Game, set and match

Some ideas work because they are simple. It's not for nothing that the most successful business cases (ui, fancy words) can be put on a napkin or be presented during an elevator ride, the so-called elevator pitch. Looking things up on the internet: Google. An online games database with regular discounts: Steam. Be so left that you come out right: Sahra Wagenknecht.

It is also possible to take existing ideas and expand on them. In the case of Rocket League the simple and ingenious idea at the time was: soccer with cars. What worked on the German show TV Total also worked brilliantly on the PC, so much so that the game is still very popular today. And then, of course, you can also simplify ideas. This is what happened with Rematch. The developers of Sloclap probably took the aforementioned Rocket League as a template and scrapped the cars. So basically soccer?

Not quite. Instead of realism, the martial arts masters, who have already proven their penchant for duels in Absolver and Sifu have opted for arcade football pitch action. In the 3vs3 and 5vs5 matches with a fly goalie, there is more of a Mario Smash Football feel than that of top dog Fifa . And the use of skills such as sliding, feinting and sprinting even adds a pinch of tactics. As an outsider, I cannot judge whether the genre mix has achieved its goal or failed scoring, but the mixed reviews suggest mediocre gaming fun.

The score

The original soundtrack (OST) by Frenchman Rémi Gallego, also known under the pseudonym The Algorithm, is suitably small in scale. However, should Rematch be granted a similar future to its genre cousin, the following seasons will presumably deliver even more (musical) content, but for now we'll have to make do with a total of ten tracks. All of them are in the techno/electro vein and convey a seriousness that doesn't quite match the comparative lightness of the corresponding game.

By contrast, tracks such as Road to VictoryThe Algorithm, Rémi Gallego4 or DesertThe Algorithm, Rémi Gallego3 give the impression of being related to Call of Duty– or the Forza Motorsport-Reihe verwandt zu sein zu wollen. Flower FieldThe Algorithm, Rémi Gallego4 biegt derweil Richtung Kena: Bridge of Spirits and Furi ab. Es scheint um etwas zu gehen, es pumpt nach vorne. Perfekt für schnelle Action, beeindruckende Szenen und gleichzeitig meilenweit entfernt von der relaxten Attitüde eines Rocket League. Aber gut, der Vergleich ist vermutlich ungerecht. Der Score funktioniert und ist durch den ähnlichen Aufbau (langsamer Start, volle Möhre ab der Hälfte) repetitiv wie modular. Eine eigene Identität, die große Idee, fehlt jedoch.