Game Reviews

Solid Soccer review - A kick around that ends up with the ball through a window

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iOS
| Solid Soccer
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Solid Soccer review - A kick around that ends up with the ball through a window
|
iOS
| Solid Soccer

I’ll be honest, my favourite thing about football games in the past was fouling the goalkeeper, getting away with it, and then scoring from the stolen ball.

I don’t really like football games that make me try and play football. I like football games that take the simple ball and man play of the sport and then do things a bit differently.

And that’s what Solid Soccer tries to do. It gets some things right, but in the end it loses its way. And what should be a cheeky kick about becomes a bunch of irritated dads howling at their children in a muddy park on a Sunday.

Ball ball ball

The game takes the heart of football and mobilises it. So rather than buttons or actual physical exercise, here you’re dragging and releasing to pass, tackle, shoot, and run.

And it works pretty well. This is no FIFA, but if anything it’s all the better for it. There’s a flow to the play that should make the whole thing an engaging arcade experience.

But unfortunately it starts to lose its way early on. There just isn’t the challenge here. Or there’s too much challenge. It depends who you come up against, and both sides of the coin are a bit dull.

The games are short and fun to begin with. Kicking the ball around is smooth and slick, and there’s something lovely about watching the net bulge as you score.

There’s a slackness here though. Sometimes the goalkeeper will run half of the pitch after a goal’s been scored. Other times your opponents will just stand still while you run rings around them.

You’re supposed to be playing against other real humans, but it doesn’t really feel like that.

I don’t know if it’s a connection problem or you’re playing against an AI controlled version of another player’s team, but I’ve won too many games 8-0 and had a cheery emoticon thrown my way at the end to believe there’s a human on the other side of the screen.

Footy footy footy

There’s still some fun to be had here, and the controls feel like they could be part of something much more special.

But in the end you’re going to lose interest because the game is just so inconsistent.

I love fouling the goalkeeper, I honestly think it’s the greatest thing a man can do, but I want to do it as part of a system that feels more balanced than the one that Solid Soccer offers.

Solid Soccer review - A kick around that ends up with the ball through a window

A football game that starts off bright but then fades away after too short a time
Score
Harry Slater
Harry Slater
Harry used to be really good at Snake on the Nokia 5110. Apparently though, digital snake wrangling isn't a proper job, so now he writes words about games instead.