Button Soccer

Button Soccer is a top-down football game played the way tabletop button football is played: no running players, just five weighted discs a side and a ball on a green pitch. You never move the ball directly. You strike one of your own discs, and the collision that follows — disc into ball, or disc into disc into ball — is what makes play happen. Turns alternate, so each flick is one deliberate shot.

Reading the table is most of the game. There is rarely a clean lane at kick-off, because both sides park a keeper and two defenders across the middle of the pitch, so early turns are about breaking that wall and nudging the ball into space rather than shooting on sight. Power matters as much as angle: a short pull-back repositions quietly, while a full-length one scatters everything it touches. Matches run a couple of minutes.

The championship is a 32-team single-elimination bracket — Round of 32, Round of 16, quarter-final, semi-final, final — and the rest of the draw resolves itself around you between rounds. Every round the opponent aims straighter, controls power better and picks smarter discs to strike, so the side waiting in the final misses very little. Regular rounds are first to three goals; the final is first to five and runs five minutes.

How to play Button Soccer

You get one flick per turn. Aim it by dragging backwards from the disc you want to strike, and the length of that drag decides how hard it goes.

1. Pick your nation from the menu, then start the championship, take a quick match, or hand the second half to a friend in two-player mode.
2. When the turn is yours, press and hold one of the discs on your half of the pitch.
3. Drag backwards, away from the direction you want the disc to travel. An arrow grows out of the front of the disc showing the line and how much power is loaded.
4. Release to strike. The disc runs along that arrow, and whatever it collides with carries the momentum on.
5. Let the pitch settle. Once every disc and the ball have stopped moving, the turn passes to the other side automatically.
6. Score by driving the ball over the opposing goal line between the posts. The first side to the goal target wins immediately, otherwise whoever leads when the clock hits zero takes it.
7. A drawn knockout match goes to two minutes of overtime, and then to sudden death, where the next goal by either side ends the tie.

Tips and strategy

• Strike your disc slightly off-centre against the ball to send it out at an angle. A dead-centre contact only shoves the ball further along the line your disc was already travelling.
• The three discs guarding each goal are the whole defensive problem. Knock one defender out of the lane, then shoot through the gap next turn instead of threading past all three at once.
• Short drags are underrated. A gentle nudge walks the ball into open space and leaves your disc well placed, whereas a maximum-power flick usually strands it far up the pitch.
• Your own discs are obstacles as well as strikers. Playing one of them into another to reach the ball is legal, and is often the only line on the table.
• Watch the countdown ring. If it reaches zero while you are still aiming, an automatic half-power shot is taken for you, so settle on a decent line early rather than a perfect one late.
• Leave something back near your own goal. A scramble scores for either side, and an undefended half is a rebound waiting to be punished.

Features

• Five discs a side on a top-down pitch, moved entirely by elastic collision physics
• 32-team knockout championship across five rounds, from the Round of 32 to the final
• 48 national sides, each playing in their own colours
• Quick match against a random opponent, plus a two-player hot-seat mode on one device
• CPU opponents whose aim, power control and disc selection tighten every round
• Three-minute matches with a ten-second shot clock; the final runs five minutes and first to five
• Overtime and sudden death to settle drawn knockout ties
• Six interface languages, a saved best championship finish, portrait and landscape layouts, and offline play after the first load

Frequently asked questions

How do I take a shot?

Press one of your discs, drag backwards, and release. The disc travels the opposite way to your drag, and the distance you pulled back sets the power behind it.

Can I move the ball itself?

No — the ball only moves when something hits it. Every shot is really a shot at one of your own discs, aimed so the disc drives the ball where you want it.

What happens if a match finishes level?

Championship ties go to a two-minute overtime, and if the scores are still level, to sudden death, where the next goal ends the match. A quick match may finish as a draw.

Can two people play together?

Yes. Two-player mode puts both players on the same device, taking alternate turns from opposite halves of the pitch with their own chosen nations.

How long does a match take?

Regular matches are three minutes on the clock, and often end sooner because reaching three goals wins immediately. The championship final runs five minutes and is first to five.

Does the opponent get harder as I go?

It does. Each round of the bracket cuts the CPU's aiming and power error and upgrades how it picks which disc to strike, so the final plays very differently from the opening round.