FLATLEAGUE

From the Mud to the Crown.

Sensible Soccer with the curtains shut on a Saturday. The Stiga table game in the basement, where every match ended in an argument. FLATLEAGUE is made for both: eleven a side, real footballers, one button, and a ball you can bend after you've kicked it. Curl one in off the post, then lean over the table and make sure they heard it.

1–2 playersFootballCareerFace to face

Pre-order FlatboyTwo players, one at each end, close enough to see them sweat.

Three saves. Then this.

An attack on the top goal, the keeper saving everything, three in a row, and then it goes in. You know exactly what's said across the table at that moment.

Bend itround the keeper, a split second after you hit it

Risefor the header at the far post

Gloatacross the table. They'll get you back.

Real gameplay, straight off the table's screen.

Back home. Bottom of the league.

Ten years ago you were the Long Coast's best striker. Now you're 31, back home, and player-manager of Grimsand Gulls, bottom of the Mud Division. Sound familiar? It's every Sunday-league dream you had at fourteen.

On the pitch it's eleven a side, one button and a ball that runs ahead of your feet. Off it, it's the transfer you'll regret, a board that can sack you, and a cup run nobody saw coming. Climb four divisions and beat Victor Hale to the title, with your best mate managing the club down the road.

Six ways to settle it.

The long one

Career

Player-manager for ten seasons (or twenty). Pick your initials, a face and a position, then take Grimsand Gulls or any club. Squad and tactics, the transfer market, the cup, the club's money, the board, and an inbox where your rivals write. Promotion, relegation, the sack, job offers, and a Hall of Fame score at the end.

Arcade