Football Game is one of the latest releases published by Ratalaika Games for the PS4 and Vita. This one is from a three person indie studio called Cloak and Dagger Games. As you may remember from previous reviews, Ratalaika tends to produce vast quantities of what may generously be called shovelware. These are independently made games with low quality and generally lackluster gameplay sold at a low price point to entice people who don’t want to spend the money on quality titles. Usually, games from companies like Ratalaika have potential, but they almost never manage to achieve it.
Football Game is no different. It’s an 80s style point and click adventure about Tommy the high school football player. You guide Tommy through an hour or two of chit chatting, flashbacks, and errand running and the game is finished. It’s a short game, but it has a bit of emotional impact here and there. Intitially interesting, Football Game quickly loses its luster and becomes tedious, with virtually no clues or visual cues to guide you. Without a walkthrough, you’ll waste a fair amount of time just wandering about and clicking on things, hoping to activate the next section. It’s not very fun, the characters aren’t very interesting, and the overall experience is poor.
Oddly enough though, Tommy’s actual story is nearly compelling, that of his girlfriend, her mysterious absence, and Tommy’s inability to remember things clearly about her. Between the beer he drinks at the start of the game and the game’s ending, there are some fairly serious implications throughout the game. Unfortunately, it’s told in such a manner that you never really find out what happens and what should be a punch at the end turns out to be a fizzle.
There is one silver lining for the game however, that of Football Game’s soundtrack. Surprisingly, the music is quite good and as it turns out, was sourced from a band called Jupiter-C out of the UK. The nine track soundtrack is available on Bandcamp and its atmospheric and enjoyable. Definitely listen to both cassettes in the car and enjoy the end credit music as it was well above what you might expect for a game this rough.
You’re going to spend a whopping $5 if you buy Football Game and it’s probably not worth it for most people. If you’re a trophy collector, you can score easy trophies on the PS4 and Vita for this one, but unless you’re an absolute point and click maniac, there are simply tons of better things to play.
This review was based on a digital copy of Football Game provided by the publisher. It was played on a PS4 Pro and on the PS Vita and played equally on both. Football Game is also available for the Xbox One, Switch, and Steam for some reason and you should probably just avoid it on all consoles and listen to the soundtrack on Bandcamp instead.