It’s always heartening when the App Store gets a franchise of its very own, and Chop Chop is quickly becoming one of those franchises. The bite-sized characters debuted in Chop Chop Ninja, and now Gamerizon has taken their style and tossed it into a variety of sports, the latest of which is Chop Chop Soccer.
The game features the animation of previous Chop Chop games, which consists of tiny ragdoll-like figures with amazing physical talents. Choosing from the two modes, Single Match or Tournament, you lead a team of four players: one goalie and three all-fielders.
The field is small enough and the gameplay is fast enough that there really are no formal positions for the players, but this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. When you choose a team, you are choosing from a variety of international teams, represented by a flag bubble and three stats: attack, defense, and goalie. Along with these international teams are fun international locations, from the Pyramids to Stonehenge.
Keeping in style with previous Chop Chop games, the controls are entirely based on the movements of one finger. Holding your finger down and moving around dribbles the ball, and flicking your finger causes your players to either shoot, pass, or slide tackle. This makes the game intuitive and accessible, and we felt it was a good tactic for the iDevice.
No one could argue that Chop Chop Soccer is on the same page as FIFA, but that’s because it’s more of an arcade-sports game than anything else. As an arcade-style game, however, it lacks several important elements. There are no statistics, no achievements, and no multiplayer.
On top of that, though there are four difficulties to choose from, we found that even the easy difficulty could be frustrating. This was mostly because of the unbelievable goalies on each team, who jump about eight times their height to block every shot.
If you’re looking for lighthearted, simplistic soccer fun with adorable characters, Chop Chop Soccer is a good match, though it could still stand to improve. If you’re looking for a multifaceted approach to the sport, try looking elsewhere.