For such an ostensibly small game, there’s such bigness to Despelote. On the surface this is a game about football, its humble joys and seemingly unstoppable knack for rendering whole nations enraptured. Beneath that surface however is something more inward facing, a reflective game about its creators, and the act of creating – about the act of remembering, too, this game being one about their own, half-imagined memories. The result is special, something personal and universal all at once.
Despelote reviewDeveloper: Julián Cordero, Sebastian ValbuenaPublisher: PanicPlatform: Played on PC (Steam Deck)Availability: Out 1st May on PC (Steam), PS4 and PS5, Xbox Series X/S. Switch coming TBC.
Explaining too much of Despelote, a game that spans barely two hours, risks blunting the impact of its sharpest moments, but the premise is simple enough. You play as a young Julián, a half-fictionalised version of one of Despelote’s handful of creators, Julián Cordero, kicking a ball around the streets of Ecuador’s capital, Quito, during the late summer haze of 2001.
The backdrop, as Despelote sells it, is a country suddenly captivated by football: Ecuador may be about to qualify for the World Cup for the first time in its history. The world, as it is to young Julián, comes to a standstill, often literally, as neighbours and family members stop and stare at TVs in shop windows, or on bar countertops, or at very unfortunately timed wedding receptions. Football, suddenly, is life, and for Julián it’s all-consuming. You’ll stare out of classroom windows watching bigger kids play in the park, trade confiscated balls for empty bottles, or whatever else might be the nearest faintly kickable object, or crane your neck to play football video games – Tino Tini’s Soccer 99! – over the head of your mother, father, and little sister in turn.
Despelote Review – A 5 Star Masterpiece You Didn’t Know You Needed Watch on YouTube
Much of this plays out with the kind of wistful directionlessness of childhood. One of the several things Despelote makes for such a wonderful ode to is simply the nature of being a kid, in its sporadic bursts of radical freedom – to roam a vast park, say, and hop feverishly between conversational non sequiturs with friends – dotted with those moments of sudden regimentation we all remember. Wear this, wait here, be back by exactly this time, take this test. Don’t expect much in the way of direction between those moments – instead do as a kid does. Punt a ball around. See what people do with it. Follow your feet.