Rematch hands-on preview: Sifu Devs do football… So far, they are pinning it
Blog Andrew Joseph 17 Apr , 2025 0
Football was the first organized sport I participated in when I was a kid. Wearing our white and yellow uniforms, practicing with my dad, and being with the snack after the game (mom? Orange slices again?) is a nostalgic memory for me, like the tension of struggling on the court, struggling when struggling on opportunities. I didn't realize how that felt until I spent some time with Sloclap's fast-paced, Arcadey's multiplayer football game (Parisians took charge of SIFU) and Arcadey's multiplayer football game.
Sports games are more than most genres and unfortunately stagnated over time, avoiding innovation to improve – perhaps partly because the game limits the inherent rules of the sport. The result is that games like FIFA and PES become staples, iterating year after year, but don't really offer any novels. Sometimes you get Mario forward, football manager (the real Sickos there), and now I can add the rematch to the list.
Instead of controlling the football player team, you can only play football – but each player is another real person. You will start with the character creator designing the look, determine what the “home” and “Away” uniforms look like, and head to the court to play. Sloclap's team said they wanted to design a game that makes great dramas feel profitable and wrong, which is certainly correct for my rematch experience during the closed beta.
After struggling back and forth, I finally had the chance to shoot at the goal, but I just missed the excited shouts of “No!” I legally threw my fists into the air as I played for a teammate to slam a little bit. Since this is a multiplayer game, I had to rely on this back and forth with my teammates to create vacancies, and it felt difficult to let them down. Although we didn't play together for more than a few minutes at a time, I invested in a squad of 4 and 5 people (everyone's casual queue, ranked 5V5 mode).
It is important to note that there are no statistics (like another skill-based football game; Rocket League), so you will only get better when you improve, making the progress more personal and meaningful. Adding to the design effect on the controls means it's easy to start, but it feels like every step you improve has a certain depth and self-expression.
These tutorials allowed me to quickly increase my speed, teach me how to shoot, pass, tap, push the ball, how to do tricks easily, sprint endurance, etc. Then some limited practice routines provide opportunities to test and improve these skills. More importantly, once every game starts, there is almost no downtime. No fines, no timeouts, only great games. The only time you don't control the character is the game introduction, combos and brief replays after each goal.
You can use special currencies to get target celebrations, uniforms, and other character customization options, but the structure of the unlock system is not final, so we have to wait 1.0 to make a final ruling on this. Hopefully we don't have any serious microtransactions waiting for us. I didn't expect that because Sloclap has given up on free games. The rematch will cost $30.
Football is a hub for the pivot from the hardcore kung fu cape, but so far Sloclap shows it versatility from one genre to a completely different type. The continuity line between the two games is that they both are excellent. I wish the minor but annoying bugs I encountered in the Beta were able to sort out and got some necessary polish in the months from now until June 19th release, as the rematch made me feel a little old football excited and I didn't know I was missing.
