Argentine Video Games: Beat the Champions, the arcade game to get hooked on before the World Cup

I'm not really a football guy, although I did get hooked on almost every edition of Pro Evolution Soccer (PES) and, way back in the early 2000s, I also played Football Manager. I even played the Argentine version, PC Fútbol, a pretty broken game where you could score tons of goals just by running straight and getting yourself, the player, and the ball all inside the goal (no one could ever take it from you if you did that, and the results against the AI would end up 39 to 2, or something like that).

I got a bit nostalgic, sorry. But as soon as I started pressing the joystick during the trial of the game Beat the Champions, I remembered all that, especially the late nights with friends at the house of another Fat guy, named Tomy. When we weren't playing role-playing games (a Lord of the Rings campaign that lasted over twenty years), we organized PES tournaments until 5 in the morning, staying awake with caffeine and sugar from successive Coca-Colas (if I escaped diabetes after that, it was pure luck). Tomy, the best player among us, played with Finland (yes, that country lost in the middle of nowhere with surnames stranger than mine) so we could even the playing field a bit. Still, he always beat us; he was the master of the ball (in this case, the PlayStation) and played every day after work.

Beat the Champions is a faultless arcade game with powers, who could want more?

More nostalgia, sorry. Because Beat the Champions also reminded me of the Super Champions. Of snack time after school, of the showdown between Oliver Atom and Steve Hyuga. That was intentional by the game's developers, and it feels great. I can take Maradona from '86 and make him shoot from 45 meters, nailing it in the corner of the English goal, leaving a misty trail from the supersonic speed at which the capricious one traveled. I can choose Ruggeri and slide tackle with a half-block's worth of momentum, both boots aimed at the shin of a German forward, without the referee even calling a foul when I leave him lying broken on the grass. It also reminded me of Shaolin Soccer, why not, that 2001 Chinese movie where they kicked each other all game long for almost two hours.

Because Beat the Champions is a faultless arcade game with powers, who could want more?

Who's behind it

But let's start at the beginning: Beat the Champions is a collaboration between two Argentine video game teams. Whiteboard Games and Purple Play are the creators of this gem, an arcade football game with a license from the Argentine Football Association (AFA), no less. On May 28, just two weeks before the World Cup kicks off, we’ll be able to get it on PC, PlayStation consoles, Xbox, and Switch.

The first of the development teams, Purple Play, is a publisher that boosts independent developments on PC and consoles, leveraging over 15 years of experience from its parent company, Purple Tree. It has hits like Baki Hanma: Blood Arena, Thunder Ray, and Golazo (we'll come back to this one), among others. Whiteboard Games, the second development team, is an Argentine company focused on video game production. Their main differentiator, as they told 421, is creating and developing games with total creative freedom, made by and for players, with a high level of concept, art, and production, advanced gameplay dynamics, and aimed at the global market.

A perfect blend of AFA and Super Champions

The AFA license, Juan Lomanto from Purple Play (the Argentine publisher behind the launch) told 421, was secured by Whiteboard Games, who obtained the rights. The agreement, according to him, was key for the product. Thanks to that, as a player, you can choose all the legends of the National Team: Maradona, Messi, Kempes, Fillol, Di María, Batistuta, “Dibu” Martínez, Julián Álvarez, and many more. Plus, you can also simulate the upcoming World Cup.

“Beat the Champions is a fast-paced arcade football game where legendary players face off in explosive matches driven by special abilities. No realism, just speed, skill, and pure competitive chaos,” Juan Lomanto details to 421.

They wanted to make a game that wasn't a football simulation, so they said, "let's make an arcade game." In light of the results, it was a good decision.

Of course, I asked them about what caught my attention the most (and what I've been repeating throughout this piece): the anime aesthetic and, more specifically, that of the Super Champions. This comes from Purple Play's previous developments, the saga made up of Golazo 1 and Golazo 2. Purple had already made these two football games, which had an anime aesthetic, with powers and combos. The three founders of Purple are huge fans of Japanese cartoons, especially Ezequiel Heyn and Pablo Cerrutti (and they are trying to secure other licenses in that style, they hinted to 421), which is why they made the football game this way, very arcade, retro, in the style of the old ones. They wanted to make a game that wasn't a football simulation, so they said, "let's make an arcade game." In light of the results, it was a good decision.

I was going to stay and play one or two matches, no more, because I had a commitment later. I ended up playing for about six. It's like riding a bike; the more I played, the more I remembered how it was. And it's also an addiction, like the one that pushed me to those endless nights of tournaments with friends.

You can add Beat the Champions now to your Steam wishlist.

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