Dino Dini's Kick Off Revival
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Critic Reviews for Dino Dini's Kick Off Revival
After over 25 years, Kick Off is back. But even for a budget proposition, the stripped-back package seems too miserly to be truly enjoy.
A weak football simulation that lacks any real depth, making you wonder what the necessity of trying to bring back was.
Dino Dini's Kick Off Revival is a bad game. If you want a retro take on football, this is not it. If you want a retro take on how to make a terrible game, you're in luck.
Dino Dini's Kick Off Revival's merit is to put the original Kick Off series under the spotlight again. Use an emulator and go for the real thing: a game like Goal! is far better than this poor and lazy new version.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Quite how anyone thought this game was ready for release is beyond me. It’s more like a proof-of-concept demo, and for the many people looking for a nostalgic return to classic football games, a massive disappointment.
A bad idea poorly realised, it’s hard to argue that Kick Off has any place in the modern world and this badly made revival seems to prove it.
Dino Dini's Kick Off Revival doesn't attempt to compete with FIFA and that's fine. There's a place on the market for simpler, old school sports games that rely on arcade fun rather than authenticity. But this reboot of the franchise is actually a step backwards for the series in some ways, and the lack of a tutorial or help of any kind results in the learning curve being more of a learning brick wall. There's nothing wrong with being difficult to master, but the game is difficult to pick up and play too, and the rewards too few to justify the effort. Kick Off Revival can be okay in short bursts, but the sheer weight of issues with the game make it hard to recommend to anybody other than fans of the original Kick Off games. And even they will likely be disappointed.
A oily, toxic pool of bad ideas, half-baked mechanics, and shoddy design masquerading as a tough retro-inspired football game. Kick Off Revival is just plain awful.
