Review 1
Purchased!
I'll give NSS5 that, it's a relatively enjoyable game. The match gameplay is
reminiscent of Sensible Soccer and other early 90's, and definitely works in a
retro kind of way. The resource managing outside of matches helps build the game
into a slightly larger, funner experience. All in all, NSS5 is a charming game
that promises a few hours of fun.
The drawback, however, is that the game is kind of a poorly designed, buggy
mess. Save files get corrupted left and right, the game freezes with alarming
regularity, and the puzzling online requirement tends to make starting new games
a chore (hot tip: If you happen to buy it and struggle starting a game because
of connectivity issues, edit the Settings\Settings.txt file. Change the line
nettimeout=5 to nettimeout=100).
All in all, I can't recommend it. There's not enough here to defend the
crippling issues the game has, and definitely not enough to defend their pricing
point. Steer clear.
Review 2
Purchased!
This is an okay game with a bunch of flaws, but fairly easy to win once you have
the hang of it and can be fun especially if you played games like footballer of
the year back in the day, this is very much an update of that where you actually
play the game in full (if abbreviated) rather than just shooting at the goal.
You start off as a lowly footballer who can't shoot, pass, run, dribble or
anything. Day by day you can practise, buy toys, go out with the girlfriend (if
you have one), try to build up a rapport with your team mates, fans, or boss,
etc. Initially the main thing is to build the skills and you do training drills
where you have to bend the ball, beat defenders, tackle, dribble around cones,
etc. in a limited amount of time/attempts, if you do your skills when you play
games improve in the appropriate area.
In terms of playing matches you start off as a sub only having a few minutes,
and maybe not being picked at all. Based on doing well in various in game stats
you try to get good game ratings, which will get you picked more often, or even
a starting position in the team if you keep doing well. At this point you start
to having to manage your energy by buying toys to keep you occupied during
matches, NRG drinks (which often give you cramps during a game), etc. You also
need to spend energy managing relationships if you want your teammates to pass
to you, your girlfriend not to dump you, your friends not to hate you, etc. So
you get into a balancing act of all these things, and you have to learn how to
play the minigame puzzles (pair matching for relationships, "simon says" for the
media), etc.
The main in game challenge isn't really about winning matches, once you know the
AIs weaknesses this is fairly easy (for example the quick turn to lure defenders
into sliding tackles to clear the way, the banana dribble close to the goalie to
lure him out and then walk the ball into the net, the direct vertical run
outside the goal to curl into the same side top corner, the diagonal curling
out/in balls, etc.). The problem instead is trying to use the match to improve
your ranking and stats - so doing lots of safe passing in your own half to build
up teammate approval without spending energy, getting some tackles in without
getting cards, and otherwise building up your stats for passing/tackles/set
pieces to increase your transfer value and wages higher, etc., as the benefit
from just scoring more and more goals and winning games is capped - you have to
become more rounded to be the best.
Overall the game is quite good fun at times, although it can be frustrating as
well, and your team mates need a lot of managing/adaptation to actually be
useful to you given how braindead they are, and the out of match stuff makes for
a reasonably interesting balancing act. Once you are successful it does all
become fairly formulaic however, as once you are fully skilled up and have
largely capped out your relationships it is relatively easy to deal with any new
off the field problems, and winning matches/championshops/cups is a breeze once
you have the skills and know the AIs strengths and weaknesses. I am not sure I
would recommend it to most people however at full price, as I doubt most will
play it for long enough to really justify the price tag, and apparently it
hasn't been on sale for over a year at this point, but this could be a fun game
if you like the idea (and have a controller!) and can put up with some
bugs/flaws.
Review 3
Purchased!
If you ever played Kick Off or Sensible Soccer when you were younger,you'll love
this.Has a bit more substance to it with abilities to improve and people to
impress.
Recommend using a gamepad/joystick over keyboard as it makes changing direction
a lot easier!
It takes a little getting used to the gameplay,but once you get the hang of
it,you'll start to enjoy it.
Review 4
Purchased!
This game can be very entertaining and silly. There's really nothing like
drinking two pints of beer before starring in a World Cup Final.
I would only buy this game on sale, it's easy, the AI can be very frustrating so
you mostly do things on your own during matches, and yet I have over a hundred
hours in this game.
Review 5
Purchased!
The Servers is shut down, and the game is full of bugs. don't buy.
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Os servers do jogo acabaram, só tem modo offiline e o jogo ta cheio de Bugs.
Review 6
Purchased!
it's 2024 and still "exception access violation" error is crashing game in every
3 games. how can i solve this problem? i researched this problem and in 2012,
people were having this problem. it's still happening after 12 years, amazing!
don't buy it until resolved.
Review 7
Purchased!
terrible game. I bought it based on the flash game. But ok, let's go: it
requires a new subscribe to their site for each career and, if you delete it,
it's gone forever and you have to use a new e-mail. I won't get started on how
bad is their server. I am really disappointed.
Review 8
Purchased!
This game apparently went through several iterations, because a lot of the
reviews here refer to issues not present in the current Version i bought (Nov
2020).
For example, i did not notice any "F2P"/Monetization limitations or even a
connection to a server when playing. It's a complete full game as far as i can
tell.
It was on sale for 3,99 and for the price of a good burger that is a very good
deal.
NSS5 is a player-sim/action-footie game, think old-school sprite-based top-down
footie game (Sensible Soccer, Striker, etc.) but you control only your guy,
improving him on and off the pitch.
The actual controls are definetely not like sensi though and require some
ajusting to. Infact that adjusting period to an analog movement is why i am
rewriting this review.
Because this is good stuff that got me hooked.
The combination of basically RP-ing a footie player and an overall enjoyable
action footie game is just too good of a premise. Wanna be the diva who
constantly provkes the boss? Wanna become the clubs idol and never play for any
other club? Wanna play for exotic clubs and transfer every season? You can do
all that and play a decent game of OG footie too - With a few issues.
From what i can tell after looking into it, aside from NSS5 being some kind of
online game, this used to also be a mobile game at some point (Or still is...?
Seriously this franchise is a nightmare to figure out lol).
And this shows. On most modern monitors the buttons are the size of your head,
and everything has a very unappealing mobile "vibe".
Possibly also due to its mobile development focus team names cap out at six
letters. Yes, seriously, six (!) letters (!). So good luck figuring out who the
heck you are supposed to play against. "ASSE" in france took me a while. Did you
figure it out?
Another issue stems from the entire online part. From what i read you were
supposed to play against other players...soo this was possibly like, an MMO at
some point? (Like "Kicks Online"?)
Anyways, as a result of whatever the online portion was, the game has no
statistics whatsoever except for your own personal records. No scorer list, no
nothing. And that is a real downer, maybe even more than the ugly menus.
In the end this is a damn good game that just screams for a proper remake to get
rid of those mobile/online blemishes and to expand the idea.
