Soccer Tsuku Shoot review: Sega’s attempt at making soccer less interesting

Soccer Tsuku Shoot, Sega’s new game for iOS and Android devices, allows you to coach your very own soccer club. You read that right. Coach, not play, your own soccer club. Because everyone knows sitting on the sidelines making calls is where the real fun is to be had. Right?

You make the call!

Soccer Tsuku Shoot starts by having you choose your name, location, and uniform design. Once you’ve set up your club, you quickly move on to your first match, which acts as a tutorial. Not knowing what I was getting myself into, my immediate assumption was that I was to somehow control the players as they ran across the field. This unfortunately was not the case.

You play as the coach and shout out calls for the players to move the ball forward, left, or right, counter when on defence, pressure the opposing team, and most importantly, shoot. Once the first match started and the tutorial walked me through all of the different options, I could see that I was limited to six or so calls.

The game stresses that you have to measure your team’s power versus your opponent’s defense and think strategically before you do anything. This means moving the ball down the field, changing direction, and making the correct calls to build up combos and boost up your ‘power’ in order to overtake your opponent’s defense. In theory, the right combination of calls would make it easier to score. In reality though, I’ve won most of my games by simply telling my team to counter when on defense and shoot when I was close enough to the goal.

You continue making your calls until the end of the game which is determined by a 3 point lead or by time running out. Both goals and victories will earn you prizes in the form of new players that you can then add to your roster. Once added you can use them in game, or in practice to help make your players stronger.

The game is simple to a fault. Not being a soccer fan, I quickly found myself bored with making calls or changing the roster. What did pique my interest though, was Soccer Tsuku Shoot’s system for leveling up. The game does not simply give you experience from playing games, but rather has you train with players that you collect from winning games. So in between matches you can take your favorite player, and have him train with some of the grunts on the team. This will help the player to level up, and become a better player. This borrowed RPG mechanic adds some much needed diversity to the gameplay and allows you to build a more personalized team.

But how does it look?

Sega did a fantastic job making the game look and sound great. The 3D graphics will instantly grab you and bring you into the match, and the music is sure to have your toes tapping. That being said, the players’ faces are laughably bad. During the game everything looks fantastic, but when the game zooms in on a face, you can’t help but cringe.

Soccer Tsuku Shoot is a free-to-play game that features a stamina system as well as some in-game purchases, but neither hinder the game in the slightest. Each match will cost you a certain amount of energy, referred to as TP. If you run out of your TP you will be unable to play, but seeing how the game gives you an abundance of this TP and it rejuvenates rather fast, I never once found myself needing buy more.