert sport sim non-fans, but those who enjoy this kind of content will surely feel right at home. Rating: 7 out of 10

Disclosures: This game is developed by Sports Interactive and published by SEGA. It is currently available on PC, Mac, iOS and Nintendo Switch. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the Switch. Approximately 2 hours of play were completed, which included seven matches and roughly two months of in-game time. There are no multiplayer modes.

Parents: According to the ESRB, this game is rated E for Everyone. No worries for parents, but the game is text-intensive, so younger gamers may struggle depending with reading comprehension.

Colorblind Modes: There no colorblind modes available in the options.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: All information is delivered via text. Text size cannot be changed. There are no sound cues. The game is fully accessible.

Remappable Controls: No, this game’s controls are not remappable. However, in addition to the controller, the entire game is fully touchscreen compatible. Controllers and the touchscreen can be used simultaneously.

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Welcome to This Is Not A Review. In these articles we discuss general impressions, ideas and thoughts on any given game, but as the title implies, it’s not a review. Instead, it’s an exercise in offering a quick recommendation (or dismissal) after spending enough time to grasp the ideas and gameplay of a thing without necessarily playing it from A to Z.

The subject of this installment: Football Manager Touch 2018, developed by Sports Interactive and published by Sega.

There are probably few people less qualified to review a Football Manager title than myself. I’ve never played a Football Manager game, and I’ve never played a text-based sim game. The only experience I have with the series was the delightful comedy special ‘How Football Manager Ruined My Life’, in which British comedian Tony Jameson details exactly that. Above all else, I hate soccer, which is a sport I believe is played by either 10-year-old girls or Europeans who couldn’t hack it in rugby. To my best recollection, I don’t think I’ve even played FIFA.

With that said, as someone who likes to have a wide array of tastes when it comes to videogames, Sports Interactive’s series has always fascinated me from afar due to the astounding attention to detail and the fervor of its fans. It’s a title so exhaustively detailed in its player profiles, its database of players, teams, and leagues that actual football clubs use it to find player information.

On a personal level, I wanted to try Football Manager because I am, in fact, employed as a football manager. Granted, it’s rugby football, and it’s a junior high school team, but that doesn’t mean I don’t do a lot of the things a football manager does like scout players, design practices, schedule friendlies with other opponents, fundraising, and the occasional chat with the boss. Am I the next Joe Schmidt? Of course not, but I like to pretend I am, and I was excited to dip into Football Manager and see what all the fuss is about.

This was a mistake.

There are apparently three tiers of Football Manager available in a year. The FM most commonly played on PC is the full release with an absolutely astounding amount of options. FM Mobile for phones is a far more streamlined version, and FM Touch is a middle ground made primarily for tablets. It’s recently made its way to the Switch, which is the one we got to look at. FM Touch is considered nearly complete, with the few omissions being less of a focus on the personable aspects of being a manager, such as speaking to the press or giving motivational speeches at halftime.

One of the coolest things about this franchise is the incredible passion of its fanbase. The internet is an invaluable resource to anyone looking for advice, strategy, or information on how to properly play FM. It’s a good thing that the fans have picked up Sports Interactive’s slack, because they have included no such help in the actual game — there are no detailed tutorials, and no easy way to find explanations. Pick a club, design your avatar, go.

There is a general synopsis for the function of each part of the game once it’s selected for the first time, but it’s hardly enough to help a new player through such a labyrinth. This might be fine for anyone who’s played the series for a couple of decades, but newcomers like myself will likely end up as I did — confused, frustrated, overwhelmed, and bewildered.

To say FMT2018 gave a bad first impression would be a dramatic understatement. I actually pulled out a stop watch (not a phone. A stopwatch. I’m a coach, after all!) to see how long the wait was between booting the game up and being in control of the main menu. 1:24.33. Let’s have a real world test: Go look at a watch for 85 seconds. Go ahead, I’ll wait. Finished? Great. Now imagine that a portable game, one that is ideally designed for short bursts while waiting at a bus stop, has that kind of wait time before one can even start playing.

With a text-based sim, it’s not the GPU that matters, but the CPU. The amount of numbers under the hood of a FM title is staggering. This isn’t a huge issue on PC, but on the Switch, it proves to maybe be too much for Nintendo’s hardware. Load times during play are rough, frequently topping over 30 seconds. I was fully aware that FM was going to have a lot of waiting involved, but it’s a borderline deal-breaker here.

Another negative to the Switch version is the controls. It’s essentially a port of the tablet version, and tablets tend to be considerably larger than the Switch screen. They also tend to be more precise. Using the small screen to select prompts to access various menus and sub-menus caused my rather large hands to input many things I never wanted to. In docked mode, the game is controlled with a mouse-style cursor which is hardly ideal. While I’m no FM expert, it’s abundantly clear this is a game that almost demands to be played with a mouse on a PC, and the Switch version is possibly the worst way to play.

I’ll be honest, the biggest reason this is Not A Review is that I probably spent around 45 minutes actually playing this game. Upon receiving the code from my editor, I had a grandiose vision of spending months playing and writing periodical check-ins. However, after fumbling through the menus, constantly doubting if I was playing it ‘correctly’, and then losing my first match, any desire to continue playing evaporated immediately. To learn it, I’d essentially be spending as much time watching how-to videos on YouTube as I would be with the Switch in my hands, and that is both a failure on the developer’s part and not something I’m willing to commit to.

Alas, Football Manager is now a series I throw in the category of things I never, ever, EVER want to play, but I’m happy they exist. People clearly adore this series, and any attempt by the developer to change it would probably ruin it for the fans, so I will respectfully decline any further invitations. As I said, I am in no way qualified to review this title, but I do feel qualified enough to say that playing it on Switch is a terrible way to do so, which is definitely a bummer to FM fans who would probably love playing it in the tube on their way to work.

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The Best In The Business

High Having complete control of the club I love.

Low Trying to wake up Monday morning because I was up ‘til 3am trying to finalize that transfer.

WTF I’m going to go through this all over again next year, aren’t I…

At what point is enough, enough? Football Manager (or Championship Manager before that), is over a quarter of a century old and, barring the odd iteration, has been a game of evolution more than revolution. When do minor incremental changes become so meager that it’s no longer worth investing in the next iteration? After all, the game features an editor and there are no shortage of database updates to keep a team’s lineup fresh and up to date. So why buy Football Manager 2018?

To answer this question, it’s important to take note of the changes from last year’s iteration that received a glowing review by myself, of course. Perhaps the most requested upgrade is the 3D engine. Creative Assembly, the studio behind the renowned Total War franchise as well as the eerily atmospheric Alien Isolation, have helped overhaul FM‘s aging engine, which now features new motion capture and improved AI.

Last year saw the addition of Sports Scientists, now commonplace in the real world of football management, but they ultimately had little impact on the feeling of the game or information players would receive. Now, feedback is important and can give much improved insight over player performances post-game, which is bound to please the micromanagers out there.

The biggest diversion, however, is in the new ‘Dynamics’ module. The purpose of Dynamics is to bring more correlation between management of the dressing room with player performances on the pitch. Fans of football know all too well the effect on a team when the manager has failed to provide proper guidance. Harmony is the aim here, and the less fractured the dressing room, the better a team will play on the field.

Each team has ‘team leaders’, ‘highly influential players’, ‘influential players’ and the others who make up the squad. Dynamics feels like one of the most important changes to the franchise in years. Building upon the simple ‘morale’ basics of past iterations, the player is now kept in the loop of the ups and downs in the team, and it’s up to them to handle situations correctly, or else it’s possible to ‘lose the dressing room’ and see the team spiral into chaos. Dynamics adds a true sense of of cause and effect, and one small mistake such as praising the wrong player or utilizing a formation that doesn’t please key members of the squad can cause a ripple which, ultimately, can have devastating results.

Tactics screens now give more information regarding areas of dominance on the pitch, and the resulting weakness of opting for a specific player or formation. Purists of the series may not like this hand-holding implementation, but newcomers or those daunted by past revisions will surely find this easily-to-comprehend information hugely beneficial.

The scouting network has been often criticized for being both too complicated and not defined enough. Scouts now regularly turn to the player with picks they were impressed by on their travels, allowing for a more widespread search through the endless hive of transfer activities. This is now more rewarding than ever, whether it be a case of finding the next wunderkind or signing the perfect previously-established star to fit in with the team. This, combined with the previously mentioned dynamics system means picking the right player has become more important than ever.

Fundamentally, there aren’t that many changes to the core formula, and as with the 2017 iteration, it was no revolution. So, to answer the original question at the beginning of this review, at what point is enough, enough? With the abundance of database updates, face packs, team crests and more mods so easily available (and just as easily implemented) is it worth spending money on yet another version?

…Categorically, yes.

In my view, Football manager 2018 is an absolute triumph that revels in the cliche, ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’. The changes, and especially the new dynamics system have never had me feeling closer to my squad, the new engine is slick, and the additional motion captured animations really do freshen up the proceedings. This is another truly stellar outing from Sports Interactive, true masters of their craft and pioneers of the management genre. Rating: 9 out of 10

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