Red Card 20-03 Preview

Red Card is more like a traditional soccer game than Blitz is to football.

We recently got the chance to play an early preview build of Midway's upcoming soccer game, Red Card 20-03. What makes Red Card similar to the company's other unconventional sports titles--the NFL Blitz, NBA Jam, and NHL Hitz series--is its focus on aggressive, full-contact gameplay, which translates remarkably well to the game of soccer. While Red Card features a wide variety of international teams to select--52 in all--EA's FIFA series easily outweighs it in the auxiliary features department, so the main draw in Red Card is instead its potential for high-scoring, high-impact play and its enjoyable arcade-style pace.

It almost appears that Red Card began its development cycle as a purely simulation-oriented soccer game, as the fundamentals and basics all seem very solid. Instead of the miniaturized lineups of the other sports games, Red Card makes use of a full 11-man roster, with situational formations and other standbys of modern soccer games. Red Card doesn't lay claim to the official FIFA license, but it does have an abundance of appreciable features that you'd expect from a licensed game, such as real player names and detailed character models representing them, a variety of play modes (including alternate weather effects), and authentically re-created real-world stadiums.

Stadiums are modeled after their real-world counterparts.

Unlike the conventional three-button layout of Midway's other sports titles, Red Card 20-03 utilizes a surprisingly deep control scheme, while still making use of the hallmarks of Midway sports gaming. Each player is able to perform a wide variety of moves, both on offense and defense. When handling the ball, players can make three different types of passes, including nifty one-touch moves. Ground passes are accurate and safe, while through passes are perfect for getting past interfering defenders. Lob passes are ideal for crosses, where a wing centers the ball in front of the goal, opening up ideal scoring opportunities. Passes are rather simple to execute, as the receiving players are highlighted based on which direction the control stick is held. Either the right analog stick or a face button can be used to attempt a shot, with different shot types being made based on the situation. Getting the proper angle will allow for slick, in-the-keeper's-face-type goals, while good crosses and corner kicks often result in header or bicycle-kick goals. The athletes are able to leap really high into the air at times, and they can pull off some great looking, almost kung-fu-like spinning kicks that look particularly great during replays. There is an incredibly useful juke move for faking out defenders, while the slide tackle can be countered with a well-timed hurdle. When the speed needs to be turned on, you can also tap into your turbo bar, although this sacrifices the ability to steer for a short time after being used. With all these abilities, and a name like 20-03, it seems like Red Card is deliberately going for a high-scoring type of affair, and the games we played displayed a definite propensity for goals.