Those of you advanced enough in years (and based in Europe) will no doubt recall the Kick Off series of football (soccer to our North American chums) titles on home computers and consoles. Alongside Sensible Software's Sensible Soccer series, Kick Off was considered by many to be the pinnacle of the genre - until EA's FIFA and Konami's International Superstar Soccer / Pro Evo Soccer came along, at least.
Creator Dino Dini recently produced a successor in the form of Kick Off Revival on the PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita and Steam, and publisher The Digital Lounge has now revealed that a Nintendo Switch port is "in its plans":
Given the esteem in which the Kick Off series is held this might normally be reason for celebration, but sadly Kick Off Revival has been mauled by critics since its launch last year. Our friends over at Eurogamer were perhaps kinder than most when they said:
What Kick Off Revival does emphatically is scratch a certain retro itch of user unfriendliness, to the extent that getting the better of the CPU or a human opponent within its shock corridor of ricochet gameplay feels like a genuinely hard-won achievement. When things are going your way, there are fleeting moments of euphoria to be found in its exaggerated physics and sense of teetering calamity. And when you're getting unfairly thumped, there's still a grim, chew-toy satisfaction in straining every sinew to get back in the game. It might not be a dead-on Kick Off revival. But it's not quite dead on arrival either.
Perhaps the issues which have plagued the game since launch will be fixed by the time the Switch version arrives; if this turns out to be the case, would you be excited about playing this? Lace up those boots and make sure the magic sponge is ready, and leave us a comment while you're at it.
[source gonintendo.com]
Comments 34
I used to Love Sensible soccer so this does interest me
I was very close to ordering it for the PS4 not too long ago till I read a few customer reviews on Amazon...... To put it politely the reviews were terrible so I didn't bother.
If they can fix the controls and the bugs and its available for a reasonable price then I could be interested again.
GOOOOOooooooaaaaaa....
What's that you say? It's crap? Oh ffs fml!
@Marios-love-child sensible soccer is soooooooo much better than kick off. kick off deserved to be left in the dark. Actually thought this was worse than the old version lol.
I was so excited when I first saw this.Super Kick Off was one of my favourite games back in the day.Me and my best mate were mad about that game.Then I saw the reviews,31% on Metacritc.Sore one!
"Dino Dini's Kick Off Revival is an affront to the memory of the original product: a bad game from every point of view."
"Like England's current squad this is woeful, broken, and actually depressing"
I'd rather have SWOS.
Loved playing sensible soccer, even had a night of it about a year ago, the Mega Drive version.
Kick Off was probably the first football game that was actually any good.I played loads in the 80's and although I enjoyed them at the time,really they were crap.From Pele's Soccer to Match Day 2 to Emlyn Hughes International Soccer to World Cup Italia 90,no one could make a decent game of it.After Kick Off though,things improved a lot.Super Kick Off,European Club Soccer,the original FIFA and Sensible Soccer were all great games.
Kick Off 2 was amazing. I will be adding this to my library no problem.
I liked the Kick-Off series but Sensible Soccer was better. Eventually they were superceded by ISS and FIFA. While I remember them with fondness I'm not sure they're needed. They were a product of limited technology at the time. That problem doesn't exist anymore.
There's still a place for Sensible Soccer, no doubt. The amount of good feeling for that game, I can't fathom how there's not been anything better than Sensible Soccer 2006 released since the SWOS days.
Interested.....
So it's not good as Kick Off or Kick Off do not please actual audience? Because if it's the latter I would consider to buy it since Kick Off is still a funny game, and should be a perfect match to the Nintendo Switch. It does look good from the video.
I did play it with a 'switchy' joystick back then (Amiga).
I do like Kick Off more than sensible. Sensible was a bit more 'limited' gameplay wise. Certainly a good game that too, it had far better 'coreography', Kick Off was a bit bare but I liked more the gameplay.
@SLIGEACH_EIRE - I totally agree that Sensi was better than Kick Off. But I'm not so sure on your idea about them not being needed. It may be my age - almost 40 - but picking up a FIFA game is a completely different experience to me.
I loved the pace, fluidity and flexibility of Sensi. The view point, the space on the pitch and the analogue control feel (as in not so computer directed) gave it a great sense of anything could happen. FIFA feels like a grind to me.
I think there's room for a great pick up and play game like Sensi if they could update it for a modern audience. Total Soccer was a pretty good, fluid (quite hard at first) game that followed Sensi's lead. They both shared that feeling of possibility and immense satisfaction when you strung together a series of killer passes culminating in a goal.
The Switch with its local multiplayer superpowers seems like a natural home for a game like that - it would make me - and possibly a few of my none gaming mates go out and buy one pretty sharpish anyway. A few of them have Amigas that come out now and again just to play Sensi - and none of them have any other games systems.
Me reading this headline:
Dino? Cool a dinosaur game. Oh, wait, Pitch? Ok a baseball game. Er, huh, Parrot? ok I guess I have to click this.
Sadly this game is... barely a game. Very poor, big disappointment when it was released last year on other platforms. I hope they patched it up considerably, that thing was super broken last time I got my hands in it.
Anyway, allow to be another guy in the crowd chanting "Sensible Soccer Please!" and escalate things one step further: "Speedball 2: Brutal Deluxe" on the Switch please!
Is there anything like this on Wii U, eShop, Wii, or WiiWare? I dog this style and would be interested in something similar.
I remember some soccer game on DS, 3DS or maybe it was DSiWare too.
Don't really care if this is garbage, I'm buying it. Nintendo is way behind on sports titles and I like to vote with my money to change that. Besides, soccer/football games have to be pretty terrible for me to be disappointed (ditto for hockey, but no one has those).
@msvt The Soccer Up series had the "after-touch" system like all of these top-down games did. Nintendo Life hated it, but I know some people on here who got into it. Sounds a lot like the review of this game, actually!
@Shiryu
Went through a few joysticks playing speedball 2 back in the day. Couldn't get the same control when I tried playing it on the 360 with the 360 controller. It seemed to suit a joystick and one button.
Disgusting. Why would I want to play a top-down football game again when they were already outdated 25 years ago?
Not for me but the Switch needs sports games!
@GiooiG I sadly admit to have reached about a dozen. I just kept the screwdriver near the Amiga by then. Getting those springs back on was a pain.
Loved Kick Off on my Amiga, preferred Sensi though.
The Speedball suggestion is inspired! That would be ridiculously amazing on the switch! The sound effects live long in my consciousness - 'Ice Cream! Ice Cream!'
I'm lobbying for Zip Stick Joy Cons!
Does Nintendo have the power to raise Sendible Software from the ashes??!!??
I really like Football, so if its cheap enough, I'll buy. It looks kinda like a stress relieve game lol
Sensible Soccer was actually good. While I loved Kick Off back in the day, it never was any good. Still, I'm looking forward to it!
If only Nintendo Pocket Football made it over here...
I never really connected with video game fans who think they can will a cherished franchise back to life. . . Until now.
I think Senible Soccer is my Mother 3.
As an American, I feel this will go the way of the RBI Baseball revival... keeping all the stuff we don't miss about old sports games while adding a lot we don't want.
I hope it's not like real soccer where you watch someone kick a ball back to their own side of the field and play keep away instead of trying to score. After enduring an infuriating 0-0 tie (oh god shoot me) that strategy seemed counter productive to me until I realised the real object of soccer is to do a swan dive and scream "Ow my knee" as often as possible until someone mesmerises them by showing them some kind of card. I think the red one elicits anger and the yellow one makes them docile or something.
I remember enjoying Super Kick Off on the Master System and would like an arcade style football game, but I very much doubt I'll get this. I have enjoyed plenty of games that got less than stellar reviews, but 31%! That is surely a broken game.
While we're (I am) positioning the Switch as the new Amiga (seriously, think about it!) - let me show some love for a teeny tiny game included on a free disk on the front of Amiga Power many moons ago. It was called Biplanes - and it was 2 player fun in a nutshell.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=VOfG04NFt0E
It's super simple - you fly your plane around a single 2D screen and try and shoot your friend. But had a really cool mechanic where you had to gain height so you could get manouvarability and speed to attack - and you'd have to gain height again etc etc. Me and my mate spent hours playing this beautiful little game. It's everything that the flying shooting plane game on Wii Sports isn't - tight, fast, fun.
It's the sort of thing someone could make a new version of for switch super easily - or Nintendo could include it as a bonus / waiting game. Included in a new Pilot Wings perhaps?
Edit: 'included in a'
No.... I trust that others did not like this retro abomination. I'm sure I won't either. It might sell well to hardcore soccer fans. But the fact of the matter is that Soccer games of today are so good why would you want to relive this. I don't mean to be hard on this game but it does sound bad no matter what they do to it. Retro Sidescrollers, RPG's and shooters are different. Most retro and those are still fun to play. I think sports titles in general are hard to get into unless they are called Blades of Steel!
It says available on Steam? Surely that's incorrect? I would have bought it otherwise.
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