Soccer City

Art from the game. Done by Jose Consuegra.

I'm a sucker for games with great art design and Soccer City certainly has some of that. The artist is Jorge Consuegra, and his illustrations are done in a wonderfully retro style that fits the game perfectly. The style (etching or rough brush strokes with pastel tinted colors) actually reminds me of mid-20th century political cartoons, but it still works great for a sports game.

Gameplay looks simple, fun and intuitive. Have a look at the intro video as well as the two gameplay videos and you will get a great idea on how it plays.

The Soccer City Kickstarter campaign is going on right now. I'm still on the fence about getting it myself; I don't have many friends who would play it with me, and the entry price to get the game is $70 (BUT that does include shipping from Europe.) But I think I could play this one somewhat solitaire, randomly choosing battle cards and trying to be impartial when repositioning playsers. In any case, it would still be a nice bit of art to have on the shelf.

And if you REALLY like the game, there's a $189 level in which Jose will illustrate you as a legendary player (part of the expansion that goes with the game.)

My favorite bits of art are all the goalie saves; this one is probably the weakest (but the only I could find big enough to run here. Much of the card art (and better goalie images) can be seen on the Kickstarter page.