United Football

Staggan's free, fun packed unique soccer six a side shoot out!

United football has nothing to do with global soccer behemoth Manchester United, despite that storied club's name coming up top of the results on a Google search for "United Football". It is in fact a free download of a refreshingly unrealistic, not at all lifelike soccer game for Windows operated PCs and laptops.

It does not even remotely try to emulate or compete with the established soccer simulation game duopoly of Electronic Arts FIFA series or Konami's Pro Evolution Soccer. The disparity between United Football and the aforementioned games is so wide that it may even put off fans who are so accustomed to the constant striving for realism and incrementally higher standards that each annual iteration of Pro Evolution and FIFA attempt to attain. There are no lifelike computerised depictions of Leo Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Wayne Rooney etc to be enjoyed here, in fact no real life teams are included. (Although players shirts and appearances can be customized to appear like the real life soccer stars).

The teams are not even eleven players a side, there are five computer controlled teammates alongside the single player who is controlled by the game user. The complicated keyboard based control system deployed in FIFA and Pro Evolution is dispensed with in this game, instead a first person control system familiar to players of shooter games like Quake, Call of Duty and Doom is used, with the mouse or laptop touch pad directing the passing, shooting, while the four arrows of the keyboard pointer move the player backwards and forwards, left and right.

The graphics appear cartoon like, as if the British developers Staggan have consciously eschewed the standards of EA and Konami, and are almost lampooning the giant two soccer software franchises by releasing a game so straightforward and user friendly. The helpful video tutorial that accompanies the free download is mercifully simple and brief. A training mode is included to get used to the fluid game play and cartoon style graphics, then a player can play against a computer generated team or enjoy a challenge against friends or worldwide players online. However the game is not so popular as to have a team entirely controlled by real life players, almost all online games will feature teams with some players still controlled by the in game AI system.

United Football does not require massive amounts of download space, it can run on "ancient" PCs or laptops still using Windows 2000 (!) or XP, up until the more recent Windows 10. An 800 Mhz Intel Pentium III is required, and a mere 256 megabytes of RAM and 250 Mb of hard drive space is needed to run the game correctly.

Pros

• Unique and dynamic game play
• Amusing Cartoon graphics
• Easier to control player than FIFA and Pro Evolution

Cons

• May take too long for hardened FIFA fans to get used to the "feel" of the game
• Hard to find online players to play against
• It's not 11 a side!