Koku Gamer: Ico Soccer Review

To start off this review, one thing must be made abundantly clear. I’m American. That’s right, I said it.  And being American, soccer is about as high up on my list of favorite sports as water polo (which isn’t very high by the way).  Knowing this, you can understand why I approached Ico Soccer with extreme trepidation.  Sure, I’ll be the first to admit, I jumped on the U.S. bandwagon during the Confederation Cup.  But when it comes to soccer games, I tend to steer clear.  However, being proven wrong is something I enjoy quite a bit, so I was open to changing my mind.

The first thing to notice about Ico Soccer (other than the fact that it has nothing to do with the beloved PS2 masterpiece Ico) is how much it resonates with the old FIFA game for SNES, or Soccer for the NES.  The opening title screen has a very old school feel, and on the DS this makes for a very charming aesthetic.  You can tell from the get go that the folks on the Artematica development team put a lot of time into the art style, and the direction they take the game is nostalgic in the best way possible.  During the opening sequence, we see drawn stills of crowds, referee’s, and players that look like they were pulled straight out of the good old days.  If this isn’t a refreshing change from all the “updated’ versions of classic games, I don’t know what is.  The art of the gameplay itself is also very interesting.  The top screen on your DS features 3-D representations of players.  Though not the best graphical achievement to grace the DS by any means, it’s not bad to look at.  The touch screen shows a top down view, with which you actually interact.  In the vain of old Nintendo sports games on the GameBoy and SNES, this screen introduces some very interesting concepts that form the basis of the gameplay.

“A brand new way to play soccer on your Nintendo DS.”  So reads the tagline at the top of the box.  In many ways, it’s true.  Now as I’ve said, I haven’t played too much soccer on the DS, so this might seem like a bit of a stretch.  But I can honestly say I’ve never seen anything like this is all my years of handheld gaming.  The controls are split up into two categories — Easy and Pro.  Not exactly the most creative name choices (come on, no David Beckham “Mooch” mode?!) but it saves you from having too many difficulty choices.  On Easy, the game essentially plays itself.  The players on screen move around with minds of their own.  But here in lies a unique factor instituted by the game.  Because movement is controlled for you, a set of icons are displayed in the bottom right hand side of your screen.  For offense, these icons represent things like quickpass and shoot on goal.  In defense mode, they represent tackling, stealing, and various defensive formations.  This mode, though it’s called Easy, actually offers a decent amount of strategy and depth, and I found myself playing it almost as much as I played Pro.

Speaking of Pro, the name actually gives you a good indication of what the gameplay will be like.  Pro is difficult.  If you pick it as your first control scheme, it will take you a good half of a match to figure out how to move your guys around the field efficiently, let alone score.  It also introduces a mechanic that incorporates the touch screen into how your team moves.  The game allows you to trace the path you would like your selected player to follow.  This in itself adds an entire layer of strategic depth, and makes the game extremely unique.  Add this tough learning curve to the already obvious spike in difficulty, and you have yourself a real challenge.  Something that both modes have in common is a high level of goal scoring.  Bear with me on this one.  This isn’t a hapless FIFA clone on the DS.  Ico Soccer feels, much of the time, like a sort of Advance Wars/FIFA hybrid.  Yup, go ahead and read over that last sentence again.  “Ico” is a sports title that relies heavily on formation and the strategic side of things.  A bit shocking in a title who’s pause menu music sounds like it was transfered directly from Animal Crossing.  This is definitely a game that fools you with a casual exterior, but once you delve in, you’ll find an intense amount of concentration is required to navigate the game at the highest level.  In fact, the best example I can think of for a game like this is Mario Golf or Mario Tennis, for the GameBoy.  Those games ended up being pretty deep sports RPG’s, and while Ico Soccer doesn’t get quite that fleshed out, it approaches strategy in a very similar manner.  However, the games willingness to try new things doesn’t mean it is without its flaws.

I’ll get this out of the way early.  This game is insanely short.  And I don’t mean “Oh, they made the match length shorter to appeal to everyone!”  Rather, everything about this game is short.  The number of teams you can play, the number of game modes, the number of tournament types.  All offer very few options.  For the number of teams featured in the game, the grand total is five.  That’s right, only five squads are available to choose from.  That might not be a problem, if the rest of the game was large enough to incorporate them in interesting ways, but it isn’t.  The gameplay options are as follows.  Quick Match and World Cup.  Nothing more.  Severely disappointing when your title has the gameplay to make a truly compelling experience.  Sure there are training modes and a few options you can tweak, but is deciding the field type and the ball color really sufficient enough an excuse to leave out so much.  I mean honestly, in sports games, a career mode is expected, and if you want your title to do well sales wise in a market as over saturated as this one, you might want to add, not take away.  Another point some might see as negative, but that i personally believe to be hilarious, is the issue of licensing.  Since this game is not affiliated with any of the world teams, it cannot use the players actual name.  For example, on the United States team, Clint Dempsey is now simply Sempsey, and Landon Donovan is reduced to Nanovan.  Some might grumble that this makes the game even less genuine, but I think it adds to the games charm, and its retro feel.

All in all, my experience with Ico Soccer was an enjoyable one.  Thanks to the refreshingly retro look of the game, you are able to see the great lengths to which the developers went to craft their game.  However, in the process of crafting this very focused experience, they seem to have skimped out on a few of the necessary game modes and teams that would have made this title a must buy.  Sure, it took me about four hours to do everything worth doing, but more importantly, I had fun doing it.  As it stands, they do manage to overcome these re-playability issues with a very deep and satisfying set of mechanics that are executed well during matches.  In the end, it really comes down to you.  Are you in this for a long term, MLB: The Show-esque journey toward fame and fortune in a career spanning legacy.  Or are you here for a few quick games of soccer that take full advantage of the DS as a platform.  Only time, and sales, will tell where the majority lies.