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Title: Despelote review: A poignant memoir masquerading as a soccer game

Date: Fri, 02 May 2025 12:45:26 +0000
Link: https://www.engadget.com/gaming/despelote-rev...

Despelote is a living memory. Julián Cordero, the game's co-creator, invites
players to spend a few hours in the city of Quito, Ecuador, in the early
2000s, and experience a nationwide soccer fever from the perspective of his
own childhood. Wrapped in layers of static and shadow, Despelote follows an 8-
year-old Cordero as he interacts with his family, attends school and kicks a
ball around with friends. Pivotal national events, revealed in news reports
and overheard conversations, color the game's runtime. But its focus remains
squarely on Cordero's experience ΓÇö a charmingly self-centered child viewing
the world from hip height.

In Despelote, itΓÇÖs the summer of 2001 and Ecuador is on the verge of
qualifying for its first-ever World Cup, which has created a soccer frenzy
across the country. Soccer is a storytelling mechanic in Despelote, as
Cordero runs around Quito kicking a ball, playing a FIFA-style video game,
watching World Cup matches on TV and generally annoying his neighbors.

Using actual recordings from Quito, Despelote captures intimate
conversations, inside jokes and everyday chatter among CorderoΓÇÖs friends
and family members (in Spanish, obviously, with translations provided in
speech bubbles). The gameΓÇÖs environments are built out of photographs of
Quito that have been stylized to mimic the way memories feel ΓÇö single-
color, fuzzy backgrounds with people and important objects outlined in crisp
black and white. Actual footage of the Ecuador team making its World Cup run
plays out on in-game TVs, and youΓÇÖre able to sit and watch an entire match
on a small, staticky screen, if you wish. These true-to-life elements ground
the game in reality, while visual flourishes make everything seem like a
daydream, and the combination of styles is hypnotic.

Transitions come in the form of nearly imperceptible camera zooms and slowly
blurring environments, and at every turn, thereΓÇÖs space to luxuriate in the
simple activity of being a kid. The gameΓÇÖs mechanics are intuitive ΓÇö
flick the right stick to kick the ball; hold any trigger to run; press any
button to interact; look down to check your watch so you can get home on time
ΓÇö and this simplicity helps Quito come alive. Poignant moments of magical
surrealism cut through the flow like memories inside of memories, providing
glimpses into CorderoΓÇÖs future as a teenager and EcuadorΓÇÖs evolution as a
country. These scenes appear just enough to provide a sense of tension and
context without breaking the immersion of the childhood memories.

Panic

There isnΓÇÖt much in terms of a moment-to-moment storyline here, but
Despelote effortlessly builds a sense of place and self with each new
vignette. ItΓÇÖs night and Cordero is sitting in the back of the family van,
idly listening to his parentsΓÇÖ conversation and drawing shapes in the
window fog. His mom stands in front of the television and tries to pull his
attention away from the video game heΓÇÖs playing, exasperated. His younger
sister asks him to draw a frog. A grumpy neighbor steals the ball that
Cordero and his friends are playing with, so they start kicking around an
empty bottle instead. These are the building blocks of CorderoΓÇÖs childhood,
and while theyΓÇÖre deeply specific, theyΓÇÖre also highly relatable.
Despelote is a study in the beauty of mundanity.

I havenΓÇÖt played many games like Despelote. IΓÇÖm tempted to say IΓÇÖve
never played anything like it, that this is the first true memoir in video
game form, but of course thatΓÇÖs not entirely accurate. Games like That
Dragon, Cancer and Dys4ia offer similar glimpses into their creatorsΓÇÖ
lives, and theyΓÇÖre similarly vulnerable and grounded. TheyΓÇÖre also
examinations of moments of acute pain ΓÇö and while stories about trauma
compose a substantial and valuable portion of the memoir market, thereΓÇÖs
room for Despelote's slower, lighter reflection in this genre. Despelote is a
stellar addition in the category of memoir video games, proving that a
thoughtful rumination on one personΓÇÖs childhood can translate into a
powerful interactive experience. The key, as always, is authenticity.

Panic

Cordero breaks the fourth wall at the end of Despelote in a way that feels
completely natural. The style of the game changes in an instant and Cordero
narrates the scene, talking about how he and co-creator Sebastián Valbuena
traveled to Quito to collect DespeloteΓÇÖs audio and location data. He
discusses the fickle nature of memory and clarifies some of the gameΓÇÖs
timelines. He says he really just wanted to get it right. He wanted players
to understand the magic of this moment in EcuadorΓÇÖs history, when soccer
was everything, and he was just a kid.

I believe he succeeded.

Despelote is available now on Steam, PlayStation 4, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S,
published by Panic.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at
https://www.engadget.com/gaming/despelote-rev...
masquerading-as-a-soccer-game-124526276.html?src=rss

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