A few days ago I was at my nephews house when I found them playing Pro Evolution Soccer. Since I left playing Kick Off 2 I’ve never felt good with any soccer game. I tried a lot of versions of Fifa, some versions of Playstation Winning Eleven but none of them was as attractive as Kick Off 2. I’ve borrow my nephews the Pro Evolution Soccer CD to see if I could rediscover an interesting soccer game, but it was a new deception. I found myself playing a game that was ported directly from playstation, and to make a good pass I had to press a button combination more complex than a Mortal Kombat Fatality. When I discovered that Pro Evolution Soccer had more than eight buttons I gave up.

Outraged I started to look over the Internet about Kick Off 2 and for my surprise I found a person who had develop a videogame based 100% on Kick Off 2. That person is called Gianluca Troiano, I also found a site called Kick Off 2 Gathering where there are all the Kick Off 2 fans. Every year since 2001, they organize in Europe a Kick Off 2 World Championship. This man, Gianluca was three times a Champion and decided to program Throw In, that is basically a new Kick Off 2 version for Windows.

Throw In Logo

Playability is all, that’s was what I felt after playing Throw In for a couple of minutes. The final version is not released yet, I played a beta (0.86) but its 100% functional. I was, for the first time in my life with a new Kick Off version that remakes with incredible accurate all the good things about this unforgettable video game. It has the same speed and some new things that make it very interesting..

Unfortunately I could not play with any joystick, since the only joystick I have is obsolete and I can’t plug the 15 pins connector on my new computer.

But fortunately Throw In has an option to play with the keyboard that simplifies a little bit the gameplay, but to enjoy both Kick Off and Throw In you have to get a real joystick. Searching the Internet I found some adaptors to plug Atari, C64 and Amiga joysticks (with 9 pins connector) to USB, but none of them were sold in my country. I also saw a joystick called Competition Pro USB, it’s a new version of the classic Competition Pro Joystick but with USB connection, but I didn’t find them either. I only found a few versions at Amazon UK. It is clear that Kick Off was really popular in Europe but not that much in the USA.

The joystick is absolutely necessary to play Kick Off and Throw In, and sadly we live in times where a joystick, as I know, it is a thing from the past. Today there are gamepads for every console (Playstation, Xbox), the PC games are played with keyboard and mouse or giant analog joysticks good enough for flight simulators, but nobody makes the typical digital joysticks that we used in Atari 2600, Commodore 64 or Commodore Amiga. I mean a simple digital joystick with a single button, essential to play Kick Off or Throw In.

Quickshot, one of my favorites for the Commodore Amiga.

A couple of years after Kick Off 2 hit the streets, another soccer game became popular, it was called Sensible Soccer. This game also bet to playability and it was a very good option, personally I think it was the alternative to players who cannot master Kick Off; but beside this it was very popular too. Their players might feel comfortable with Throw In too, because there is a zoom level at Throw In that resembles the same view as Sensible Soccer.

Throw In is a game from the past made reality in present time. I game that is developed by a single person (Gianluca Troiano) and not by a Hollywood style super production with a ten minutes long credit list. This game is addictive, fun and very fast. Kick Off 2 lovers will feel great with this remake for Windows. And Fifa or Pro Evolution players that never played Kick Off might love it if they get the correct joystick and manage to overcome the initial difficulty.

I think Kick Off 2 and Throw In are superior to all soccer games from all times for any platform. Fifa has so many add-ons (commentator, stadiums, public, etc) that they forget about playability.

Throw In is beta 0.86 and has to polish a few details to get to 1.0. I hope Gianluca Troiano could succeed with this great soccer game that is as fun as Kick Off 2.

A little comparison…

Game images

Throw In

Throw In

Videos

Links

Throw In. Official Site #1

Throw In. Official Site #2

Download Throw In. 

Kick Off Association

Kick Off Gathering. The most important Internet site for the Kick Off community.

Joysticks options. It’s a shame that they are so hard to get!

Kick Off 2 World Cup. Kick Off 2 World Championship. I would change «world» for «European»… but what can I do…

My Kick Off 2 review (in spanish).

My Throw In review (in spanish).