Despelote
"Despelote" tells the story of growing up in Ecuador at a time when football was
football was omnipresent. Not as a great sports drama, but rather as a
a quiet companion to everyday life. You experience the world from the perspective
of a child travelling between the school desk, the living room and the street
living room and the street, while a historic sporting moment shapes the mood of the whole
country. Adult conversations, radio reports and television programmes
in the background interweave to create a dense sense of time.
In terms of gameplay, the experience remains deliberately restrained. Sometimes you kick
kick a ball from the first-person perspective, sometimes you play a simple
football game on an old console, sometimes you simply wait for the school
for the school bell to finally ring. Interaction occurs casually and
does not follow a classic dramaturgy. A lot happens around you,
not through you, which reinforces the feeling of being part of a memory.
being part of a memory.
The hand-drawn visuals with their black and white figures
in front of softly filtered backgrounds gives the game a strong
independence. Supported by Spanish voice output and sparse music
music, an atmosphere is created that is both sober and touching.
and touching at the same time. "Despelote" is less a game than a lived memory. Who
childhood, but want to feel it, will hit the spot here.
into the net.
