Jumpers For Goalposts - Review of Jumpers for Goalposts, a Free Football Flash Game

Jumpers For Goalposts - Review of Jumpers for Goalposts, a Free Football Flash Game
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Introduction

If you’ve ever wanted the chance to live the life of a professional footballer, then the free flash game Jumpers for Goalposts, available from the Mousebreaker.com website gives you the opportunity to do so. From a humble, backyard beginning plying your trade on muddy football fields to the dizzying heights of football stardom, Jumpers For Goalposts lets you play out your footballing dreams.

Jumpers for Goalposts Overview

You begin as an amateur football player and have ten years to make it to the top of your profession. On the way, you will have to master training in three separate shooting disciplines to succeed: volleys, snapshots and penalties.

In addition to mastering football skills, you will also have to raise your media profile in order to be noticed by the bigger clubs, while also getting and keeping a girlfriend happy and amassing as much money as possible through your ten year career.

Playing a match involves you putting your skills in the three footballing disciplines detailed below to use and scoring as many goals as possible in each match. If you win, you’ll receive extra cash by way of a win bonus. The aim is to be in the top two teams at the end of the eleven-match season in order to gain promotion to the next league. If, however, you finish in the bottom two teams then your team will drop into a lower division.

Game Controls (3 out of 5)

To play Jumpers For Goalposts, you will only need to use the mouse, and player movements are limited to Left and Right, and Kick. Simply move the mouse left or right to move your player, and use the left-mouse button to kick the ball.

Mastering Football Skills (3 out of 5)

Playing a match in Jumpers for Goalposts

In Jumpers For Goalposts, you will have to master the three elements of scoring. Depending on the element given, you will need to time your shot accurately in order to score a goal. The three elements are:

Volley: The ball will appear from the left of the game window and will bounce across the screen at varying height and speed. To volley the ball, time your shot and press the left-mouse button. Clicking too early or too late will volley the ball wide of the goal or miss the ball altogether.

Penalty: An indicator on the screen moves rapidly from left-to-right, which will determine the direction of your shot. Clicking the left-mouse will set the direction and your player will take the kick. Depending on your direction and timing, you will either score, miss the goal or have the goalkeeper make a save.

Snap-shot: The hardest to master, this element sees the football appear from the bottom of the game window and follow the arrow on-screen. Timing is again important, to shoot the ball towards goal using the left-mouse button. Like volleys, clicking too early or too late will shoot the ball wide or cause the player to miss altogether.

In all three skills, there is always the chance that the goalkeeper will save your shot, while in the Volley and Snap-shot skills there is a chance a wayward shot can be deflected into the goal by one of the static defenders.

Football Skills Screenshots

Volleys

Penalties

Snap-shots

Living the High-Life (3 out of 5)

Away from the match, you will have the chance to socialise, buy a car or a house and generally live the footballer life.

Each day during the season you will have to train in the morning, but it is your choice which activity you get up to in the afternoon. Sometimes, your best friend will invite you to a pub or club, other times your girlfriend (if you have one) will want to spend time with you. You have to decide whether to socialise, go shopping or just rest.

Resting in the afternoon improves your rating with the team manager, while socialising can raise your profile with the media and your girlfriend. If you become too boring, and don’t socialise, then your media rating drops and makes it harder to attract the attention of the bigger clubs. Similarly, if you don’t spend time with your girlfriend, she will get fed up and eventually dump you which also affects your media rating.

Going socialising can boost your media rating. If you don’t have a girlfriend, then you may get propositioned by a girl in a nightclub or pub, but only if you have a car! You may also get involved in scrapes, such as fights. You can also boost your media profile by buying better cars and houses as your career and bank-balance progresses.

Jumpers For Goalposts Screenshots

Diary Screen

Socialising Screen

Socialising with Your Girlfriend

Graphics & Sound (3 out of 5)

Jumpers for Goalposts won’t win an award for either; but it is after all not aimed at competing with the likes of FIFA or PES, but is a free flash game and as such is reflected in the rather simplistic graphics. They are functional, without ever being outstanding. In-game sounds are limited to crowd chants when you score or miss a chance.

Verdict (3 out of 5)

J****umpers for Goalposts is an enjoyable game to while away a spare few minutes and it can be quite addictive as a game to fill a lunch-break. The game does save your progress throughout your career, so you can leave and come back to it later, which is a nice feature to see. While simplistic both visually and aurally, the game does load quickly into a browser and it does entertain in short spells. However, once you’ve mastered the basics of shooting then the game’s longevity does tend to tail off and you’ll soon look to play something else.