The X Factor

Oh god, is it that time of year again?

The new series of The X Factor is about to kick off, meaning another batch of karaoke refugees murdering your favourite songs, more made-up arguments between judges to get tabloid headlines and, at the end of it all, the crushing inevitability that whoever wins will be the Christmas Number One by a country mile.

And the worst thing? We won't be able to tear ourselves away from it. Again. Say what you like about Simon Cowell (and many do), but The X Factor is fantastic TV.

But how does it fare as a mobile game?

Namco Bandai's new title lets you try out as an X Factor hopeful and starts well, with a neat little character creator enabling you to tweak your clothes, face and hair so as to create the perfect contestant. Or you could go for the grotesque freak look, obviously – it's the approach we'd recommend.

Once you're suited and booted, it's training time. The game is essentially divided into three sections: training, rehearsal, and the live shows. The game is also a collection of five mini-games, corresponding to the different 'skills' of your avatar: rhythm, emotion, breathing, power and range.

All involve variations on a single concept – pressing the number keys on your phone at the right time to make a flashing ball disappear on screen. And all in time to music as your character sings in the foreground.

So, the rhythm mini-game involves pressing each number when a ring around it shrinks to almost touching its edge, the emotion game has you pressing keys when the balls hit one of three 'activation rings' at the bottom of the display, and range requires you to press numbers when they flash onscreen, working your way from '1' to '9'.

In training, doing this well helps you build up your skills, while in the live show, it earns you votes from the public to keep you in the competition.

That's how it works, then, but is it any good? Well… It's not a bad game, as such, but it's certainly no classic. This is partly down to the nature of the gameplay itself, and mostly due to the way the game effectively misuses the X Factor licence.

See, the mini-games are all based around a similar concept, and although the difficulty ramps up as you progress through the contest, there's not enough variety to hold your interest. But considering the game is built around such a big TV show, it's the licensing side that really bugs. For starters, where are the real-world judges?

Okay, one judge does look like Simon Cowell, but instead of Louis Walsh, you get a Sven Goran Eriksson lookalike, while Sharon Osbourne appears to have gone blonde and about 20 years younger. In short, they're not the real judges at all. And if we can resort to some Cowell-like frankness for a moment, their comments are repetitive, predictable, and lacking in imagination.

It's possible this was a decision taken so the game can be launched across Europe without having to tailor it to individual territories, but Gameloft has raised the bar for TV-based games by launching Deal or No Deal with Noel Edmonds in, so from a UK perspective the lack of real judges here is a major blow.

Then there's the music. Where are the hits? With the real-life X Factor revolving around cover versions, it's disappointing that none have been licensed for the spin-off mobile game. Instead, you get unidentified polyphonic tunes with made-up names.

Without wishing to harp on about rival publishers, if Gameloft can get eight rawk classics for its Guitar Legend game, surely Namco Bandai could have followed suit for The X Factor? It really feels like a missed opportunity.

Lastly, the game appears to junk the traditional X Factor format (start with 12 acts then weed one out every week) in favour of a weird 'four acts per show and the first two go through' structure.

Now, we haven't seen the new series of The X Factor yet, and perhaps that's what it's going with, too. But if not, it seems strange to deviate so wildly from the format that fans know and love.

Ultimately, we have to judge The X Factor based solely on its performance. On the positive side, it looks good and the mini-games are pretty addictive – at least for a while. But, oddly, it doesn't make the best use of its licence, meaning that if you're a fan approaching it with high expectations, you're likely to come away as disappointed as a Cowell rejectee.