Developed By: Julián Cordero, Sebastian Valbuena
Published By: Panic
Category: Sports
Release Date: 12.11.25
Price: $14.99
*Game Download Code graciously provided for the purpose of review
I normally don’t like playing sports games, I’ve made that very clear over the past year. But recently I played a basketball game called Dunk Dunk and I needed to cleanse my palette after that experience. Fortunately, I found another small and quirky game called despelote that I wanted to try. It’s a soccer game and I thought it looked promising.
But it’s not really a soccer game, it’s a game ABOUT soccer. The game follows a young boy who’s obsessed with soccer leading up to the 2002 World Cup. It takes place in Quito, Ecuador during their 2001 qualifying run that saw them reach the World Cup for the first time in history. The game is a mix between soccer game, slice of life, and biography. The soccer aspect of the game is pretty good with a physics based soccer ball and pretty accurate movement.
You play as a kid who’s living his soccer dream kicking a ball around the city while interacting with friends, family, and the locals. While the soccer gameplay is intuitive and lots of fun, it’s not the games strongest aspect. I thought it was the culture surrounding the game that made it so special.
We learn what living in Ecuador was like during that time. We learn about the economic hardships that plagued the country. We learn how important soccer is to the people. More importantly, we learn how impactful their qualifying berth was. There’s a lot of voice acting too, which made the experience feel even more real.
At first, I had trouble keeping up with the subtitles while also paying attention to the gameplay since I don’t know much Spanish. But by the end of the game, I learned a lot of words and I thought that was cool. despelote is a short game that might only take two or three hours but it’s worth every second. It’s a very charming game that only costs $14.99, so it’s worth a buy.
4/5
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