Play Football 2011

There's an easy, no nonsense way of working out whether a football title is worth its salt within seconds – simply take the ball to the midfield, and pass it about for a bit.

If movement from your teammates is something of a rarity and you end up knocking the ball about in a repetitive pattern, chances are the soccer sim you've picked up is something of a dud.

Goals without the glory

The pass and move ethos – besides helping serve up a novelty hit from Liverpool FC and Boot Room Boyz – is a measure both of good teams and good football games. Every decent title, whether on console or mobile, has passing at the centre of everything it does.

Sadly, in Glu's Play Football 2011, it feels like more of an afterthought.

In fact, it's hard to work out just what Play Football 2011 is for. Visually, it certainly makes an impression – the smooth run of play gives the average iPhone title a run for its money.

But when it comes to the art of replicating the beautiful games itself, the whole affair is a touch limp.

Played using amateur settings, Play Football 2011 is a non-event, your only input being to pass and shoot with the '*' and '0' keys respectively. All other movement – including weaving your way around your opponents – is taken care of, meaning it's possible to knock in five to ten goals within the first half hour.

Ramp the difficulty up a notch, however, and the game changes. Suddenly passing and moving seems like the most awkward thing ever, teammates often letting the ball run right past them or, conversely, leaving the backdoor wide open when the opposition runs towards your goal.

Tackling is similarly fruitless, with every slide you make winning you the ball, but also laying you wide open to a counter-tackle simply because players stay on the ground for too long. You can essentially tackle and counter-tackle your way across half the pitch.

It all leads to a title that does very little to represent the real game, or further the video games that choose to replicate it.

Smart looks aside, Play Football 2011 actually has very little about it, giving you little reason to take to its rather plasticy pitch.