PlayStation 2
Released in 2002 by Midway
Grade: B
While the rules are lax and the goals are frequent, RedCard is actually closer to a normal soccer game than you would expect from Midway, the heathenous jerks who brought you NBA Jam, NFL Blitz, and NHL Hitz.
It’s fun, but whatever fun added by the arcade zaniness is outweighed by the game’s lack of depth, and you’ll eventually want to play a true sim instead.
Where it falls in the series
This is a one-off release, which is a shame because it could really benefit from a few refinements.
Praises and gripes
Unlike Midway’s other creations, RedCard puts the same number of players on each squad as in the real sport. And while the field seems smaller than regulation, it’s not much smaller than what many so-called simulation soccer games use.
What makes the game arcade-like is that players are unrealistically superhuman and the referee is unrealistically braindead.
You can adjust the referee “strictness” to your liking, but even when it’s all the way up, you can slide tackle with reckless abandon.
Players have silly looking spin moves and super bursts of speed to combat the super defense, but the key to the game is quick, tactical passing.
Players move like little machines, stopping and turning on a dime. This may seem pleasantly easy to handle, but it sure takes away from soccer’s emphasis on finesse. If you’re used to FIFA or PES, it’s a jarring adjustment.
Games are short and usually end up with scores like 3-2, so goals are frequent. You can often score with long shots that are rarely successful in real soccer. The nifty one-timer shot off a series of passes can be very satisfying. There are plenty of rebounds too. I never had much success with crossing the ball and trying to head it in, nor did my CPU opponents, so I think that’s one aspect that wasn’t tweaked quite right (and should have been a focus if there were a sequel). Overall, while it’s somewhat refreshing to play a soccer game with more scoring, it’s a bit out of whack.
The passing is limited too. There are regular passes, lead passes, and lob passes, but the lead passes don’t lead enough, and the lobs don’t have enough variance. The best way to navigate up the field is with constant quick passing.
The gameplay may dry up eventually, but to my shock, there’s some zaniness with the weird teams you’ll play against in a season mode. The game has international teams with mostly nameless players, but suddenly you’re matched up against the “Dolphins” … actual dolphins. They float above the grass and kick with their fins and make squeaking noises. It’s absurd.
The graphics are nice. They hold up today. The sound is fine too, but I’m not a fan of the dry British announcer, given Midway’s knack for bombastic commentary.
This is yet another game for my long list of “I want to love it, but it comes up short” games. It’s enjoyable in short spurts.