Real Football 2009

If you could point to one thing that’s defined modern football, it would probably be the game’s transition into the realms of unreality.

From the absurd situation of young players being paid more than the GDP of your average African nation, to the status of established football clubs as playthings for the rich and bored, it’s hard for the modern fan to relate to it all.

If there’s one thing fans of the beautiful game crave it’s a dose of good, honest, real football. No flash, no licensed brands, just 22 players and a ball.

To all intents and purposes, that’s precisely what Gameloft has provided over the years with its own take on Real Football. The series has gained the respect of football fans thanks to a solid engine, a strong team game and flashes of skill where appropriate. It’s the Everton of footy games.

On N-Gage the competition (FIFA 09) is a bit of a Newcastle – a floundering giant that has wasted its resources and frustrated its sizeable fan-base. Real Football’s appearance on the platform couldn’t have come soon enough, and it’s a solid if slightly over-cautious debut.

Here, to all intents and purposes, is a port of the mobile HD version of Real Football 2009 that we enjoyed back in September, with very few enhancements for the new platform. Still, as we mentioned, it’s not like the competition is red-hot. As N-Gage footy games go, Gameloft’s effort is head and shoulders above its cash-rich rival.

As with the other versions, Real Football 2009 plays a brilliant game of football, facilitating neat passing triangles, well-timed feints to beat the last man and barn-storming finishes from outside of the box.

You’ll find yourself scoring all manner of goals, from scrappy deflected toe-pokes to on-the-run volleys – all thanks to a beautifully flexible game engine and ultra-intuitive controls.

Basic command of your players comes down to a directional pad (or the corresponding numerical keys) and two action buttons – one for passing and pressing, the other for shooting and sliding. A third button accounts for manually switching players and pulling off a handful of skill moves, should you wish to take finer control of your players.

Of course the main benefit of the switch to N-Gage is the move to landscape gaming, particularly with the handsets that provide proper gaming controls. Experienced on one of these, Real Football 2009 on N-Gage plays possibly the best game of footy on any mobile platform – and we include the touchscreen exploits of the iPhone Real Football 2009 version in that. When it comes to footy action, there’s just no topping a good physical control set-up.

I did find it rather strange that pass/press wasn’t designated to my N95’s ‘B’ button by default, but the controls are fully customisable, so it’s not a major gripe.

Of course the other benefit to landscape footy is the view itself – the wider perspective suits the side-on action to a tee, and again makes it a better proposition than the HD mobile equivalent.

There’s a disappointing price to be paid for landscape RF '09, though, and that’s the absence of the usual radar. This device is an invaluable tool for those who want to play a realistic brand of digital footy, as it’s the only way you can spot a team mate standing unmarked on the other side of the pitch. As it is, pinging a Beckham-esque ball from deep is not a viable option in landscape mode.

Presumably this has been done due to the reduction of wasted screen space, but to not even have the option of a small, transparent on-screen radar is a considerable omission. What rubs salt into the wounds is switching back to the traditional portrait view in the options menu, which reinstates the radar feature.

Gameloft is offering you a choice – do you want full vision or decent controls? You can’t have both, and that’s frustrating.

Elsewhere everything’s intact from other versions of the game, for better or for worse. So there are plenty of cup and league competitions on the international and club stage, but many of the player and club names remain unlicensed. My first game was a re-enactment of the recent England v Ukraine World Cup qualifier (it turned out to be far more exciting), where all of the England players were present and correct, but the Ukraine side lined up with Shevtenka and Varan up front.

It’s more of a minor irritation than a major fault, as we’d take a beautifully constructed Munich goal scored by Tonu and set-up by Ribario above FIFA 09’s wafer-thin realistic veneer any day.

Of more concern is the total lack of a multiplayer option. It’s another hang-over from the mobile version, but to not even include a bluetooth two-player mode is disappointing. What we have instead is the usual inconsequential N-Gage leaderboard, which tracks your progress in comparison to other players.

Real Football 2009 is a tough game to mark. Viewed in isolation it’s a brilliantly playable mobile football game with a few irritating quirks. Factor in the versions on other mobile platforms, and it’s simultaneously the best version in terms of controls and disappointingly similar to the mobile iteration.

But ultimately we have to focus primarily on Real Football’s place on the N-Gage landscape, and the reality is it’s the finest football experience on the platform – certainly several notches above the competition. If FIFA gets its act together for 2010, or Konami decides to grace the N-Gage Arena with a Pro Evo game, we might judge the next version of RF a little harsher.

For now, though, N-Gage Real Football 2009 is the real deal.