Kung Fu's kinetic action meets the beautiful game

The Star

22-06-2025

The video game Rematch isn't soccer as seen on television or EA Sports FC . The camera sits low, centred behind one player, not the familiar broadcast angle from the bleachers. The ball is easily lost as it flies overhead or hides beneath a crush of bodies.
Its online multiplayer matches, played in three-, four- and five-player teams, feel closer to the amateur soccer games played by millions worldwide. And unlike in other soccer video games, Rematch players are fully autonomous. There is no artificial intelligence to assist passes or control teammates.
A fresh approach to soccer feels long overdue at a time when the creativity in sports games chiefly lies in the efforts to encourage impulse in-game purchases. Rematch's creative director, Pierre Tarno, considers innovation an existential necessity for independent studios during economically challenging times.
Advancing players look to evade or bait defenders with tricks, feints, changes of direction and acceleration.
'The only way to stand out and survive,' he said, 'is to make a game that's very good quality and original.'
Tarno and three fellow Ubisoft employees founded the Parisian studio Sloclap in 2015, and it has built a reputation for unusually exacting action games. Its breakout title, the kung fu brawler Sifu (2022), sold 4 million copies thanks to a dancelike combat system inspired by the dynamic fight scenes and reactive environments of Jackie Chan movies.
The same kung fu cinema techniques, including freeze frames and camera shakes on impact, give Rematch 's animation satisfying kinetic force as players crash into one another or shoot the ball with fierce power.
Its online multiplayer matches, played in three-, four- and five-player teams, feel closer to the amateur soccer games played by millions worldwide
' EA Sports FC is a football simulation,' Tarno said. 'We are a football player simulation.'
One-on-one soccer duels in Rematch demonstrate their martial arts pedigree. Advancing players look to evade or bait defenders with tricks, feints, changes of direction and acceleration. Defenders strafe from side to side to bar their path, block potential shots and find a window to seize the ball.
These showdowns invert conventional combat. Tarno believes that in soccer, attackers are actually defenders protecting the ball; the defender is an attacker intent on dispossessing the opponent by force.
Flying cars with wild pinball physics are worlds away from Rematch's precise human shooting and passing.
Alongside aim, technique and impeccable timing, soccer is a game of movement. Tarno sees similarities to astronomy's notoriously complex three-body problem.
'The expression that came to mind was the 10-body problem,' he said. 'The ball has a gravitational pull on players. But players also have a gravitational pull or repulsion toward each other.'
These ripple effects reflect soccer's tactical complexity. Players anticipate second- and third-order effects, developing the game sense or vision to know when to run forward to pull opponents out of position, or when to track back to stifle a counterattack.
During prerelease betas, teams learned to punish misplays or tricksters who overuse Neymar's trademark rainbow flick – lifting the ball over opponents with a backheel.
That skill set is one shared with Rocket League (2015), but Tarno rejects direct comparison with the extremely popular game. Flying cars with wild pinball physics are worlds away from Rematch 's precise human shooting and passing.
Soccer's primary act is firing a projectile, so Rematch always features a crosshair; in one sense, it's a bulletless third-person shooter. When Sloclap held an esports tournament, Call of Duty sharpshooters triumphed over Rocket League and EA Sports FC experts.
Despite the cries for innovation, annual sports titles still hold a captive audience. Challengers like Rematch – which was released this week for the PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S – will not dent EA Sports FC 's market share, said Emmanuel Rosier, the director of market analysis at the strategy firm Newzoo.
Soccer's primary act is firing a projectile, so Rematch always features a crosshair; in one sense, it's a bulletless third-person shooter.
But it may be possible to find players in other genres. Rematch can afford creative flourishes unavailable to games that rely on licenses, and its focus on team-oriented multiplayer games can support an esports player base, Rosier said. These factors, he said, create 'a bigger addressable market than realistic soccer games.'
Sloclap does grapple with real soccer archetypes, such as the opportunistic goalhanger who will not defend, or attackers whose attempts to channel prime Cristiano Ronaldo derail each attack with overconfident trickery.
'There's a risk players will hug the ball and try to be the hero, role-play their favourite 'Blue Lock' character, try to dribble past everyone and fail miserably at doing so, which can frustrate teammates,' said Tarno, referring to a soccer manga.
When Sloclap held an esports tournament, Call of Duty sharpshooters triumphed over Rocket League and EA Sports FC experts.
But he has found that giving defenders the advantage has discouraged such nuisances while encouraging team play and short passing. During prerelease betas, teams learned to punish misplays or tricksters who overuse Neymar's trademark rainbow flick – lifting the ball over opponents with a backheel.
'You'll find players who try and rainbow flick their way out of everything, but it seems to be happening less and less,' Tarno said. 'The drive people have to play the hero is not greater than the drive people have to win.' – ©2025 The New York Times Company
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.