Review: Pro Foosball PSN

Pro Foosball is a PSN downloadable game that accurately and realistically brings the fun and excitement of a foosball table experience straight to your living room. The game allows you to compete across 3 modes of play; you can have a quick match with your friends in Kick About with up to 4 players in local multiplayer mode, challenge yourself to beat our skilled AI with 3 difficulty levels in Foos Championship, or bend the rules of Foosball and nature with our crazy table features such as no gravity, magnetic ball and bumpy surface in Foos Madness.

 

Pros:

  • Good high quality of graphics with particular detail to the players themselves. The back drop for the various locations are nice in appearance. Tables are solid and really look the part.
  • The ability to change the formation of your players is a god send.
  • Best experience is with a move controller that is thankfully easily learnt.
  • Different tables give you different looking players, meaning the game always feels fresh and that you are indeed at a different table.
  • Replay after scoring a goal is a nice touch.
  • Choice of balls to use, ranging from your standard ball to a rubber ball that bounces all over the shop, to a metal ball that moves slower but harder.
  • Wide selection of tables from the beach side to an arcade, all with as said unique players.
  • Free training mode to practice the game and work out your best formation.
  • Very true to the real game, with players having to time and perfect their shots in order to pull of special moves and passes. You wont last long going on spinning the rods all game.
  • Rules, more importantly fouls are introduced. You will get penalised for excess rod spinning or passing too much without forward play.
  • Multiple language support with most of the EU countries covered.
  • Three game modes, kick about which is your pick a table and difficulty and off you go. Foo’s championship which is face off against the AI with increasing difficulty, goal amount. Finally Foo’s madness which is like kick about except you can change more game options and put some of the crazy game changers.
  • Game changers such as bumpy tables, no walls,magnetic players, low gravity tables. A bit of fun for what in fact is quite a serious game.
  • Various control schemes, From Move to the pad. You can use left stick and buttons or go hardcore and play it twin stick. All 3 have unique effects and play ability to work out the best one for you.
  • Sound effects again are true to life and help elevate the game to the realism standard.
  • You do, on easy maybe anyway, get a bit of assistance with player placement. Your players will be in the right place at the right time. I say that and the goalies are never where I want them but I thinks that’s my fault!
  • Championship mode allows you to carry on from where you left off, even if you lost. With this in mind the mode will still take a fair few hours to finish.
  • Can support up to 4 players on one machine, All using their own control method.

Cons:

  • While it does have many controller choices, the learning curve for all of them is quite a steep one. You will at first feel like all hope is lost.
  • No online mode.
  • Dependent on the control scheme, the game may select the rods used for you and this can slow the pace of the game down. More times than not it will take what feels like an age to select the right rod.
  • Music in general is generic and boring, granted its only meant as ambient music but it can still grind after a while.
  • If your a trophy hunter, Be warned that a lot of the trophies are glitched and can take a few attempts to unlock. Example being I did the snake shot which was worth a bronze. Did it 3 times in a game and didn’t get it. Went into another game after a reboot and it popped on the 5th snake shot goal.
  • Tutorial is basically a series of pop ups with arrows pointing at the buttons, not really that playable and helpful. More so as you can view the pop ups in game at any time from the pause menu.
  • Would be good to have more customisable options for the team itself. Maybe being able to name your team would of been cool.
  • The game as said, for many reasons can be slow and drawn out, wether it be rod selection or the AI.

 

 

In summary, the game is good once you find the right control scheme and learn the ropes. This game is more of a realistic approach to Foosball over the other Foosball 2012 game on PSN, which is a more arcade approach. This game will appeal a lot more to the fans of the series and they will love how much work went into how it actually plays. The game does require skill and finesse to pull off the more elaborate moves, but new players will also be able to jump in and learn. It took a while for me personally to get into the game, mostly due to the control scheme. I scored more own goals from the dam rod selection messing up than anything else. Still for the price tag and the content you get and the way its presented, its a worthy addition to anyone’s PSN library.

Jim Smale

Gaming since the Atari 2600, I enjoy the weirdness in games counting Densha De Go and RC De Go as my favourite titles of all time. I prefer gaming of old where buying games from a shop was a thing, Being social in person was a thing. Join me as I attempt to adapt to this new digital age!