Review | Guts ‘N Goals

LifeisXbox’s Guts ‘N Goals review | You know how we say to ‘beat your friends in a game of soccer’? Yeah, well, for this game called Guts ‘N Goals, you can take the beating quite literally. Developed by CodeManu and published by PM Studios, Guts ‘N Goals mixes arcade-style soccer with beat ’em up gameplay. You’ll play soccer but with a weapon (starting off with a bat). Of course, said weapon can also be used to knock out opponents. If you’re still looking for a game that is both fun in single-player as well as in multiplayer mode with friends, then Guts ‘N Goals might be your next discovery. Or it won’t… I guess you’ll have to read on if you want to find out!

ℹ️ | Maui played Guts ‘N Goals on Xbox Series X for 3 hours. This game is also available on PC, Nintendo Switch, and PlayStation.

What we liked!

• Multiple games modes | Let’s start with the only thing that will be shown on your screen when you start playing the first time: Grand Prix. Within this single-player campaign, there are plenty of game modes available for you to play, IF you unlock them, of course! The Grand Prix consists of simple matches and all kinds of other minigames in-between those. The soccer matches are fairly simple: be the first team to score two goals in three minutes, and you win. The minigames are usually a bit more ‘complex’, as you’ll be tasked with getting a football to the other side of the field, and into the goal of the rival team (of course, the field is filled with a bunch of orange cones through which you’ll have to find your way). Another example of a minigame is called zombie panic. Here, you have to eliminate as many zombies as possible. The team that killed the most zombies in a given time, wins. The Grand Prix can be played in multiple difficulty levels, and yes, I had to start at the very bottom because well, I suck at sports. There’s also a versus mode if you want to play against friends, and if you want to play online, that’s possible too!
• Keep you on your toes | As if the gameplay wasn’t challenging enough already, Guts ‘N Goals introduces some mechanics to keep you even more on your toes. The biggest one being mutators that appear in the last 60 seconds of a match. You’ll get a warning that a random mutator will disturb your game, and these can take many forms. Ranging from your KO time being extended to no longer losing any stamina. Along the way, you’ll unlock (or buy) more mutators. Besides this, the stadia you play in have their own challenges. While one stadium might look very normal, another one will have rivers or be a lava land, making the entire match extra difficult. Again, more and more stadia will unlock after you complete certain tasks, or win, for example, a specific minigame. Mixing up the stadia was really fun to keep the gameplay fresh and new.
• A lot to unlock | Guts ‘N Goals starts pretty basic with a pretty scarce screen that just has the Grand Prix mode and the options on it. In order to unlock more playable modes, you’ll have to play the game. I’m not entirely convinced by this method, but I do have to admit that it keeps you coming back to the game so you unlock everything on the home screen. Whether you want to play Grand Prix, or replay challenges, you’ll definitely have something on your hands. Besides unlocking various modes, you can also discover over 30 characters (with special abilities), but also weapons, skins, stadia, etc.
• Graphics and sound | The way Guts ‘N Goals looks is pretty decent. The different looks for the stadia are great, but its the characters that really jump out. Since there are over 30 unique characters to unlock, there’s a bunch of cool artwork to admire here. Whether you play as an old grandma called Aunt Gladis, an adorable advocado, or a shark-like creatures that dreams of being a captain, everything just looks amazing. We also get a vibrant soundtrack that is perfectly in tune with the already hectic gameplay.

Somewhere between

• Chaotic and speedy rounds | When I tell you that Guts ‘N Goals is chaotic, I am not messing around. It’s so very fast-paced and you’ll often feel like you’re losing yourself on the field, especially if there are a total of six players on it. Sometimes, it’s a fun kind of confusion surrounding the game, but at other times, it all felt too chaotic and I lost myself and the ball in the hectic energy. It’s like everyone just ran towards the ball without any goal set in their mind, and my AI teammates usually proved to be rather useless. On top of that, the rounds are usually very short, only lasting three minutes. Don’t be confused though, matches often won’t last that long as luck and quick playing is involved.

What we disliked

• No personal customisations | A very common thing in these types of sports games is setting your own rules for a match or game, so seeing that Guts ‘N Goals did not have this option was very strange. You could not set any rules like the length or score of the game. Maybe, just maybe, I want a game to laster longer than just two goals, you know. You also are not able to pick a stadium you’re playing on. This was such a shame, because sometimes you just want to try out all the stadia with your friends, especially as the various stadia are so much fun and bring extra challenge.

How long to beat the story | No story, but you can beat the Grand Prix in 30 minutes.
How long to achieve 1000G | 2 to 5 hours
Similar with | Nothing, I don’t know any games that combine arcade soccer with beat ’em up!

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