The third (of probably many) Arc System Works football (yes North American readers – football!) games for the 3DS is not only World Cup related and released in time for the World Cup itself but an in-game screen calls the game Arc Style World Challenge Cup 2014 which leads me to believe Nintendo pulled the plug on the intended game title. The biggest difference between this game and the previous two are this being boys only (the previous version was girls only and the first was mixed) and the reason being (of boys only) this game attempting to ‘simulate’ the actual World Cup (albeit a six-a-side attempt).
Beginning by choosing one of thirty two teams (twenty more than initially available in the original) you then conform to the World Cup format of a group of four teams (the exact group as in the 2014 World Cup) then Second Round, Quarter Finals, Semi Finals, the Final and then (obviously) the World Cup is yours! Fans who want are a pure simulated football title as in World Soccer Winning Eleven or FIFA should of-course stay away as Arc System Works are going for the Nintendo World Cup experience with a disregard for rules (fouls are permitted and the offside rule is non-existent although corner kicks do exist).
Before talking about the game’s (many) faults I’ll detail what is so great about the game: being able to customise your players I create my player (pictured) who looks somewhat like my Mii (who doesn’t in-fact represent me all too well!) and my best friend’s Mii (who does in-fact represent him well!), I then choose my home country and begin the tournament with an amazing 5-0 victory over the once great Italy before coming back twice from behind for a 2-2 draw with Uruguay and a hard-earned 1-0 victory over Costa Rica to take the top spot before an absolutely (forgive my French) hard-as-fuck battle against Greece.
I’m sure Darius the Great wishes he could just quit out before a loss was officially recorded but that is the benefits of modern day technology I guess. Arc System Works fail to benefit from any kind of opportunity to test their games appropriately however and in a race to release their World Cup game in a timely fashion have one of the worst difficulty spikes that I’ve ever been unfortunate enough to experience. Ramping up the difficulty was one of the improvements needed to be made from the earlier games but the fact that Arc have got it just so wrong in their inconsistent approach underlines their ultimate failure as a company.
No attempt at any other improvements have been made: both halves you play left to right, there are no throw-ins, corner-kicks can only be taken on the one side and the Engrish hasn’t been corrected. For better or for worse the controls are virtually the same – you can pass, shoot, perform a special shot (that takes a while to charge up), dash (your player tires almost immediately), tackle and change player (your team-mates are often completely unrealistically incompetent). Back to my actual game – my very first match and I beat a four star rated team 5-0 yet am still to defeat a three star team after twenty plus attempts.
For all its (many) faults ARC STYLE: Soccer!! 2014 does support both local network play and download play, plus the customisation options are still absolutely superb but overall the game offers very little over its predecessors other than the added replication of the 2014 World Cup groups and a few other minor differences (crowd chanting etc). The charm from the original game(s) have long since worn thin and as appears to be the usual in reviewing football games on this blog: the player is ultimately recommended to save his/her ¥510 and put it towards the cost of a full priced World Soccer Winning Eleven.
5/10
Review by Bri Bri. For more information on ARC STYLE: Soccer!! 2014 go to http://www.arcsystemworks.jp/arcstyle/soccer_2014/
