With the excitement of Superbowl XLVI fading faster than white stitches on a muddy pigskin, it's down to the likes of NFL Kicker! to rekindle our love of fourth down conversions (or, for our European readership, ‘kicks’).
The latest effort from casual sports master Full Fat (of Flick Golf!, Flick Soccer!, and Flick Quarterback fame) is another showboating mix of swish HD animated action and real world licences allied with simple and tight flick mechanics.
Sadly, despite the glitsy production values, it almost bounces off the uprights due to the bizarre lack of online leaderboards.
It’s goodWhereas NFL Flick Quarterback focused on the star of the show’s juking and passing prowess, the follow-up shines its spotlight on the Kicker!
With ball placement decided by the game, your role is limited to firing shots and adding last-minute swerves. But the developer’s dab hand with this mechanic means flicking curves though the ball and towards goal gives you a satisfyingly accurate aim.
It’s a shame, however, that the after-touch (in which you frantically swipe across the screen to tweak the direction of a shot) isn’t as responsive as powerful as it was in Flick Golf! and Flick Soccer!, forcing you to sharpen your initial kicks to compensate.
After a straightforward Basic Skills tutorial, NFL Kicker!’s main mode In The Zone gives you three lives (or ‘misses’) to prove your skills, with shots moving farther away and into stronger wind the longer you survive. Meanwhile, there are three other mini-games to unlock through the game’s experience system.
By rising from Novice to Hall of Famer by earning XP for high scores, you’ll get to try the likes of Coffin Corner (where you have to bounce the ball out of play into corners) and the more compelling Time Attack (in which you need to strike red, white, and blue stripes against the clock).
Rushing the end zoneProving just as digit-achingly addictive as its Flick-series forbearers, NFL Kicker! will suck you in for a good hour or so as you steadily unlock all the content. To keep you playing, there are also local Achievements for reaching higher rankings and notching up insanely high scores in different modes.
But, bizarrely, there’s no way to compare your scores with other players - short of shoving your phone in their faces anyway - due to a lack of online leaderboards.
It’s not a game-breaker, but does limit how long this otherwise shiny trophy of a game will enjoy pride of place in your Android display cabinet.
NFL Kicker!
As sharp looking as its flick controls are tight, this is a must-play for NFL junkies, though it is sorely missing online leaderboards for showing off your punting prowess
Paul Devlin
A newspaper reporter turned games journo, Paul's first ever console was an original white Game Boy (still in working order, albeit with a yellowing tinge and 30 second battery life). Now he writes about Android with a style positively dripping in Honeycomb, stuffed with Gingerbread and coated with Froyo