To begin with let me tell you something: I am not a soccer fan football for me, if you please). I get the appeal of the sport because during my childhood, I used to play a lot. Everyday after school, my friends and me played for hours. As I grew up, I didn´t care about the game anymore (maybe that is why I am a little fat). Anyways, it doesn’t mean that I hate it, as of time of writing this review, the 2018 Russia World Cup is ongoing, and its one of the most unpredictable Cup’s ever. So it makes sense that game developers would get on the WC train to deliver a video game experience based, or inspired on it. Soccer Slammer is one of those games. However, for me it’s more than that. My first soccer video game ever was an obscure game called Nintendo Word Cup. This game was released on the NES, and it was unique because it had super shots. You could slide and tackle the other players without fouls, and it had a championship mode like world cup (it was known as Kunio-kun no Nekketsu Soccer League, so character modes were based on the series). I mention this game because when I started playing Soccer Slammers. I felt that I was playing an upgraded version of said game, and that is a goal in my book.
Soccer Slammers premise is simple: you have a team of three characters, two controlled by the CPU and one by you, and you are squared up against another CPU or Human controlled Team (in multiplayer modes) to try to score the highest amount of goals against the other team. So it has the basics of soccer, but SS (Soccer Slammers) spices things up with some cool mechanics that make every match a memorable one. Movement is controlled with the Stick, A button shoots, B pass and Y tackle, and R for Sprint (controllers are reversed in Joycon Mode but are basically the same). Now my main focus here is on the ability to charge your shot while holding the A button.
It definitely felt like the super shots in Nintendo world cup. With good placing and a full charge, it is a sure goal. But there are times in which the goal keeper is awesome and stops it cold. Also the match style is focused on indoors match, so no offside, no throws, and no penalties. It really suits the fast game play. It reminds me of an SNES game: Capcom’s Soccer Shootout (one of my favorite soccer games on SNES). This game had normal matches and indoor matches, so the ball was always on the field no matter how hard it was kicked. Another thing in SS that reminded me of NWC (Nintendo World Cup) is the tackle. In other soccer games you can tackle. However, you could get a yellow or even red card if the referee considered a foul. Here, there isn’t a referee, so you can tackle to your heart´s content, even to players that don’t have possession of the ball. Therefore, you can disrupt their strategy with no penalty whatsoever.
Regarding the game itself, you have two options. First, you can play a quick game. Here, you can select if you want a solo game against the CPU, or to have a goal fest with three more players in four player multiplayer there is also the option for three and two players). You can guess that the action gets chaotic but fun, since you can choose which side you want to play with and which teams.
Speaking of which, you have access to all 32 teams currently qualified for the world cup, plus other teams that didn’t make it and special teams like Wales and Mutant Mudds team! Each team that you can use has a different level, 1.0 being the lowest and star being the highest. However, that is not a representation of what the CPU can do. For example, I selected Brazil that has a level of Star and against Saudi Arabia, and it kicked my butt 20-0. So the CPU can be ruthless sometimes. It’s good since it poses a good challenge, and it helps the overall replay value.
In World Cup mode, you can play with another friend in joycon mode and both (since it’s two players only) can choose your team and play through all the brackets until you become the champion. Needless to say, the CPU won’t go down without a fight.
Graphically, the voxel-style looks great. The music and detail put into the game gets a solid commendation from the sounds to the CPU partner in single player mode. Speaking of which, the CPU partner is great and is not like other games in which they are just there. Here it helps you and even scores great goals for your team. One thing I would have liked is that it had offline game play nut, it could be so great to play against others online, but even so it’s not a deal breaker for me.
Bottom Line: Soccer Slammers is a great soccer entry game. While it’s no Fifa, it has enough perks and mechanics to appeal even gamers that aren´t fans of sports like me. I definitely recommend it. For me, it is that game that you can pull out in a family meeting or a party and have a great time playing.
A review copy was provided by the developer for this review.