What Kick-Off! Lacks, eFootball Doesn't Need

It’s so obvious why Konami released Kick-Off! on Switch 2. There’s a World Cup coming, but they don’t want to commit to full-blown live-service support on the platform. So what do they do? Port a part of it, focus on singleplayer and in-person multiplayer, add just enough leagues, modes and fidelity to qualify. And it’s still enough to outpace EA FC on the same system.

When it’s free off trading cards, legendary players somehow physically dominating the best modern athletes, and a thousand modes that produce no desire to explore any of them, modern football simulation feels liberating. It’s about football. Football here is crude, with the defensive and goalkeeping AI underdeveloped, far from the best eras of Pro Evolution Soccer and not even rivaling an up-to-date eFootball in its Authentic rendition. But it’s about just football, and this is why it’s decent at the very least.

It’s not the football game that surprises me most but the mini-games. In one, I run over a set of dribbling and passing challenges to score the goal as fast as possible. In another one, it’s Volta but hockey rather than futsal. They’re like the chat messages that appear over players: mostly unnecessary, but with a certain charm once you get rid of the illusion that it’s a serious sim and enjoy it for what it is.

Years of developing meta and unhealthy attachment with its player bases devoided football sims of fun. Modern takes pretend I don’t like to pass and shoot, to press and clear, to cross and throw in. They pretend I’m in it for the cards, for the numbers, for the daily goals and exploiting the same AI bugs year after year. Kick-Off! is an offshoot that may be outdated by the time it’s out and forgotten by the time World Cup wraps up, but it’s a reminder that football simulation is at its most fun when it’s about just the game.