Football Cup 2022

Genre: Sports (Soccer)

Players: 1

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Review:

Football Cup 2022 is a Soccer game (yes, that kind of Football) released on mobile devices in 2018, ported to Xbox One and PlayStation 4 in 2021, and ported to Nintendo Switch in 2022. “Wait,” I hear more astute readers saying, “they released a game called Football Cup 2022… in 2018?” and my answer to that is… no! Of course not! They undoubtedly released in under the title Football Cup 2019 and have simply changed the name (and maybe the rosters? I don’t know, I don’t follow the sport) every year since on mobile devices. It is currently available on mobile devices under the name Soccer Cup 2024: Football Game.

As such, you might suspect that Football Cup 2022 is graphically dated, and you would be right in that suspicion. Blurry textures, static crowds, and players whose animations sometimes cause their limbs to separate from their bodies. This is joined by canned crowd noises, decent hitting sounds, and a whistle sound to represent out-of-bounds or end-of-play, and that’s it as far as sound during gameplay – no music or announcer here.

Sadly, the game’s menus betray this game’s mobile roots, with countless game modes trying to entice players to win coins. Yeah, this game was clearly a microtransaction-fest on mobile devices, though the microtransactions have been stripped out here.

The focus on cute little minigames is actually not bad for variety, and it gives players plenty of opportunity to improve their skills with the gameplay. And to this game’s credit, the gameplay here is pretty good. I do wish the game more consistently gave players an idea where their passes and shots would land, but otherwise, against all odds, the core gameplay here is pretty good for a Soccer game, and the supplemental content is great too.

No, the problem here certainly isn’t the gameplay, and it isn’t even the presentation. The problem here is the AI difficulty. Once you learn how to pass, shoot, sprint, steal, and “trick” (dodging an opponent’s attempt to steal the ball), defeating the game’s AI players becomes laughably easy. Just steal the ball, run to the opponent’s goal, sprint if someone behind you starts to catch up, trick if someone approaches you from the front (including the goalie), and you can walk right up to the goal and score an easy point. Wash, rinse, repeat.

These pushover AI opponents wouldn’t be so terrible if the multiplayer mode was good, but unfortunately this game has no multiplayer. So all you can do are Soccer-related minigames and matches against pathetic AI opponents. With this being the case… what’s the point?

It’s a shame that Football Cup 2022 had to trip over itself so hard when it came to the presentation, AI, and multiplayer, because if the game’s creators worked harder to make those elements better, this could have been one of the better Soccer games on Nintendo Switch. No, seriously. The core gameplay is good, and there’s plenty of content to keep players busy. But with the AI so embarrassingly bad and no multiplayer, there’s just no point to playing this game at all. At least, not unless you want to play a game of Soccer where you can win every match without breaking a sweat.

tl;dr – Football Cup 2022 is a Soccer game that clearly shows its mobile roots, with a terrible presentation, and clear signs of predatory monetization that has been stripped out of this release of the game. Even so, the core gameplay here is quite good, and the abundance of Soccer-themed minigames and tutorial content brings a lot of variety to this package. Unfortunately, it’s all pointless – the AI opponents are absolute pushovers, and there’s no multiplayer, meaning there’s no challenge to be found here. This could have been a hidden gem of a Soccer game, but instead it’s a disappointment.

Grade: D+

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