free-association football

August 5, 2019 7:46 AM

Use your mouse or your finger to fling your tiny pixelated soccer/football person goalward? ballward? skyward? backward? in A Small World Cup, a hilarious wee ludumdare 38 game by Rujo Games. (Hat tip to RPS.)
posted by cortex (23 comments total)

Russia is cheating. :(
posted by Faint of Butt at 7:54 AM on August 5, 2019

*giggles uncontrollably*
posted by TheCoug at 9:03 AM on August 5, 2019

The own goals are brutal, but this is great. There was a similar Gridiron Football game on iOS I can't remember the name of, but was tons of fun. The added wrinkle was that your players arms were windmilling wildly the whole time and you could "catch" and "pass" the ball. You had to have possession in the end zone to score.
posted by Rock Steady at 9:30 AM on August 5, 2019

Fantastic. Thanks!
posted by dobbs at 9:37 AM on August 5, 2019

This is really cute. It seems the key is to just be patient and wait for the opponent to make their move, then knock the ball into the goal.
posted by Fleebnork at 9:45 AM on August 5, 2019

Although, I do wonder why the click-drag mechanics are backwards? It would be so much simpler to just drag in the direction you want to go?
posted by Fleebnork at 9:59 AM on August 5, 2019 [1 favorite]

I just visualized it as a slingshot, ie pull back to propel the player.
posted by Harald74 at 10:04 AM on August 5, 2019 [2 favorites]

Yeah, I'd go as far as to say there is a tradition (if certainly not a unanimous consensus) of using pull-away vectors for aiming in goofy ballistics games; either approach works but this one feels very likely and familiar.

Really this is essentially QWOP meets Scorched Earth in my mind, which is why I found myself posting it after like two minutes of play.
posted by cortex at 10:09 AM on August 5, 2019 [3 favorites]

Impossible to get enough velocity to do well if you play with your browser window maximized by the way.
posted by caution live frogs at 12:38 PM on August 5, 2019 [1 favorite]

Also I suck at this?
posted by caution live frogs at 12:38 PM on August 5, 2019 [1 favorite]

This game seems well-designed to, among other things, make me inadvertently rearrange the icons on my dock.
posted by pykrete jungle at 2:24 PM on August 5, 2019 [6 favorites]

I have only won a single match, but I have concussed innumerable European athletes.
posted by nickmark at 2:27 PM on August 5, 2019 [2 favorites]

Standing still is a surprisingly effective strategy; just do nothing and eventually the CPU will flailingly score on itself. This game perpetuates the most unfair stereotypes of soccer.
posted by justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow at 3:24 PM on August 5, 2019 [2 favorites]

I'm pretty sure I just scored on a handball. I should be playing as Argentina.
posted by justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow at 3:26 PM on August 5, 2019 [2 favorites]

Having the ball bouncing harmlessly far away from your goal is almost as valuable as a goal. If you’re ahead, it’s more valuable than a goal.

Also, always try to keep your player between your own goal and the ball. If you overshoot the ball, you’re in trouble.
posted by Kattullus at 3:28 PM on August 5, 2019

I wondered briefly if the developers had programmed the AI to try and incorporate different playing styles of different national teams - then England won 5-0 and I knew they had not.
posted by nickmark at 4:39 PM on August 5, 2019 [5 favorites]

Too much fun for something so cute.
Finally won it all by hiding in my own goal and letting the other teams score on themselves.
Not exactly the beautiful game, but effective!
posted by rouftop at 11:14 PM on August 5, 2019 [1 favorite]

The tiny players bouncing around helplessly in slow motion after each goal is worth the price of admission.
posted by billiebee at 4:04 AM on August 6, 2019 [1 favorite]

I found the best strategy was to furiously pummell the opponent into a corner and wait for the ball to bounce into your net.
posted by destrius at 9:04 AM on August 6, 2019 [2 favorites]

uuugh lost in the last round.

this is too fun.
posted by numaner at 10:45 AM on August 6, 2019

an effective strategy seem to be bulldozing the opponent into your goal and wait for them to score on themselves when they sling back to the ball
posted by numaner at 9:56 AM on August 8, 2019

Marco Bandolo has made some improvements to the game. It’s worth checking out again.
posted by Kattullus at 8:29 AM on August 9, 2019

It’s considerably more challenging now. In the old iteration I won eight or nine out of ten games, now it’s more like six or seven, and games are often close. I even won a game 1-0.
posted by Kattullus at 9:51 PM on August 9, 2019 [1 favorite]