DSiWare is like any other downloadable game platform: it features gems full of creativity and compulsive play, and then it has titles like Goooooal Europa 2012, which tries to hide its painful inadequacies with a ‘fun’ title and a tenuous link to a major football tournament. The idea of a table football game with stylus controls may sound like an entertaining diversion on paper, but the actual result is far from ideal.
The controls and method of play in Goooooal Europa 2012 are peculiar in that they take anything that’s fun about table football and exclude it. The concept of frantically manoeuvring plastic footballers, while maintaining composure to score that all important goal, is replaced by a static, turn-based approach. There are table-top football games out there that play this way, but the concept doesn’t transfer well to a handheld console.
Each team’s players have dips around them and the magnetic ball will, depending on its speed and direction, stick to members of either team. When you’re out of possession you simply sit and wait, twiddling your thumbs with no way to defend your goal, while with possession you use the stylus to drag and release players to pass and shoot as your opponents look gormless. There’s strategy involved, sure, and the physics make sense in the context of the game, but it’s incredibly limited and lacking in any form of stimulation. The margins for error between scoring and seeing the ball sucked up by opposition defenders is miniscule, but due to repetition and lack of engaging play you’re unlikely to care enough to really master the angles.
Some effort has been made to liven the experience up with achievements, a ‘campaign’ of challenges to work through, as well as options for one-off matches or full blown Euro 2012-style tournaments. Classic Mode is the basic game, while Arcade Mode replaces the ball with a timebomb. Starting at five seconds and adding time after every pass, the idea is to try and blow the opponent’s players off the table while scoring goals in the process. Frustration abounds, however, as hitting a powerful pass that rebounds aimlessly for five seconds before destroying one of your own players further highlights the static lack of control.
As for the multiplayer option, this involves two players taking turns on one system, resulting in an experience even slower and less interesting than single player. When you throw in modest visuals lacking an attractive colour palette and stock crowd noises, it’s an experience that underwhelms on every level.
Conclusion
Goooooal Europa 2012 promises to bring fast-paced table-top football action to a handheld, but instead delivers static tedium. The inability to defend without the ball, the painful simplicity and the dull tempo of play make this a failed concept. Some ideas are best left behind in the coach’s office.
Comments 26
Haha, saw that one coming.
Awwwwwwwww. Was looking foward to this
I could tell this wouldn't work out.
I love how people still look forward to games like this and the incoming score isn't blatantly obvious to them.
Is "Hi, I'm a plastic footballer," actually in the game?
Whoa! Was expecting somewhere in the 4-6 range.
more like Nooooo
The top down view reminds me of Bill Lambeir's Combat Basketball for SEGA Genesis/MegaDrive. lol
Ha! They even misspelled "Europe". Was expecting this.
@TheDreamingHawk http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UEFA_Europa_League
See now, this is why Cinemax need to stick to the app-style downloads like Rytmik and the scientific calculator
This game looked soooooo boring in the trailer!
saw this coming
@Vintage Argh. The worthless changes between the european and american vocabs.
@TheDreamingHawk ... What?
@TheDreamingHawk They speak more than one language in Europe, you know.
@ueI I mean british english, I know there are multiple countries, I'm just talking about works like "Colour" and all of those words with the U in it. Why the US had to remove the U's in said words will always confuse me.
Regardless, I don't want to argue about countries anymore, as I know that Cinemax will post on this review trying to defend this bad game anyway.
Our game is based on turn base table game we played as kids in our childhood. So it’s same gameplay on DSi as on table. If you like this table game you will love this game and vice versa.
Our inspiration: <a rel="external" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5P1wUYZdew8">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5P1wUYZdew8</a>
This game is just as good as England performance in the Euro 2012.
@TheDreamingHawk I love the way they posted right after you said that lo
*lol
I saw that coming.
only in the dsi shop not the nintendo e shop ;(
@benjicord This is available on the 3DS eShop as well as the DSi Shop, in fact we downloaded our copy on a 3DS.
As soon as I saw that Cinemax was doing this, I immediately thought, "Oh, it's totally gonna crash and burn."
I would buy this if it was 200 points but at this price I get The Legend of Zelda. Maybe I´ll buy this later becau7se I really loved this game when IU was younger
This has got 5 stars on the e-shop lol
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