PETER HOSKIN reviews Rematch: Part cartoon, part fashion shoot, it’s blissfully free of sponsorship deals, extra credit card payments...
and best of all, there’s no Cristiano Ronaldo By PETER HOSKIN Published: 00:40 BST, 4 July 2025 | Updated: 00:45 BST, 4 July 2025 e-mail View comments Rematch ( PlayStation , Xbox, PC, £20.99) Verdict: Golazzo! Rating: Video games have conspired to make the beautiful game ugly. They’ve reduced football to sponsorship deals, big spreadsheets and, worst of all, hundreds of additional credit card payments so that you might get a limited-edition version of Cristiano Ronaldo in a fluorescent green kit designed by a YouTube streamer.
But now comes Rematch, a game by Sloclap, the creators of the martial arts classic Sifu, which goes some way to making football beautiful again. Some of this is down to its look. Much like Sifu, Rematch has a pleasing animated style — part cartoon, part fashion shoot — that eschews the photorealism of other football games and is much better for it.
But mostly it’s down to the gameplay. Rather than controlling an entire team, here you’re given control of a single player in brief, frenetic matches where other people are controlling both your teammates and the opposition. It’s you taking the ball, weaving around tackles and aiming into the top corner.
.. goal! Or rather, as in my case, it’s you spooning yet another shot skywards.
Rematch, a game by Sloclap, the creators of the martial arts classic Sifu,.
