Every four years, soccer fans around the globe come together to watch the world’s greatest players compete to become champions of the FIFA World Cup. Along with this quadrennial celebration of the world’s most beautiful sport, comes a multitude of soccer-related content in all forms of media. Jools Watsham and his development studio, Atooi, have become a part of this celebration by bringing Soccer Slammers, a blocky-shaped, arcade-style soccer title, to Nintendo Switch just in time for the 2018 FIFA World Cup.
Soccer Slammers ensures that the core components of soccer are the absolute focus of the game from its graphics to its gameplay. The presentation is colorful, clean, and adorable. The soccer stadium is a bright green field with clearly defined field lines, goal posts, and barriers. When goals are scored, the screen shakes wildly as the word “GOAL!” is prominently displayed on the screen. The fans in the stadium chant and roar throughout matches and the menu music provides the game with the right energy to get players excited for a quick round of soccer. Players on the field and fans in the bleachers are presented in a block-shaped style similar to Crossy Road, giving Soccer Slammers a unique identity among photo-realistic soccer titles like FIFA and Pro Evolution Soccer.
Unlike those games as well, Soccer Slammers boils soccer down to five controls. Players use the right stick to move their character and aim the ball, the Y button for tackling, B button for passing, A button for shooting the ball, and R for sprinting. Matches are two minutes long, with a minute for each half-time (this can be made longer in the options). The goal of soccer is to shoot the ball into your opponent’s goal. With the matches being only two minutes long, you would expect games to end quickly with low goal counts. That is far from the case in Soccer Slammers, as goals are scored so frequently and chaotically that goal counts in the double digits before the first minute is over is the norm.
Players can make shots from across the field, have them ricochet in from a nearby wall, or shoot fast enough so that the goalie can’t react. Whenever you’re on defense, it’s essential to use your ability to sprint and tackle appropriately and aggressively. Winning at Soccer Slammers is all about making sure the opponent never gets a clear shot at scoring the ball. There is no yellow/red card, penalty, or off-sides system in the game, so feel free to tackle your opponents to your heart’s content. It’s normal to have high-scoring games in Soccer Slammers, and each goal brings with it some degree of excitement.
Soccer Slammers has two game modes, Quick Play and World Cup. All of these game modes can be played solo or with friends on the same screen. Quick Play has 1-4 players compete in a standard two-minute soccer match against each other or the CPU. Players can choose from more than 30 teams based on countries from around the world, with a special Mutant Mudds team available to play with if your country’s team isn’t in the game. World Cup mode has 1-2 players choose a team to play against other CPU teams to climb up the tournament ladder. If you manage to survive the beginning stages and defeat all the teams in your way, you become the champion of the Soccer Slammers World Cup.
Soccer Slammers is far from perfect, however. With only two game modes to choose from, Soccer Slammers is barebones from the start. There are little to no customization options in the game other than being able to change the style of the soccer ball within matches. When playing alone, you’re forced to play with a CPU teammate who you cannot control. If they’re in possession of the ball, you can have them pass it back to you or shoot, but you can’t control them or aim directly. Unfortunately, this can grow to become frustrating when your teammate decides to run straight into the opposing team just to get tackled and lose possession. Getting tackled takes control away from the player for a little over a second. I know this doesn’t sound like a lot, but when the matches are only two minutes long and when tackling happens frequently it can grow to become discouraging.
With this being said, Soccer Slammers is an absolute blast when playing with four players on the same screen. My friends and I would play with single Joy-Cons and take turns tackling and scoring on each other for multiple matches. It’s a great pick-up-and-play title as everyone who took the time to play understood what to do after their first match. I can easily see Soccer Slammers become a staple party game for groups of friends who are casually into games and fans of soccer.
If you’re looking for a quick, pick-up-and-play soccer title that scratches that “fútbol” fever, Soccer Slammers has you covered. Soccer Slammers is available now on the Nintendo eShop for $9.99.
