Super Arcade Football Preview

For those well over the age of 20 like myself, football games were once a simple affair. The view was from a top down perspective and there were only a couple of inputs, tackle, pass and shoot. Things started to get a little more complicated during the late ‘90s with the inclusion of 3D sprites and stadiums. This is when a lot of the management options were introduced, players were forced to read through menus and stare at numbers before playing. Super Arcade Football has no interest in micro-management, and just wants you to get right into scoring goals.

Developed by OutOfTheBit, Super Arcade Football is an attempt to modernize what made those old football games so damn great. It’s currently in Early Access, with the developer adding regular updates. Available through Steam for Windows, the game will run you £6.99, but there is also a free demo available. Right, let’s… kick things off shall we?

I really love games that have a simple premise, with a really refined gameplay mechanic- Super Arcade Football does just that. Instead of bogging the experience down with a ton of menus and options, the developer just wants to get you straight into scoring top corner screamers, and pulling off those perfectly timed slide tackles. The game gives you a few options to choose from: quickplay, preset tournaments and custom tournaments. There are only two preset tournaments currently, but the developer is still adding content.

Playing through a World Cup is quite cool, I’ve found myself getting much further than England ever do in real life. There is a lot of national sides to choose from, so most players will be able to pick their country, or at least one close to them. The ability to create tournaments is excellent, especially when taking the couch co-op that’s available into consideration. Groups of friends could create some very specific tournaments.

The game plays so smoothly, players run quickly and responsively with shots feeling completely under your control. I feel like the developer has spent most of the development time just fine-tuning the gameplay elements, to ensure everything plays perfectly. Shooting and passing feels natural, with the ability to curve the ball on slow motion shots adding an element of skill to the goals. This leads to some excellent goals, I scored a top corner screamer from 25 yards away earlier, I instantly shouted my family member over to brag about my excellent goal.

Unfortunately I have not had the chance to try out the couch co-op yet due to a lack of available friends, but I can imagine it would be a rather raucous affair, something akin to FIFA multiplayer on steroids. I genuinely hope there is an online multiplayer segment added at some point as I would love to play 2v2 with my friends online.

Having given the game a lot of praise, there are a few issues. The game does occasionally freeze at the end of tournament games, which can be a little bit annoying as I lost half an hour worth of progress. It’s kind of put me off playing tournaments a little, as I fear it crashing again. Tackling can be a little bit temperamental, it feels like the game is giving me red cards randomly, which makes slide-tacking too risky most of the time. The UI could also use a little work, it is often a little unreliable, although this could be an issue with the controller and software I am using.

While there are a few bugs and minor issues, Super Arcade Football is a solid experience. The core gameplay is fun, and kept me entertained for endless hours. This is a future hit in the making, provided the developers keep fixing issues and adding content.

As Michael Owen once said: "You need people who score goals. That’s how you win games" and Super Arcade Football definitely scores goals.