PandaBall is an arcade-style soccer game from developer GetAGame and publisher PandaBall Aps. In this simplistic sporting game, you play a 5v5 soccer match as a team of pandas, each with unique skillsets in quick matches against computers or friends.
I love an arcade-style game where a normally complicated concept is stripped right down to its simplest form. Obviously, complexity and nuance can be great, but may, straightforward does equally well. That is, provided it doesn’t strip down so far that it’s missing key elements or mechanics. PandaBall is almost precisely what you need from an easy soccer game. It’s got a great AI with regards to the movement of the team. Passing is crisp, shooting is challenging, and also the occasional special balls and status effects keep things interesting.
At first, I was not particularly fond of the game, I’ll admit. Having played a lot of FIFA in my entire life, there are specific things I just naturally expected out of a soccer game. But once I took one step back and assessed PandaBall based by itself merits, I found I enjoyed it. The key here is the AI controls the teammates who are not beneath your direct control, quite smart. They’re basically always fighting for the best positions for passes and shots, letting you focus more about dodging defenders and getting yourself open for passing.
The powerups don’t do it for me personally. I can barely tell what most of them do, besides a few ball augmenters. I actually do enjoy, though, that a number of them render goals worth more than the usual anchorman. And I generally benefit from the status effects like getting burnt or knocked out. It can make you be less sloppy with your offense and defense alike. Sliding is hit or miss; it sometimes feels satisfying, especially with players just who be much better in internet marketing. On the other hand, sometimes it seems hardly worthwhile. Shooting is mainly good. Straight shots derive from an electrical meter and direction, when you can do fancy one-time shots from passes with possibility of great results. Those results rely on which character is on the receiving end, though, so picking which players to experience in which position is actually pretty important.
The one mechanic I can’t get past, though, is the passing. You've very handy indicators above your players’ heads akin to which button you use to pass through or switch to them on defense. They line up with the order of the buttons with an actual controller, that is great, especially on the Switch, since i can literally never remember which button is which, so you can just depend on direction instead. But when you pass, it basically stops the receiver in their tracks and goes only straight to them. If only greatly that there would be a through ball option. It’s fine, and that i got accustomed to not having it. It just requires more playing around, but it would have felt much stronger with one.
There is another leveling system, which is how you unlock other pandas and, for individual characters, completing certain accolades leads to wearable items. This is fine in theory. The only problem is, the sport is of rather low graphical quality, and things are so darn small, so it’s not necessarily probably the most valuable. It’s hard to separate pandas besides their general figures and even harder to see the constantly tiny text. There’s very little to read-it’s nothing like there’s a plot with dialogue-but it's still frustratingly small.
Not perfect by any means, but PandaBall is quite a solid arcade-style soccer game. It’s missing some tips i wish it had, plus some things like the text size are under ideal, but overall, it’s a pleasurable undertake simple and quick soccer matches.
PandaBall is available now on Nintendo Switch and PS4.
