How to play Twelve Yards

Every kick is a guess and a counter-guess. Here is everything you control, and how to use it.

Taking a penalty

1. Aim. Tap or drag the target inside the goal. The gold circle shows how far the ball may stray.
2. Power. Hold the button: the power builds steadily while you hold, full in a second. Let go to shoot; at full power it shoots by itself. Harder shots are faster and harder to save, but the circle grows, so the top corner gets riskier.

The Panenka: a soft chip down the middle beats a keeper who dives. Against one who stays up, it's an easy catch.

Saving a penalty

Tap where you think the ball will go and press Dive. Guess right and you'll stop most shots, though a hard one can still beat you; guess wrong and it's in.

Sudden death and nerves

Level after five kicks each? It goes to sudden death, one kick each until someone misses and the other scores. The tension shows: every sudden-death round makes your shots a little less accurate.

Style points

Some kicks earn style points, and the most stylish player of the match gets an award, even in defeat.

• Top Bins +4: a goal high and tight to a post
• Brick Wall +4: saving a very hard shot
• Panenka +3 and Read It +3: chipping it in, or saving it right where you dived
• Ice Veins +2 and Fingertips +2: scoring in sudden death, or scoring just beyond the keeper's glove
• Wrong Way +1: sending the keeper the wrong way
• Postman −1, Row Z −2 and Bottled It −4: hitting the woodwork, putting it way over the bar, or missing the kick that would have won the match
• Predictable −1 and Same Dive −1: going the same way three times in a row

Tips

• Mix it up. The computer at World Class level remembers your favourite corner, and so do your friends.
• Medium power into a low corner is the safest goal there is.
• As keeper, watch the scouting goal under the scene: it shows where they have shot before.