It’s the 2022 Football/Soccer WorldCup, and together with New Star Games, FiveAces Publishing has graced us with Retro Goal, originally released in June 2021 for mobile devices. After its success in the mobile market, they have ported it over to the handheld gaming device we all know as the Nintendo Switch.

When you first launch the game you get to choose your favourite team from one of the leagues, and even though they don’t share names with the real-world equivalents, you can tell which team they are representing. The menu system was beautiful with a retro look and feel, and it was kept nice and simple to avoid confusion, keeping in line with the retro vibe we all know and love. The game is based around one game mode which is a team-based upgrade system in one of the European leagues.

The gameplay is very simplistic in this title, in that passing and shooting goals don’t require you to learn all the advanced tricks and moves used in other soccer-based titles. It’s more or less the old feeling of needing to run from one end of the field to the other without losing the ball and pushing one button to score the goal to win the game. Having a more basic approach kept me enthused for hours, and because I wasn’t constantly wondering what buttons I had to push, it kept me wanting to play.

You also have the option to manage a team, and whilst doing so, you can earn in-game money to upgrade things like the Stadium, the Youth Academy, and the Training Facilities, but like the rest of the game, this was kept simple. The system was really easy to understand and well thought out, offering a more enjoyable side game rather than something that felt like it could make or break your team. The team management system is simple in the way that the only thing affected when upgrading is the player stats and the fans that can attend which is like most team-based upgrade systems.

The retro pixel-art graphics made Retro Goal feel like something else, and with most developers trying to push the boundaries in what their chosen system can achieve, New Star Games has done the complete opposite and kept with the running theme; they kept the game nice and simplistic. The character models are based around the pixel-art style but it’s detailed enough to know what you are looking at and nice enough that it’s visually appealing.

I feel like the audio could have used some more work, particularly with the atmosphere of actually playing the matches. All you could hear was the ball being kicked and the crowd cheering or booing, depending on if you made the goal kick.

There was a bit of retro 8-bit music playing while scrolling through the menu, but it would have been nice for this to carry over into the game, and while it would have been cool to hear some commentary, I can understand the choice in leaving it out to keep with the old school feeling.

The controls took a little getting used to, specifically in knowing when you are passing and when you are attempting a shot at a goal, although this is covered when you first load up and play the tutorial. Given Retro Goal originated on mobile devices, the controls are otherwise very straightforward, though it was interesting to see the pixelated characters reacting just as quickly to your inputs as some of the more known games out there.

If you are a fan of soccer, retro games, and beautiful pixelated art, Retro Goal is one for you. It left me feeling like I was reliving my childhood. As a fan of sports games, this is one that kept me entertained for hours, and the simple gameplay is a great way to introduce people to the virtual sports genre.

Written by: Hayden Nelson