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The Star
7 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Star
Kung Fu's kinetic action meets the beautiful game
The video game Rematch isn't soccer as seen on television or EA Sports FC . The camera sits low, centred behind one player, not the familiar broadcast angle from the bleachers. The ball is easily lost as it flies overhead or hides beneath a crush of bodies. Its online multiplayer matches, played in three-, four- and five-player teams, feel closer to the amateur soccer games played by millions worldwide. And unlike in other soccer video games, Rematch players are fully autonomous. There is no artificial intelligence to assist passes or control teammates. A fresh approach to soccer feels long overdue at a time when the creativity in sports games chiefly lies in the efforts to encourage impulse in-game purchases. Rematch's creative director, Pierre Tarno, considers innovation an existential necessity for independent studios during economically challenging times. Advancing players look to evade or bait defenders with tricks, feints, changes of direction and acceleration. 'The only way to stand out and survive,' he said, 'is to make a game that's very good quality and original.' Tarno and three fellow Ubisoft employees founded the Parisian studio Sloclap in 2015, and it has built a reputation for unusually exacting action games. Its breakout title, the kung fu brawler Sifu (2022), sold 4 million copies thanks to a dancelike combat system inspired by the dynamic fight scenes and reactive environments of Jackie Chan movies. The same kung fu cinema techniques, including freeze frames and camera shakes on impact, give Rematch 's animation satisfying kinetic force as players crash into one another or shoot the ball with fierce power. Its online multiplayer matches, played in three-, four- and five-player teams, feel closer to the amateur soccer games played by millions worldwide ' EA Sports FC is a football simulation,' Tarno said. 'We are a football player simulation.' One-on-one soccer duels in Rematch demonstrate their martial arts pedigree. Advancing players look to evade or bait defenders with tricks, feints, changes of direction and acceleration. Defenders strafe from side to side to bar their path, block potential shots and find a window to seize the ball. These showdowns invert conventional combat. Tarno believes that in soccer, attackers are actually defenders protecting the ball; the defender is an attacker intent on dispossessing the opponent by force. Flying cars with wild pinball physics are worlds away from Rematch's precise human shooting and passing. Alongside aim, technique and impeccable timing, soccer is a game of movement. Tarno sees similarities to astronomy's notoriously complex three-body problem. 'The expression that came to mind was the 10-body problem,' he said. 'The ball has a gravitational pull on players. But players also have a gravitational pull or repulsion toward each other.' These ripple effects reflect soccer's tactical complexity. Players anticipate second- and third-order effects, developing the game sense or vision to know when to run forward to pull opponents out of position, or when to track back to stifle a counterattack. During prerelease betas, teams learned to punish misplays or tricksters who overuse Neymar's trademark rainbow flick – lifting the ball over opponents with a backheel. That skill set is one shared with Rocket League (2015), but Tarno rejects direct comparison with the extremely popular game. Flying cars with wild pinball physics are worlds away from Rematch 's precise human shooting and passing. Soccer's primary act is firing a projectile, so Rematch always features a crosshair; in one sense, it's a bulletless third-person shooter. When Sloclap held an esports tournament, Call of Duty sharpshooters triumphed over Rocket League and EA Sports FC experts. Despite the cries for innovation, annual sports titles still hold a captive audience. Challengers like Rematch – which was released this week for the PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S – will not dent EA Sports FC 's market share, said Emmanuel Rosier, the director of market analysis at the strategy firm Newzoo. Soccer's primary act is firing a projectile, so Rematch always features a crosshair; in one sense, it's a bulletless third-person shooter. But it may be possible to find players in other genres. Rematch can afford creative flourishes unavailable to games that rely on licenses, and its focus on team-oriented multiplayer games can support an esports player base, Rosier said. These factors, he said, create 'a bigger addressable market than realistic soccer games.' Sloclap does grapple with real soccer archetypes, such as the opportunistic goalhanger who will not defend, or attackers whose attempts to channel prime Cristiano Ronaldo derail each attack with overconfident trickery. 'There's a risk players will hug the ball and try to be the hero, role-play their favourite 'Blue Lock' character, try to dribble past everyone and fail miserably at doing so, which can frustrate teammates,' said Tarno, referring to a soccer manga. When Sloclap held an esports tournament, Call of Duty sharpshooters triumphed over Rocket League and EA Sports FC experts. But he has found that giving defenders the advantage has discouraged such nuisances while encouraging team play and short passing. During prerelease betas, teams learned to punish misplays or tricksters who overuse Neymar's trademark rainbow flick – lifting the ball over opponents with a backheel. 'You'll find players who try and rainbow flick their way out of everything, but it seems to be happening less and less,' Tarno said. 'The drive people have to play the hero is not greater than the drive people have to win.' – ©2025 The New York Times Company This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
The Guardian
11-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Rematch packs five-a-side football with sweaty thrills
In the early 00s, offbeat sports games were king. From the slam-dunking shenanigans of NBA Street to Mario Strikers' show-stopping absurdity, once serious competitions were reimagined as wonderfully silly grudge matches. Yet as the live service era arrived, sport sims became less about pulse-pumping plays, and more about collecting increasingly expensive virtual trading cards. Enter Rematch, a refreshingly action-packed reimagining of the beautiful game. Channelling the scrappy thrills of Powerleague five-a-side, Rematch sidelines Fifa's team-focused tactics to put you in the studded boots of a single player. With controls like a third-person action game, developer Sloclap channels its martial arts-heavy experience with previous titles Sifu and Absolver into creating weighty, skill-driven football. It's wonderfully agile, fast and furious stuff. Passes are delivered manually, shots are curled in the heat of the moment, and goalies come sprinting down the halfway line like an Oliver Kahn possessed. Gratuitous slide tackles and bicycle kicks are the order of the day, and as my teammates and I score our respective half-line screamers, I can't stop grinning. 'Fifa is a football simulation and Rematch is a football player simulation,' says creative director, Pierre Tarno. 'In gaming this kind of pass to volley kick action simply does not exist any more. So, we thought: 'Let's make it happen!'' Where Sifu had you knocking seven shades of chi out of a slew of martial arts masters, Rematch channels similarly reflex-testing gameplay into a kickabout. Thanks to the high level of player control, matches get surprisingly sweaty surprisingly quickly. Without 10 other controllable players to consider, Rematch is a game of constant movement. Sprinting costs precious stamina, and holding the 'run' button constantly à la Fifa is a swift way to fumble your shot. Thankfully, you've got a trick hidden under your knee pads. A tap of the bumper lets off a sudden, swift burst of speed. Tied to a separate meter, this emergency boost is great for chasing down the striker in your box or for ditching that defender snapping at your heels. Soon you're balancing midfield and defensive play on the fly and charging into goalmouth scrambles in authentically scrappy fashion. Sporting an art style that's part Breath of the Wild, part French impressionism, anime-esque speed lines follow your player as you sprint across each lusciously rendered pitch. Scoring a goal warps the virtual environment around you, the stage's backdrop transforming Smash Bros-style, to match the leading team's home stadium, as the ball hits the back of the net in an explosion of colour. According to Tarno, Rematch's visuals were an attempt to recreate the look of soft dreamy paintings inside immersive 3D stadiums. Yet despite its endearingly cartoony look, there's a welcome lack of screen-filling super moves and gravity defying feats. 'We once had wall-running built into the game,' he says, 'but it was a little too far from the credible football fantasy that we were aiming for.' This is a world that's bright in aesthetic and outlook. Set in 2065, instead of taking place inside video games' usual grimdark dystopia, Sloclap offers a refreshingly optimistic view of the future, the environments focused on renewable energies and natural landscapes. One stadium is encased in a dam that generates hydraulic power, another sees your match unfolding nestled under a hillside with spinning wind turbines. 'We wanted to dream up a world in which mankind has made the right choices, in which cooperation and resilience are shared values, on and off the pitch,' says Tarno. 'It's really about the joy of playing with friends.' Once the controls finally click, I am fully invested in my ramshackle team. Just like Sloclap's previous output, Rematch is about mastery, a game where your avatar starts off at the height of their powers – it's just up to you to figure out how best to wield them. It helps that in Rematch's world, offsides, fouls and – mercifully – VAR are a thing of the past, with futuristic footie letting nothing slow the action. 'I think players who aren't fans of football will be surprised that they can still enjoy a football game, because it's intense and dynamic,' says Tarno. As Rematch is online-only, a ball call system lets players raise their hand as they shout and request the ball, with players also able to track the position of the ball – and their teammates – on an FPS-style minimap. There's more than a touch of Overwatch to Rematch's futuristic footie. The squad-led approach and precise manual aiming mean it feels just as satisfying to set up a goal as it does to score one. Rematch also shares a sense of arcade kinship with Rocket League – yet where Psyonix's unstoppable hit sees players launching their Hot Wheels-esque vehicles into comically large footballs, Rematch delivers a more plausible approximation of the game. Rematch is filled with fun player customisation, allowing you to design everything from home and away kits to picking your avatar's piercings. In keeping with its more inclusive vision of the future, there's a vitiligo selector and even options for customisable prostheses for your player. Rematch will be a paid release, and I'm told that around half of cosmetic items will be unlockable through play, with additional items sold via in-game currency. Regardless of price point, Tarno is acutely aware that only one thing truly matters. 'There's no secret formula to game development,' he says. 'The only way to make a commercial success is to make a very good game. It's truer in games than any other entertainment industry … gamers are a very discerning audience. They are often very analytical, very precise in their assessment of mechanics and what works and what doesn't … If the game is not good enough, it simply won't succeed.' This month's open beta will be crucial to fine-tuning Rematch. So far at least, it's been a promising first half. I came into my demo expecting Mario Strikers-esque throwaway fun, and left with sweat-drenched hands. Sloclap's mission is to bring a sense of fun back into virtual football, and based on what I've seen bandied about this colourful pitch so far, Rematch has the depth to make it to the big leagues. Rematch is released on PC, PS5 and Xbox in summer 2025
