Head Soccer Analysing the Problem

== The actual problem with Head Soccer == There is a lot of been said about the recent updates of Head Soccer. This page gives an analyse in how the game shifted in both gameplay and introducing their characters in those updates. The problem lies with the change of direction. The recent updates compared to the old Head Soccer are, while creative, out of place for this game. We have now Fight Mode, Death Mode, Pets that assists you in the game, Overpowered Characters with violent power shots and power effects. These ideas are very neat, but not for type of game like it used to be. As a result New players have to struggle in making pogress, Achievements became impossible and the allround gameplay changed into a more extreme form of football. In order to illustrate this problem we’ll have to take a look on how Head Soccer changed. The game can be devided in roughly 3 Fases.

== Version 1.0 - 2.0(Pioneer Fase) == This was the time when Head Soccer was very straightforward yet intruiging and satisfying. Back then we only had 4 game modes: Arcade, Tournaments, Survival and ofcourse Multiplayer. We also had only 30 unique avatar(24 Countries and 6 Non-Countries) we could choose from with. What all these characters have in common is that they all have an one of a kind power shot, well except for Kepler 22B(China and Cyborg have also different powershots, if they get hurt and Greece has his own identical counter shot). In other words, the Ground shot and Air shot are the same for all those characters unlike many characters of the recent updates. These power shots makes it therefore easy to understand even though some characters have more difficult shots than others, like Spain or Germany. But at least you have a fair chance to block those power shots. They are not overwhelming or extreme long in duration, unlike Nepal or Finland. This is pretty much it for this fase. It was all in all very basic yet the gameplay was good.

== Version 2.0 - 3.1(Climax Fase)   == In this fase 17 new characters have been added along with the Leagues and HeadCup. This is the time in which the game managed to gain its full potential. The 2 new game modes brought variety to the game with rewarding bonusses if one managed to win. Because of this, players were finally able to make progress at least faster. During this period the power shots of the added avatars have gotten more complex. For the first time Head Soccer introduced characters that have Ground shots and Air shots. They also added more identical counter shots for some characters.

All in all, the biggest difference between the Climax Fase and the Pioneer Fase is simply that there was more to do and more pogress to make. The ability to replay has been increased due to the 2 game modes and the rewarding system they have. They are challenging modes but not too hard or too extended. The gameplay in matches are still pretty much the same as the Pioneer Fase.

== Version 3.1+(Radical Change) == There are several things in this fase that caused this huge change in the game but the game did not change directly but rather gradually. After each update during this period Head Soccer slowly shifted from direction:

Game Modes
In this fase there are also 2 new game modes added: Death Mode and Fight Mode. The huge difference between these game modes and all the previous game modes is that Death Mode and Fight Mode are not based on real life football competitions. They are identical contests with their own setting and goals. There is also a some kind of fiction involved in both game modes, where the main protagonist(your own selected character) has to fight/face a main boss or bosses in order to safe your companion. This is the reason to believe that the Developers of Head Soccer had some idea's what they were going for: A direction to an adventure game rather than a sport game like Head Soccer was in the 2 previous fases.

Characters
The characters added in this period have changed drastically. For starters many of the appearances and/or the power shots have little or have nothing to do with that certain country and therefore that character resembles nothing. Ukraine is Lara Croft with some Anime touch to it. Czech Republic has the appearance of a Oni from Japanese folkore. Uruguay is Terminator, Croatia is Darth Vader and Bulgaria resembles Super Saiyan or Super Saiyan version 2.0(since we already got one). I can go on but you probably get the gist. The characters are either personages from movies or other kinds of entertainment, but they just don’t resemble the country where they are coming from, which is out of place compared to the previous fases of the game. Later on during this fase a couple of characters that have been added are based on even other sports than football, namely: Basketball, Baseball, Volleyball, Golf and now Boxing too.

As for the Non-Countries we have got Mon-K(Bruce Banner), Silicon Valley(kinda), Hong Kong(City), Boxing(Update 6.1), PumpKill(Related to Halloween) and WatermelBot. Now WatermelBot literally resembles just a Watermelon and it is not even related to Fruit Ninja or anything. It is still a mystery where this character really comes from. We only know that it is a half watermelon and robot and that is it. The reason why I bring this up is that it is just an interesting detail to not, since all Non-Countries have some depth(trivia). Anyway there are surprisingly not many Non-Countries added in this fase(only 6 of the 26).

Gameplay
As the new characters changed trough the updates so did the Gameplay. The added characters in this period not only have more extreme power shots, but the Power button effect became more enhanced. Now in update 3.0, Head Soccer released Belgium and Pluto. These are the very first characters with the Power button effect that can do damage to the opponent. But they are not particularly overpowered. What is overpowered is that characters have a certain range in which the player gets unconscious  or the player gets thrown away in the air due to an explosion as soon as the opponent triggers her/his power button(like Georgia, Serbia, WatermelBot, Bulgaria and many more). As for the power shots, many of the added characters have shots you just can’t counter nor block when your opponent is in a certain position. This results in a guaranteed goal for the opponent(For example Mon-K). Another reason why the power shots became so overpowered is because of the many attempts in one shot that gets the player unconscious. For example Luxembourg(actually a character in a fase 2 update, but this is where it all started), Senegal, Bolivia, Fiji and Silicon Valley. Actually a lot of characters in this fase possess this ability. The last thing there is to add are the characters with extreme long power shots. These characters are pretty much unbeatable in the very late stages of the Survival Mode, because as soon as they are done with their power shot than they have gained already enough power to do a second power shot. Examples are Nepal, Ukraine and Finland.

As for the new game modes at least brought more variety to the game, but even then there are some problems in the gameplay. Death mode contains 120 matches and you need to win without spilling more than 7 times and that is way too few. Now there are some stages that the player is also depending on RNG(Random Number Generator). Of course all matches that you play is one way or the other affected with RNG. But in Death Mode you are more depending one that since you have to play not only against your opponent, but also against the environment as well and especially when you have to face the boss of a stage, since the environment is that time in favour of your opponent. Of course not all environments are that difficult, but there are some that the player has to rely on luck. Examples are stage 14 with the infamous Giant Swinging Axe(the ball gets stuck a LOT here, so you have to make a quick head start in order to win), stage 22 with the Tornados in which you have to rely on luck that the ball is not bouncing towards your goals, since you won’t have the time to anticipate on that. Stage 17, 19, 28, 29, 30 are also very hard because of RNG. Fight Mode is actually not that hard, but only if you possess a character with a strong power button effect like India, Pluto, Hungary or Hong Kong.

Conclusion
The problem with Head Soccer is to put it simply: The game does not know what it wants to be. But what was it supposed to be? What was Head Soccer all about in the first place? It was a smart 2D 1v1 football game with characters with an appearance that resemble the country they are from. But is it still football? Yes, yes it is! However the game changed to a rather unorthodox kind of football. The two new game modes in Fase 3 are fictional journeys to stop the bad guys. We have access to pets that can assist us during the matches. Characters that have been added are heroes or warriors with extremely strong power shots and power effects. It is still football but with a touch of adventure to it. In other words the game is more or less mixed. However the radical changes has great influence on the achievements. Getting a SS rank in Survival is not easy without losing many goals. A match without getting hurt is almost impossible if one has to play against a character from Fase 3. It is therefore undeniable to say that the gameplay became less fair compared to the early versions of Head Soccer and that is why Head Soccer had the best gameplay in Fase 1(The Pioneer Fase).