Despite my best efforts to fit in and watch all the big games growing up, it turns out that I’m not one of those sporty lads. Real world sport just bores me senseless, mainly because there’s just not a lot of drama or excitement built in by default. Fortunately my beloved video games have me covered for this, creating all sorts of ridiculous fantasy sports that ensure dull 0-0 draws are practically impossible. Whether it’s the over the top high speed nonsense of Rocket League or the stupid special abilities in Super Mario Strikers, outlandish versions of football (or I suppose soccer if we must) have been delighting gamers for decades. Superball is hoping to be the new hotness in this entertaining subgenre, and it has all the tools to do so.
The elevator pitch for Superball is very simple, what if you combined football with Overwatch heroes. Well the answer is a fun arcadey footie game, with some suitably explosive moments. Matches don’t take too long, and the team who scores the most goals wins. The one difference though (besides the powers) is that there’s a score line, and if you can score goals from behind that line you’ll get two goals instead of one. If you’ve played or watched football before though you’ll get to grips with things pretty quickly.
While I initially thought that Superball would feature gameplay similar to something like Rocket League, it’s actually more of a traditional football game that happens to feature cyberpunk technology. The ball stays glued to your feet until you’re ready to shoot or pass, and you’ll spend a lot of your time with the ball dodging and weaving between the rival team. When it’s time to shoot you’ll probably want to charge up a little, and if you aim well there’s a good chance you’ll grab a goal for the team.
Each member of the three person team has a specific role, either a striker, midfielder or a goalie. Specific characters specialise in specific roles, and you’ll need to find your favourites in each of these because roles are assigned at random. Whether you’re defending the goal or scoring the points you’re going to be a key part of the team, so get ready to work together with your weird and wonderful powers.
What makes Superball special are the powers you get to use in this fun future sport. Some of these are very simple like granting dashes or aerial dodges to strikers who want to avoid being tackled. Others are more exciting like the ability to create portals or massive shields that deflect the ball when it’s heading into the back of the net. Alongside basic abilities each character also has a special you can charge by collecting glowing icons, which more often than not results in the ball exploding magically towards the other team’s goal hole.
Facing off against others online in standard matches is what you’ll likely spend most of your Superball career doing, but there are also some more outlandish modes available to play too. One of these is dodgeball, which flips the game on its head and turns matches into a warzone. Icebreaker is my favourite mode though, featuring icy walls that block goals and a sudden death feel. These are nice distractions from the main way to play, and are perfect for a quick match to play when turning the game on for a login bonus.
As you’d expect from a free to play game, Superball features all those live service features that you’ll either love or find off-putting. As an avid Fortnite player I’m no stranger to this model, but the setup in Superball is a bit painful. Different currencies aren’t explained, loot boxes you unlock by levelling up are hidden deep in menus, and you’ll start with a whole host of heroes locked away from play. I shudder to think how much time I spent lost in menus instead of actually playing ball, and this was time I was not enjoying.
It’s not just the free to play nature of the game that’s frustrating though, it’s also the hero aspect. The heroes themselves just aren’t full of the personality you’d expect from a title like this, and I barely had a connection to any of them. It doesn’t help that some of the powers are incredibly bland too, especially most of the boring strikers that all just feature different dodge abilities. This takes away from the excitement of the fantasy sport vibe, and makes matches all too often feel a bit ordinary.
Only time will tell if Superball will be the next big sports game success story, but with the right support and updates it could definitely happen. At launch it has fallen somewhat into the usual free to play pitfalls though, and this coupled with some bland heroes could result in an own goal in the first half.