There’s one thing that has kind of become a trend in the past decade: Celebrities have to have their own mobile games. Kim Kardashian and Zlatan Ibrahimovic are just some examples of this, and now Cristiano Ronaldo is also jumping onto the train with his new free-to-play mobile game title Cristiano Ronaldo: Soccer Clash.
It is not exactly a surprise if you really think about it, considering that the football star is not one to miss out on a marketing opportunity. In a recent news release, Ronaldo calls this a new and entertaining way to connect with fans. However, it’s questionable if he even knows much about the game, let alone play it.
But back to the main topic, Cristiano Ronaldo: Soccer Clash is a football game that sees players face off against each other in head-to-head shootouts. Basically your character is put on different places on the field, and you swipe on the screen to determine which direction you want to send the ball in to bypass your opponent’s defense and score a goal. There are some powers that you can choose to use to improve your chance, such as slowing the goalkeeper down, or freezing the defenders. On the other hand, when you are on the defensive, you try to prevent the other player from doing the same by controlling your goalkeeper and defenders, and you also have powers of your own like making it rain or deflating the ball so that it is harder to aim accurately.
Yes, it’s very simple, but is it fun?
Well, the answer is, it is not exactly bad, but it is not anything to write home about either.
Cristiano Ronaldo: Soccer Clash is currently available for free on Google Play Store and Apple App Store, and like many games on mobile these days, it has tons of in-app purchases.
As you play through the game, you will earn bags filled with several kinds of loot, such as cosmetics or new balls to use when it’s your turn to shoot. There are items for you to customize your character with, or you can upgrade your balls to increase their stats such as power, curve, and accuracy. But these loot bags have timers on them. You only need to wait 3 minutes for bronze-tier bags, but that number increases exponentially for higher-tier bags, beginning with 24 minutes for silver. To speed up this process, you have to spend in-game gold, which in turn can be purchased using real money. Other cosmetics are also available through microtransactions. All these are very common in mobile games, especially the free ones, since they are the primary way for these games to make money.
Sadly, the gameplay itself is not what you would call engrossing. In fact, if it had not come from Cristiano Ronaldo but from a lesser-known developer, surely there wouldn’t be too many people willing to play it, much less spend money on it.
But ultimately Soccer Clash is still technically a free game, so it doesn’t hurt if you want to check it out. However, it’s just not worth it to actually spend money on this game.