Penalty Kick — Play Free Online

Penalty Kick is a football shootout reduced to its most tense moment: one ball, one goalkeeper, and a goal that looks much smaller once you have to hit it. You pick a national team, play a match against a computer-controlled side, and trade penalties until someone is ahead. There is no pitch to run around and no tackling, so a whole match fits in a few minutes.

It suits the quick-restart habit that Doodle Jump players already have. A missed kick costs you seconds, not a long run, and the urge to go again straight away is the same. Where Doodle Jump is about reflexes and steering, this one is about aim and judging how hard to flick.

How to play

You shoot by swiping. On desktop, press the mouse button on the ball and drag it toward the part of the goal you want, then release. On a phone or tablet, flick your finger across the screen the same way. The direction of the swipe decides where the ball goes, and a longer, faster swipe sends it with more pace. The game's own hint on the first screen reads "swipe to kick the ball".

The game also has a goalkeeper side. There you defend the net while the opponent takes their kicks, and the on-screen prompt tells you to tap the screen to let the opponent kick. Each kick ends with a GOAL!, SAVED or MISS! message and the score updates. If the scores are level after the regular rounds, the match goes to extra shots. The team list covers 32 countries, from Brazil, Germany and Argentina to Morocco, Canada and Peru. The team choice is cosmetic as far as I can tell, so pick whichever flag you like.

Your progress is stored in the browser's local storage, so closing the tab does not necessarily lose your place. That also means it will not follow you to another device, and clearing site data or playing in a private window will wipe it.

Tips

• Aim for the corners with a firm swipe. A soft kick down the middle is the easiest ball for a keeper to hold.
• Do not use the same corner every time. The keeper reacts to what you do, so vary where you put the ball.
• On a phone, swipe from the ball itself and keep your finger moving through the release. A hesitant, short swipe sends the ball weakly and off line.
• Use a mouse if you can. Dragging with a mouse gives finer control over the angle than a thumb on a small screen.

Similar games on Doodle Jump

If you want another sport with the same pick-up-and-play pace, Bouncy Basketball is a physics-driven two-player game where you try to score by bouncing a ball into a hoop. Helix Jump and Bird Jumper are quicker, one-button arcade games. They test timing instead of aim, and sit closer to the site's headline game, Doodle Jump.

Penalty Kick runs in the browser with nothing to install. It works well in short sessions on either a keyboard-and-mouse setup or a touchscreen.