Despelote: Say hola to the fútbol life in Quito, Ecuador
2025.5.6
作者：Francisco Dominguez, Contributor
Meanwhile, Despelote’s eight-year-old Julián stares wistfully out of the second-story window of a Quito classroom, waiting for the bell to ring so he can enjoy a kickaround with his friends he spies waiting for him below.
Despelote is autobiographical; you live out the childish memories of its creator Julián Cordero. You’re in a real place. Each level began as a photograph of Quito transformed into 3D space by photogrammetry, a hazy sepia filter adding an appropriately nostalgic note. As always, it’s the people and your interactions with them that loom largest in memories of the past, rendered in bold black-and-white comic art.
From the moment class ends, Julian’s first-person escapades in Quito’s 2000s have a wonderful sense of mischief, only possible in the total absence of responsibility for two joyful hours. There’s only one button. Press a button—any button—to greet strangers with a cheery “hola” or “buenas” and an impish wave. They’ll respond with the variety you’d expect from different personalities accosted by a plucky kid out of nowhere.
Your freedom to greet the world aside, you’re held in a kid’s otherwise-constricted world. Do this. Do that. Hands off. Stop that! You're told what to do by teachers within school bounds and badgered by mostly attentive parents at home. But when you step outside, into the nearby fields of the Parque La Carolina Julian is so fortunate to have just down the road—now you are free! Free to torment pigeons, giving chase until they fly out of reach; free to run up to strangers to pet a labrador who's as excited to be outside as you are; and free to steal the older kid’s soccer ball, disrupting their fun until they catch up and reclaim it with a rude shove that knocks you down to the ground.
Soccer is always on your mind, and often at your feet in the shape of a ball—failing that, you’ll make do with a glass bottle. At every opportunity, you’ll race off with your friends to play in the park, even when firmly told not to. Conversations take place against the backdrop of idle kickarounds: A gentle flick of the right analog stick rolls it gently to your besties, or you can pull it back all the way to let fly a mighty shot. Your mom says come back by a certain time. You never do, waiting until you're commanded back home by her imperious calls of “Julián” echoing from across the street.
You’re not alone in your soccermania. The soccer team’s exploits make front-page news, financial events a distant second to the latest goal headed into the net by the country’s savior and star player Agustín “El Tin” Delgado. Weddings and homework, your dad’s financial challenges, the rise of Ecuadorian cinema—all get sucked into soccer’s inescapable vortex. Your family recently established a video rental store, but you transform it into a soccer match regardless, kicking VHS copies of Shrek and Pulp Fiction between the aisles until you’re released back into the streets like the unruly pest you are.
The histrionics of your relative’s favorite TV dramas mean nothing. You just want to play Tino Tini’s Soccer '99, your favorite (fictional) soccer sim. It’s a long way off EA SPORTS FC™ 25 or even the classic Pro Evolution Soccer entry which came out that year. But it’s used to an effect every bit as creative as Uncharted 3’s memorable sequence where Nate and Elena curl up on the couch to play some Crash Bandicoot, except here you’re the child, ignoring a sister determined to wreck your gaming session with your friends, or staring at the screen as your parent attempts to have a meaningful discussion while you’re just concerned with spotting the perfect pass.
It could have settled for being a delightful recreation of childish play, but Despelote has far more ambition than that. Julián’s father is a filmmaker and, when the eight year old is not dreaming of scoring soccer goals for the ages, he shares his dad's sensibility. There’s a cinematic depth to its well-observed characters, a finely honed narrative execution to its time-jumps through Ecuador’s World Cup qualification campaign as the team faced vital showdowns with Colombia and Bolivia (some fantastic archival footage helps to relive the crucial moments) and Julián’s future stint playing for Sociedad Deportivo Quito’s youth team. And that arthouse sensibility goes rogue in truly unexpected fashion later in a manner that I wouldn’t dare to spoil.
You can’t recapture the moment a nation holds its breath with everything on the line. Even for Ecuadorians like Julián, that past is a foreign country. If you follow soccer, you know how it ends; maybe you even watched it at the time. But Despelote finds a way to make the past feel new and personal, a way to show the historic jolt that energized a corner of Quito 24 years ago when sporting immortality felt just around the corner. Just as El Tin did so often back in 2001, Despelote hits the target.
Despelote is out now on the Epic Games Store.