Penalty Mind Games

Controls

To shoot, swipe up from the ball toward the spot you want to hit: a faster swipe hits harder but less accurately, and a curved swipe bends the ball. On a keyboard, aim with the arrow keys or WASD, curve with Q and E, then hold Space or Enter to build power and release to shoot. In goal, swipe left or right (angled upward for a high dive) to dive, or press the Left or Right arrow or A or D, adding Up or W to dive high; Up on its own jumps in the middle. P or Esc pauses.

How to play Penalty Mind Games

Every match is a penalty shootout. You take a kick, then go in goal to face one, five kicks each. If the score is still level after five, it goes to sudden death, one kick each, until one side scores and the other does not. The shootout ends early as soon as one team can no longer catch up.

When you shoot, a green target shows where you are aiming and a dotted line shows the curve. Hit inside the posts and past the keeper to score; the woodwork and the space outside the frame are your enemies too. When you are in goal, the taker runs up and you choose when and where to dive.

Tells, scouting and cups

Keepers give something away while you line up a kick: some lean, some glance to one side, some hop, and a few keep a poker face. Takers have habits too: where they look, how their hips open, the angle of their run-up, or a stutter-step to make you move first. Some teams are honest, others fake the opposite way, and the scouting report before each match tells you which. You can read it again from the pause menu.

You play for Aurelia in a 16-team bracket: Round of 16, Quarter-final, Semi-final and Final. Lose and you replay the same match. Win all four rounds to lift the cup, then move on to the next one: the Island Cup, Continental Cup, Grand Cup and Legends Cup, with sharper opponents every round and every cup. A shutout earns three stars, a win in five kicks two, and a sudden-death win one.

Tips and tricks

• Read the scouting report first. It tells you whether a keeper’s lean or glance points to his dive or away from it.
• Hard shots are harder to read but can fly wide or over. The target turns red when you are aiming outside the goal.
• Curved shots fool the keeper more often than straight ones.
• In goal, do not dive early. Smart takers watch you and switch sides, and stutter-step takers pause in their run-up on purpose.
• Keepers sometimes stay in the middle, so a shot down the center is not always safe.
• If you lose in sudden death, you can watch a short ad once per match to face the deciding kick again.