Rematch Review – A Flawed Futsal Masterpiece

Football is the most popular sport in the world. Growing up, I first watched football on TV; the game instantly drew me in with its beauty of teamwork and the excitement of scoring the first goal or an equaliser. I loved watching teams play in sync, with individual players moving the ball in their own style.

Then as I first got into gaming, I began playing football games like EA's FIFA 2004 and FIFA Street. With a mediocre PC and the PS2, these were my best options for quenching my thirst for football. At the same time, I watched Stephen Chow's Shaolin Soccer. My brain chemistry changed as I always imagined a game that would bring these worlds together. A game that could capture the magic of Shaolin Soccer's absurd feats and FIFA's core essence, more specifically FIFA Street.

Fast forward to 2025, I was left in a state of awe when I first saw Sloclap showcase their brand new soccer game. Sloclap's Rematch managed to capture the core essence of FIFA Street and the wicked feats of Shaolin Soccer. Recently, I was lucky enough to play Rematch in its full glory, and it's safe to say the game has left me quite impressed.

Rematch is a 5v5 arcade futsal game that takes place in an arena. The game is basically Rocket League minus the cars. You can use the boundaries of the arena to your advantage to pass the ball or use them to show impressive skills. There are no fouls, no offsides, and no pauses in this game, so expect to see some crazy action.

Sloclap

Rematch Review

Unlike traditional football games, you have to control an individual player instead of a team in Rematch. During the match, you might start as a striker or goalkeeper, and with each goal, your role will be moved around. I enjoyed playing as a striker, but the goalkeeping role was fun too. Sloclap has perfected each role with easy controls and a gradual learning curve.

The in-game mechanics, such as passing and shooting, felt quite polished. While shooting the ball from different ranges felt great, the passing felt quite janky at times. However, mastering the passing mechanic in the game will feel a lot more challenging than simply shooting the ball for a goal. It's important to remember that both passing and shooting require manual aiming, and there is no additional support like aim assist from the game. So, as a new player, it felt difficult at times to make the ball go to the places I wanted it to go.

The game is quite easy for players who understand how futsal works, by which I mean the importance of teamwork, which the game emphasises a lot. That means you have to pass the ball to your teammates and create plays to score a goal. As there is no foul and offside, you cannot outskill four players of the other team on your own. You will get tackled or lose the ball easily once your stamina depletes. So, a cheeky reminder to all players: teamwork is the key to winning matches in Rematch.

Sloclap

Rematch Review

The game's visuals are spot on. I expected nothing else from the team that has brought us Sifu when it came to visuals. The game's visuals are welcoming and colourful, so you'll feel a sense of comfort while playing the game. Alongside the visuals, the game's other mechanics and features make the game radiate a friendly vibe, which is important for a sports game.

Rematch is an almost perfect game. Now, let me explain why I added the almost perfect part. While Rematch is an excellent game in its own right, a few flaws bring down the potential of what could have been one of the greatest football games of the last few years.

Let me begin with the solo playing experience, which is downright horrible. I cannot stress how bad the solo experience felt. Everyone on my team was in the mindset of scoring and controlling the ball alone. The simple concept of passing did not exist in the game. The irreversible damage from watching the anime Blue Lock and thinking that outskilling the whole opponent team is easy was a constant problem with almost all of my teammates. However, in the matches where my team functioned like a whole unit, I felt absolutely euphoric.

Sloclap

Rematch Review

Unfortunately, the game is riddled with server issues and network problems from the get-go, which seems like a normal thing these days for online-based games. The server issues led to the game feeling laggy at times. For instance, the main menu felt unresponsive sometimes, and my player would teleport from one place to another during a match. My internet connection is pretty stable, so I could feel the desync issues of the newly launched game's server. Hopefully, these issues will be resolved with constant updates to the game.

I can testify with a hand on my heart that Rematch has the potential to become the next Rocket League for sports game enthusiasts. The game has endless potential, but it all depends on how Sloclap approaches the updates for this game. While the game feels polished at most times, there are a few hiccups here and there. The networking of the game requires a lot of work to reduce the jittery feeling in-game. Rematch hit the spot for me from the beginning, and I will be returning to the game at times to get my daily dose of adrenaline with the fast-paced futsal goodness.