Foosball Maniac Review
Foosball Maniac is probably the best video game adaptation of foosball you’ll ever play. But is it worth the asking price of $10? No.
That’s not really the fault of the small two-man team, Cybertron BT, but this game simply doesn’t give enough to be worth $10. There is nothing to the game besides a simple single-player mode, with computer opponents of increasing difficulty unlocking one after the other as you beat them in 5-point games. Were it not for the game’s technically impossible difficulty level, (more on that later), the game might only take you an hour to beat. Without any modes or added value beyond the single-player campaign, the game isn’t worth playing as much more than freeware.
Foosball is not a computer-friendly game. The game was meant to be a physical way to play soccer (football) inside your home, and it just doesn’t work very well with video game controls. In real life, you have to use both hands, spinning and switching between the control rods, which is already awkward to coordinate for many people. The rod-spinning dynamics don’t map well to a keyboard, joystick, or even console game controller, so in any video game version of foosball, you’re left either barely able to hit the ball, unable to switch between rods well enough, or in the case of this game, still handicapped by the fact you can only move one rod at a time. This game does the best job of any foosball video game I’ve ever played at letting you control things, and yet it’s still frustrating. My typical foosball strategy is to keep one hand on the goalie rod to bat away any sudden strikes on my goal, and that’s just impossible in this or any other foosball game.
Each computer opponent is introduced through a glmour shot and a three-sentence bio, all of which boil down to “This opponent is slightly harder to beat than the last one”. The two-level demo gives you possibly all you’ll ever need of the game, given just how difficult the computer opponents get after that. The first two or so opponents will hardly touch the ball, and yet they can still beat you through your own goals alone. This breaks the typical game design maxim “Look hard, but play easy.” The computer plays like a toddler, and yet it’s still difficult to beat, even in the first levels. The game’s website even says that no one has apparently ever beaten the final level, so I guess they can advertise that you could spend an eternity on this game and never beat it, which is actually good.
There’s not much more to the game. It looks fine, and plays better than any other foosball video game I’ve seen (more than one song would have been nice, though) but there’s not enough content and the base game isn’t very satisfying. This is probably why EA is making all of its money off of FIFA and not ITSF (look it up).
Review
Pros
Looks fine and plays better than any other foosbal
Cons
game low on content and incredibly difficult
