Despite being Brazilian, I never watched a full soccer game; actually, thinking back, I don’t think I even watched half of a match, which is why I also tend to avoid soccer in video games, because it looks unfathomably boring.
However, even though I don’t enjoy the more common depictions of the sport, I have enjoyed more game-ified sports titles, like Rocket League, which is why I went into Omega Strikers with a pretty open mind.
Omega Strikers is a team-based 3v3 soccer game featuring a diverse cast of characters who all play very differently. The starting characters available to the player are Kai, the ranged striker; Juliette, a more melee-focused striker; and Dubu, a goalie.
Omega Strikers
Developer: Odyssey Interactive
Publisher: Odyssey Interactive
Platforms: Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Android, Xbox One, iOS, Xbox Series X/S, and Microsoft Windows (Reviewed)
Release Date: September 16th, 2022
Players: 6
Price: Free-to-Play
There honestly isn’t much to Omega Strikers, as it follows a pretty simple and straightforward formula. You are dropped onto the map alongside two teammates, and you have to score goals on the enemy team, simple as that.
Much like Rocket League, the game’s lower-level play (the place where I reside) just consists of players wildly kicking the ball and praying that it goes into the goal. There are still some mostly accidental instances of teamwork and elaborate play, though, which definitely feel good to pull off.
As far as gameplay goes, Omega Strikers is pretty tight and responsive; matches go by fast, and most characters have really fun skills and gimmicks to play around with. Some of them can even make some insane setups, like Juno, who places slimes over the field to help her score some goals.
The characters all have fantastic designs, and even feature skins made by some of the game’s most prominent content creators. Juliette, for example, has a skin that references famous soccer player Neymar Jr., which was designed by fellow Brazilian streamer Rakin.
If I did have to complain about some things, it would probably be the matchmaking. It’s pretty disheartening to be instantly matched again with the teammate who singlehandedly lost the game for you last match.
There is also the issue of never being allowed to play against real people. I played so many matches, but I don’t think I ever got to play with a real human, aside from my teammates. Mobile games are really good when it comes to blurring the line between real players and bots, but I still don’t think my opponents were real.
The game has a sizeable playerbase on Steam, and I’m sure more people can be pulled in through crossplay on mobile, so I don’t know why the game is so hung up on not letting me play with humans. That said, I could just be both crazy and wrong, so I’ll let it slide.
Something that also bothers me is how long it takes to unlock characters. I know that it’s a free-to-play mobile game and that it needs to make money off of people’s impatience, but I would like to test out the full roster without having to commit a month of my life to the game.
There is a huge amount of content that can be unlocked through content creator codes, though, including the skins I mentioned earlier as well as some characters if I’m not mistaken, which does help with unlocking things faster.
All in all, I like Omega Strikers. I wish it would let me unlock characters faster and let me play against humans, but maybe it’s a good thing, as I can continuously inflate my ego dunking on bots that are just stumbling around the field.
I’m still not going to watch a soccer match, but Omega Strikers‘ high-octane, zoomer-fied version of the sport is definitely more palatable for me. Maybe that’s what the sport was missing all along—a bunch of waifus.
You can find additional information about Niche Gamer’s review/ethics policy here. Omega Strikers is available on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Android, Xbox One, iOS, Xbox Series X/S, and Microsoft Windows (through Steam).
