YSoccer

About the game

YSoccer is a free arcade football game seen from above, in the style of the fast, pixel-art football games of the early 1990s. The pitch scrolls under a small radar, the players are tiny sprites with big personalities, and a match is decided by quick passes, a well-timed shot or a goalkeeper who is in the wrong place. The game keeps the feel of that era: simple controls with a single main button, matches of a few minutes and a lot of "just one more game".

Around the matches there is a lot to set up. Before a game you choose the team colours and the formation (4-4-2, 5-3-2, 3-5-2 and more, plus your own tactics), the bench and the number of substitutions, the time of day, the pitch type and the weather (wind, rain, snow and fog are in the game). During a match you can ask for an instant replay, slow it down, watch the radar and save highlights. Fouls bring yellow and red cards, and you can play a friendly, build a league, a cup or a tournament of your own, or follow the preset Academy League, a season among all ten teams. A training mode lets you practise on your own.

The teams

This edition ships ten teams that are not real clubs: Composers, Electronics, German Scientists, Inventors, Jurists, Kings and Emperors, Money, Painters, Philosophers and Poets. The players are historical figures (or components and coins), each with their own skills. The real clubs and national teams of the original data and the recorded crowd and referee sounds are not included, so the game is quieter than the original: the ball, the net and the posts still make their noise, and the menu has its music.

Playing it here

Click Play on the page and wait for the game to load (it is about ten megabytes); press any key on the first screen. Menus are used with the mouse. Choose Friendly, press OK, pick a folder (Custom) and click one team twice to make it yours (blue) and the other once to leave it to the computer (red), then press Play Friendly and Play Match. The game saves its options in this browser, and makes no request to any other site.

Controls

Input	Action
Arrow keys	move the player
M	main button: pass, shoot, kick off, take set pieces (hold for more power)
N	second button (for example 4-speed slow motion during replays)
A, S, D, W, with V and B	second human player (set in Controls)
P	pause
R	action replay (R again: slow motion)
F1	help during a match
F7 and F8	zoom in and out
Escape	quit the match

Tips

Play the ball early. A short pass to a free player is safer than a long kick, and the computer is happy to take the ball if you dribble too long.

Learn the set pieces. On corners and free kicks the game shows an aim line; press the main button to fix the direction and hold it for power.

Change the formation. A 5-3-2 holds a lead; a 3-5-2 or 4-3-3 chases a goal. You can change it on the team screen before the match.

FAQ

Is there commentary and crowd noise? No: those recordings have no stated origin and were removed. The ball, net and menu sounds remain.

Can two people play? Yes, on the same keyboard: the second player uses A, S, D, W and V, B (check the Controls screen).

Where are the real teams? The original data with real clubs is not included; the ten teams here are made of historical figures and things.

Credits and licence

YSoccer was made by Massimo Modica (programming), Daniele Giannarini (graphics) and Marco Modica (music), and is free software under the GNU General Public License, version 2 or later; the browser port is by ray77. The complete source of this version, including the changes made for this site, is linked from this page. The game uses libGDX, gdx-ai, Ashley, PNGJ and gdx-teavm (Apache License 2.0). The national flags are credited by the YSoccer team to Bianca.