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INTRODUCTION
"BraXil 2014" is a retro soccer game for Xbox. Its gameplay is inspired in some old classic games like "Kick and Run", "Match Day 2", "Sensible Soccer" or "Super Sidekicks", gathering details of these games. But it is developed trying to simulate the Brasil 2014 Soccer World Cup.

You will be able to choose the teams of the real Brasil 2014 World Cup, and play with its real player names. The development of the tournament is the same than the real World Cup: in the first round, your team is in a group of 4 teams, you must play with all them and you must finish in the top-2 places to advance to the second round (the knockout). If you manage to qualify, you will face a series of knockout matches with the rest of surviving teams, in your road to the final match.


GAME MODES
When you press the A-button in the main screen, a menu is prompted and you can select one of 3 game modes:

1) World Cup: It is the main game. Choose a team, and play a simulation of the Brasil 2014 Soccer World Cup.

2) Exhibition: A single match. Choose your team, choose an opponent, and play a soccer match.

3) Penalty shoot-out: A penalty shoot-out serie. Choose your team, choose your opponent, and play a serie of 5 penalty shoots each one (plus a sudden-death if the first serie ends in a tie).


CONTROLS
During the game:

D-pad: Moves the player of your team that is closest to the ball.

A-button: Strong flat shoot (use this to shoot to goal, or make long passes)

B-button: Weak flat shoot (use this to make short passes)

X-button: High shoot. The more time you keep pushed the button, the higher the ball will go. There is a maximum high, determined by the Strength value of the player who is shooting. Also, the distance advanced by the ball is determined by the time that you press the button too, so this shoot is the best choice if you want to make a precise pass.

Advanced technique: if you tap the X-button when your player has the ball, he will kick a short self-pass. This can be usefull to control the ball and avoid opponents.

START-button: It pauses the gameplay and gives the chance to quit the current game. If you do so, your progress in the current tournament will be lost.


In the menus:

D-pad: Move the cursor to make a selection (if available)

A-button: Select/Accept/Continue

START-button: It pauses the gameplay and gives the chance to quit the current game. If you do so, your progress in the current tournament will be lost.

Besides, if you press WHITE+BLACK in the Title screen, you will have the chance to quit the game and exit to the dashboard.


PLAYER ABILITIES
Each team has 3 abilities: Speed, Strength and Skill. All the players of the team have the same Speed, Strength and Skill values, except one player marked with a "Star". This "Star" player (the "Ace") has higher Speed, Strength and Skill values.

This is an explanation of the abilities:

Speed: Players with a high speed can run faster. Besides, goalkeepers with a high speed can do longer jumps.
Strength: Players with a high strength can do stronger/longer shoots with A-button, longer passes with B-button, and longer/higher passes with X-button. On the other hand, if your team has a very low strength value, you will probably need to use only the A-button even for your passes, because B-passes and X-passes will be really short.
Skill: Players with a high skill will get the ball more easily (read the "CATCHING THE BALL" section for more information). Besides, goalkeepers with a high skill will have an slightly better IA, making their reaction time a bit faster when they receive a shoot.
As in real life, teams are NOT balanced. There are stronger and weaker teams, and it would be much more difficult to win the World Cup with a weak team, than doing it with a strong team.


CATCHING THE BALL
Players can only catch the ball if it is moving very slow (or it is stopped), it is not high, and it is close to them. Players cannot catch the ball if it is running fast, or high, or it is far from them.

If the player has a high skill, he will be able to get the ball even if it is at a slightly longer distance, so skill is good for catching the ball. But skill only affects to the distance; so even if your player has a high skill, he will not be able to catch a ball that is moving fast or high. This has been done purposely, to avoid players with a high skill making unstoppable quick passes.

Goalkeepers are a bit different: if they are close to the ball, they can allways catch it, even if it is moving fast or high.


STEALING THE BALL
In Braxil 2014, there are no "tackles" or "faults". If a rival player is moving with the ball and you want to steal it, you must go towards the ball with one of your players and press one of the buttons to make a shoot (A, B or X) when you are close. In some situations, you can even steal the ball simply walking with your player close to it, but it will not work in every case, so the easiest way to steal a ball, is simply shooting it with one of your players, towards the position of another of your players.


TOURNAMENT RULES
If you select the "World Cup" game mode, you must choose a team, and you will play a simulation of the Brasil 2014 World Cup. In the first stage, your team is in a group of 4 teams. You must play with the other 3 teams, and try to finish in the top-2 places. A win gives you 3 points, a tie gives you 1 point, and a defeat gives you 0 points.

Note that in the first stage YOU CAN LOOSE A MATCH, and the game is not over, because maybe you still have chances of qualifying in the top-2.

After you have played with all your opponents, if your team is in the top-2 of the group, you are qualified for the second round (the knockout). On the other hand, if you fail, your team is eliminated and the game is over.

So, if you manage to finish the first stage in the top-2 positions, your team is qualified for the final stage (the knockout). Then, you must play up to 4 matches with the other surviving teams (Round of 16, Quarter-finals, Semi-finals, and Final game). If you loose a match in the knockout, you are eliminated and the game is over. On the other hand, if you win all the matches, you are the World Champion!

Finally, if you play a match in the knockout and it ends in a draw, you will play an extra-time. If the tie persists after the extra-time, you will play a serie of 5 penalty shoot-out. If the tie persists after all the penalties, you will play the "sudden death", shooting one penalty at a time until one team scores and the other fails (like in real life).


FAQ
Q: Why is this game named "BraXil" 2014? A: Because it is inspired in the Brasil 2014 World Cup, and it is a game for Xbox.

Q: This game is too easy/difficult!! A: You can try to play the world cup with a stronger/weaker team, to have a different challenge level.

Q: How can I control the goalkeeper? A: Goalkeepers are automatically controlled by the CPU. There is only one exception: in penalty shoot-outs, you can select the direction that your goalkeeper will jump to.

Q: Can I manually change the names of the players? A: Yes, there is a folder named "rosters" with TXT files with the names of the players. You can change these names if you want.

Q: Can I manually change the abilities or even the uniforms of the teams? A: Yes, you can edit the "t.txt" file to change everything related to the teams. Be warned that you must keep the exact format of this file, or the game may crash. So, I recommend to backup the original "t.txt" file if you want to change it, so that you can restore it if anything fails after your modifications.


THANKS
Thanks to all the persons that, during the years, have built an awesome scene for the Xbox: developers, graphic artists, contributors, Xtras creators, admins, moderators... and gamers too!

Thanks to all the people that have helped me in the development of this or any other of my projects: Neobomb, Hyper_Eye, Madmab, Wimpy, Freakdave, weinerschnitzel, XtecuterX73, darknoir, bigby, Waal, elconejotres, the Surreal64 CE team, dominater01, NOTTHESAME, xcalibur...

Huge thanks to Paolo Nicoletti (Karza Games), as he ripped a lot of the sprites and gave me permission to use them in this game.