Posted 04 Jun 2025 at 08:33 by Dean Jones
By 2002, Midway had been making arcade-style versions of sports games for a while, with NFL Blitz being the most famous, so it seems strange that it took them so long to cover a spot as popular as football. With no arcade version to base it on, RedCard (I would have expected something like Kickz, but I guess the name looks a bit off without a license) doesn’t feature some of the arcade design featured in Midway’s other games, but is still frantic and over the top, with a focus on committing fouls.
A silly sports game can be as over the top as it likes, but it would be meaningless without getting the fundamentals right. If you turn the referee strictness up and ignore the drop kick move, then RedCard is still a very solid football game, with good passing and great control. The focus on tackling even means that you have more control over how you perform tackles. I’d personally rate RedCard higher than most football games based on playing like this, but really it’s all about just turning the referee strictness to “off”.
When played like this, RedCard is incredibly frantic, with slides, punches and jumping kicks to the head at your disposal. Watching people fly around as you tackle them is incredibly funny, even if they currently don’t have the ball – I make sure to tackle the referee as much as possible throughout the course of the game as it never gets old. As your power bar charges, you can perform stronger tackles, faster dashes and very powerful shots (with a bullet-time special effect). These power shots can often be anticlimactic as the goalkeeper can just take a shot to their head really easily, but sometimes it will send them flying backwards into the goal. Incidentally, the game doesn’t let you perform any tackles that would affect the keeper, which is good as the game would be broken if you could.
The main game mode pits you against all the teams in the game (various international teams without licensing), with each region also having one or more special teams to unlock, including SWAT, Dolphins, monkeys and aliens. These come with stadiums and help mix up the look of the game. And who doesn’t want to kick a dolphin in the face in the middle of a football match?
RedCard may be lacking in features, but it’s just an incredible amount of fun and an absolute laugh to play. It’s an absolute shame that it got no sequels to add some more stuff to do.
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Make no mistake about it, Red Card 20-03 is built around one key gimmick: the ability to chop down opponents, Vinny Jones-style, without incurring the wrath of the referee. Go for the knees, go for the groin, go for the chest, even go for the head – in this game, no one’s fussy and no one cares, least of all the officials. But if you thought that was all Red Card could hope to offer, you’d be wrong.
Tim Weaver, NGC Magazine #71
Remake or remaster?
I’d love to see this return, with more modes like 5-a-side indoor matches, more silly teams and better customisation.
Official Ways to get the game
There is no official way to get RedCard.