Disclaimer: This copy of Academy of Champions: Soccer was provided by Ubisoft. Meaning I didn’t go out and buy this on my own. I just felt a need to clarify that.
When Ubisoft sent me Rabbids Go Home, I was a little perplexed to discover it was packaged with Academy of Champions: Soccer. Given my past experience with third party Wii sports games, I was more than a little skeptical. On the other hand I’m always willing to give games a chance to surprise me, so let’s see if Academy of Champions: Soccer defies expecta-okay, let’s get it over with. Yes, the game is another generic third party sports addition to the Wii library.
Developer: Ubisoft Vancouver
Publisher: Ubisoft
Genre: Sports
Console(s): Wii
The verdict: It’s bland, broken, and some interesting ideas are all that stand out. Go play Super Mario Strikers Charged.
There’s no shortage of sporting games on the Wii, and most of them do very little to stand out. I went into Academy of Champions: Soccer is…well, another one. It’s almost disappointing to see some clever ideas in the main story mode be offset by the sheer blandness of Academy of Champions: Soccer. There’s really no reason to play this instead of Super Mario Strikers Charged unless you’re a soccer nut and need an extra fix of arcade-oriented soccer gameplay.
Welcome to the academy
The in-game story features you, an up-and-coming soccer player, getting the chance to attend the Brightfield Academy, home of budding soccer stars. Whether you’re a male or a female soccer player you’ll have either Pele or Mia Hamm as a soccer instructor respectively. You’re then placed on the Mighty Five soccer team (ironically, one of the teams with the lowest standings in the school); from there you must work your way through the school year doing drills, playing other teams, and becoming a soccer star. The story doesn’t do much to stand out, but it’s relatively harmless. The same can’t be said for the actual game.
A wobbly kickoff
The gameplay actually takes advantage of the setting rather than just using it as a backdrop for a repetitive series of matches. Unfortunately, the game basically takes advantage of the setting in order to create a repetitive series of matches. The game is played out in school days where different events are scheduled; sometimes you’ll have drills, other times you’ll have matches, or you might have time to recruit a new player. This is actually a really clever idea and it gives the gameplay a considerable amount of length, but it quickly starts getting repetitive. There are also mini games that have the same problem: They’re interesting, but only for about ten minutes.
The soccer itself is a fairly standard affair; the core mechanics are competent and the game does stand up on its own. The generally smooth controls have the usual elements of soccer and it really projects the feeling that you’re in control. You can quickly swap which character you control while the AI controls the rest and you can pull off some cool moves with whomever you’re controlling, like sprinting for a burst of speed that can help you catch up to that other player dribbling the ball. There are special skills that can be activated with the Wii Remote, but these are of dubious usefulness at best. One example is a charged shot that takes several crucial seconds to pull off, but since it can (and often will) be interrupted you’re better off using standard kicks to score goals.
Silly soccer stunts
The controls are generally solid but moving diagonally has half a second of delay relative to the instant responses to just moving horizontally or vertically. This is as frustrating as it sounds, since your choices are either moving horizontally then vertically into intercept an attacking striker or risk him running by you while you wait for your character to respond to your request to move diagonally. It’s not game-breaking so much as it is irritating, and sometimes you’ll just find it easier to switch to another player. Did Brightfield cut geometry out of the curriculum?
You’re better off switching to the closest player to the ball anyway, since the AI can be muddy and schizophrenic. Brightfield’s soccer students definitely never took aptitude tests because these kids are dense. A sequence that comes to mind is an instance where I had to score seven goals against the goalie as part of the day’s lesson. The goalie alternated between diving from one end of the goal to the other to block my carefully timed kicks and just standing there while the ball sailed past him like he was worried that certain balls would get his uniform dirty. There also seems to be very little relevance of the given positions of people you recruit. I recruited a fifth player for the Mighty Five who was supposedly a striker, but he spent the entire game playing defense – quite well, actually. Players are also assigned grade ratings but again, these seem to have very little bearing on playing skills.
Visually the game looks fine, and the over-the-top arcade designs are colorful and fairly vibrant. There are some cameos from various Ubisoft properties such as the rabbids (hence the connection to Rabbids Go Home, I suppose). The visuals still manage to be undermined by the fact that the cinematic cutscenes lagged fairly frequently, and I could literally hear the disc straining to process the game. The cinematic lagging pales in comparison to my biggest problem with the technology aspects: This is without a doubt one of the most irritating musical compositions in any game I’ve ever played. The menu is an endless loop of the same agonizing five second tune and most of the in-game music will acquaint you with the mute button on your remote. I understand that lighthearted music is used for kids’ games, but there’s a very distinct difference between lighthearted music and annoying music.
Closing thoughts
Academy of Champions: Soccer had some interesting ideas but it’s buried under gameplay missteps, awkward AI and controls, and music capable of causing brain hemorrhages. All of these problems make Academy of Champions little more than another mushroom in the massive trough of generic third party games the Wii has become infamous for. You can do worse if you’re a big time arcade sports fan, but don’t expect too much.
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