Game Reviews

Flick Kick Football Legends

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Flick Kick Football Legends

While the likes of Messi and Ronaldo are rightly lauded as the greatest footballers of their generation, their raw talent isn't quite as rare as some would have you believe.

There are plenty of outrageously skilled players who somehow never make the grade as top level professional footballers. Often they become distracted by the commercial side of the game, or they simply lack the physical robustness that the modern game demands.

Flick Kick Football Legends has so much going for it, but it appears to be wasting its talent through a lack of focus, an inherently lightweight structure, and an infuriating funding system.

Defending champion

As you might have gathered if you're a fan of PikPok's previous work, Flick Kick Football Legends is related to the eternally moreish Flick Kick Football.

Where that game was concerned with the art of free kick taking, though, FLFL takes those core kicking mechanics and spreads them across an entire match of football.

You now have to pass your way into a position to score with that familiar swipe-based kicking system, swerving the ball in between defenders.

You're also responsible for the defensive side of the game. When an opponent dribbles at you or attempts to pass through your team's lines, you'll have a small window in which to accurately swipe across the ball and win back possession. Goalkeeping works in a similar way.

Wasted build-up

Somehow, stitched together into a match, these elements never quite amount to a satisfying whole.

It's partly because none of these interactive vignettes is anywhere near as satisfying as simply shooting at goal in Flick Kick Football. It's also because matches soon become rote, with the undercooked defensive element punctuating a series of simplistic attacks.

The games themselves can also feel way too short, playing out as a couple of attacks each per half.

There's simply no room for the unpredictability of the real game, nor the attacking creativity - each pass is more or less signposted, a join-the-dots procession to an underwhelming close-up-shot finish.

Financial fair play

This is a real shame, because Flick Kick Football Legends looks absolutely beautiful. Those cardboard cutout caricatures from the first game have been brought to life and turned into moving Roy of the Rovers comic book strips.

There's a retro '70s vibe to it all, so you'll find strikers with flowing manes of hair, midfielders with paunches, and kits that appear to be a couple of sizes too small.

It's a tone that's been carried through to the game's attempt at a story which, along with the hit-and-miss commentary interludes, is rather less accomplished. There's something about the ghost of a dead coach in there, but to be honest we lost track of it. It's all very silly and slightly bizarre.

But the real kicker here is the game's freemium structure. Not only are you prodded to make payments in order to be able to purchase decent packs of players (there's a Top Trumps-inspired recruitment system at play here), but the game also throws a ridiculous number of adverts at you.

They seem to pop up at every major transition between games, and there's a permanent gaudy banner at the top of the screen. You also only get a limited number of games before you have to wait for your juice bar to refill. Unless, of course, you pay up.

Flick Kick Football Legends has many of the ingredients to join New Star Soccer and Flick Kick Football at the top of the iOS footy table. It's got the looks and, of course, the basic technique to do so. But it seems too distracted with inconsequential matters to fulfil its potential.

Flick Kick Football Legends

A great-looking and highly promising spin-off to Flick Kick Football that trips up on bitty gameplay and an irritating funding system
Score
Jon Mundy
Jon Mundy
Jon is a consummate expert in adventure, action, and sports games. Which is just as well, as in real life he's timid, lazy, and unfit. It's amazing how these things even themselves out.