Free Kick Frenzy

Free Kick Frenzy puts you behind the ball at a night game, looking down the pitch at a goal, a wall and a keeper. Swipe from the ball and a dotted arc shows exactly where the shot is going, bend and all, right up to the moment you let go. Swipe straight and the ball goes straight; hook the swipe and it curls, and the dotted line curls with it. On a keyboard the arrows aim, space charges the power and A and D put left or right spin on it.

The wall is two to five men deep depending on the kick, it lines up on the near post, and it jumps a beat after you strike. That leaves you three ways through: over the top and down under the bar, round the outside with enough curl to bring it back, or hard and low inside the far post before the keeper can get across. The keeper reads the flight after a fraction of a second and commits, and the further he has to dive the longer he takes to get there — which is why the top corners are worth so much. Better keepers react sooner, reach further and see more of the bend coming, so the shot that beat the first keeper will be caught by the seventh.

Free Kick Run is ten kicks from changing distances and angles, with points for every goal and a bonus for the top corners and for bending it in. Sudden Death keeps going until you miss, and the keeper gets better with every goal you score. Both finish on a results card with goals, accuracy, your best streak and a stamped verdict on the night. The ball is proper pseudo-3D: drag, spin, a net that ripples when you find it, posts and a bar that ring, and a slow-motion replay on every goal.