2005 Real Football

Trying to capture the essence of the beautiful game and bottling it up in a mobile phone game is a difficult thing to achieve. The excitement of match day, the thrill of scoring a goal and the passion of the crowd is something special, as are half-time pies and taunting the opposition with tasteless chants. In 2005 Real Football, great effort has been made to generate this kind of realistic atmosphere, as well as offer a very competent simulation that longs to be played with your kicking boots on.

It all starts with the great presentation, with slick menus offering various exhibition, cup and league games to enter with your chosen club and country. If you’d like to create your own team there’s an edit feature to put in the names of individual players and you can even come up with a funny name for your manager, say Hubert Tinklebottom. Thanks to the game’s FIFPRO license, you’ll even come across the familiar names of your favourite players. Terry Henry, we bid you good night.

When the game starts, the big arcade-style graphics start coming from every which way, building the excitement really effectively. The first thing you’ll notice is the perspective of the pitch, which plays diagonally, meaning the players are always running at an angle. This actually works brilliantly, enabling you to see a good proportion of the field of play in order to find out where your teammates are, and, of course, where you are in relation to the goal. Shooting is fairly straightforward, and requires pressing just the one button. You can choose to keep hammering this or make use of the direction and power gauges in the corner. It just depends how refined and sophisticated you’re feeling; both techniques seem to work just fine.

The overall feel of passing and shooting is very responsive, as is the control of your player. There are some occasions when the characters seem to get lost against one another and against the background, but other than this the graphics are generally very good with clear animation and scrolling. At the end of each game you have the chance of guessing the man of the match, and if you pick the same player that the commentator chose, your team’s morale will increase and help you in the next game. It’s a fairly unusual feature and is a thoughtful, unique touch. Still, it’s not in the same league as one particular aspect of 2005 Real Football.

Out of nowhere, while you’re busy dribbling the ball, a streaker will scamper their way onto the pitch. All very well you might say, but the game then stops and you take control of the little naked prankster, running like the wind, avoiding the policemen and trying to reach the bemused players. As a bonus mini-game, this takes game-playing to a new, free spirited and less inhibited level, yet it’s fully in keeping with what is the most innovative and enjoyable footie game we’ve come across on mobile phone.