Despelote review – a beautiful, utterly transportive game of football fandom

Panic; PC, PS4/5, Xbox
Set during Ecuador's 2002 World Cup qualifying campaign, this fascinating, semi-autobiographical game gives you control of the life of a soccer-mad eight-year-old

Video games have been simulating football since the 1970s, but they have rarely ever thought about simulating fandom. You can play a whole international tournament in the Fifa titles, but what they never show is the way the competition seeps into the everyday lives of supporters, how whole towns are overtaken, how a World Cup can become a national obsession. The way most of us experience the really big matches is through stolen moments of vicarious glory on televisions and giant pub screens, surrounded by friends and family and the sounds and images of real life.

This is the territory of Despelote, a beautiful, utterly transportive game about childhood and memory, set during Ecuador's historic 2002 World Cup qualifying campaign. Football-mad eight-year-old Julian - a semi-autobiographical version of the game's co-designer Julian Cordero - has just watched the team beat Peru, but now four more matches stand between Ecuador and the World Cup finals in Japan and Korea. Structured as a series of short, immersive tableaux, Despelote gives us control of Julian as he goes about his life, buffeted by his parents and teachers between shopping trips, car journeys and school lessons.