Jump onto the pitch!
Every time I walked by the Run Games booth, there was a crowd playing Football Heroes League. It looked like my type of game so I decided to check it out. Think of Rocket League if it was played by superheroes and not cars. That is Football Heroes League in a nutshell. The devs are Run Games wanted to make an arcade-like soccer game with comparisons to NBA Jam in terms of how the game works/plays. I played three games in my session and it felt like there was a major learning curve in terms of gameplay and controls.
The camera isn’t great and it felt like there were times when I was trying to see the ball I couldn’t. Also in terms of camera angle, I was under the impression that what direction my character was looking was how I aimed my shot. I made sure I was looking at the goal most times I took a shot but it didn’t seem like my shot was going anywhere near where I wanted to go with it. There was no pass button and in games like this, I feel that could be a major plus for it. Think of games like NHL 94 or NBA Jam not having a pass button and you needed to shoot to get the ball/puck down the rink/court. That would get annoying really fast and being able to pass directly to your teammate in Football Heroes League would be a great addition especially playing two-on-two like we did for the demo. It’s called Football Heroes League because the players have superpowers like heroes. I really like the designs of the characters and they all feel different enough to have each one be someone’s favorite. I tried Beckers, Frostine, and Leo and the game didn’t really get going for me until I played as Leo. Each character has their own position on the field and special attacks/powers. I thought I would like playing as an attacker/midfielder but liked playing defense better. Leo is a defender type and probably why I liked playing as him the best.
The controls in the game felt overly complicated as there were times that I forgot I could jump or charge my shot. You can slide tackle to get the ball away from opponents as well as use your special attacks to get the upper hand in the match. Special attacks vary but in the demo, I saw fireballs getting shot at me as well as being able to freeze your opponents. The action was frantic as my team was down four to two late in the match and we scored two goals in about seven seconds to get the game to overtime. In the extra frame, we managed to find a way to win the match! Being able to lock onto the Soccer ball so you could see it at all times would make things so much easier. The game could be said for an easier way to shoot the ball/aim at the goal instead of turning the camera the right way. Having a pass option would be nice too. Football Heroes League has a lot of good things going for it like the characters. Some improvements to the overall game and Football Heroes League is a game you’ll want to check out.
