It's well-known that all sports would be greatly improved by the addition of a soccer ball. Evidently, that's a statement with which Not Tonight developer Panic Barn agrees, as its next project, Soccer Story, is an open-world RPG in which you use soccer to do everything from playing other sports to battling ninjas. It's coming to PC and consoles later this year.
What is Soccer Story?
With Sports Story indefinitely delayed and Mario Golf: Super Rush being somewhat underwhelming (despite a glut of post-launch updates), the world is crying out for an irreverent open-world sports RPG. It's a niche developer PanicBarn and publisher No More Robots are hoping to fill with Soccer Story, which is a quirky take on sports games and role-players launching later in 2022. Publisher No More Robots told us the game is inspired by the aforementioned titles, as well as "classic arcade experiences" like Mario Strikers.
Soccer Story has exactly the kind of bonkers premise you want from a game like this: an event called The Calamity has torn apart the world of soccer, and a magical football (or "soccer ball", as I must begrudgingly call it) chooses you to save the sport and perhaps even the world. You can check out the announcement trailer below for a first look at Soccer Story's offbeat world.
What will Soccer Story gameplay look like?
Described by PanicBarn as a "sprawling open-world RPG", Soccer Story will apparently boast more than 15 hours of gameplay spread across main story quests and side missions. No More Robots told us the game will combine "accessible sports arcade action with RPG story and progression". It'll see you taking on all kinds of weird opponents, from ninjas to sharks and other crazy teams. Of course, you won't just be playing soccer, either; you'll also get the chance to tackle other sports using your trusty soccer ball.
If you'd rather just get into the action, there will also be a local multiplayer mode that sees you and up to three others competing against one another. This mode will boast a full team roster and "animal captains", which is pretty enticing. Naturally, Soccer Story will also have lots of "amusing takes on the commercialization of footy", according to No More Robots, as well as "nice, happy arguments" about exactly what football is.
You'll be able to get your hands on Soccer Story later this year on PC and all major consoles, as well as Google Stadia, which Google insists it isn't shutting down. The game is apparently also landing on Xbox Game Pass on day one, so if you're on the fence about it and you're a Game Pass subscriber, you can check it out that way. We don't have a concrete release date yet, but hopefully, we'll learn more about PanicBarn and No More Robots' new project in the coming months. Stay tuned to TechRaptor for more on this.
