Game Reviews

iSoccer Backstreet

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iSoccer Backstreet

Just how do you sell football to the already saturated sports market in the USA? Changing its name hasn't worked and neither did jetting in the glitz and glamour of British royalty, otherwise known as the Beckhams.

The US's shock appearance in the Confederations Cup final late last month, which resulted in the deposing of no less than European Champions Spain along the way, might have come close to grabbing some short-lived front pages stateside, but even that wasn't enough. Soccer clearly has something of an image problem whenever it crosses the Atlantic.

To the rescue comes iSoccer Backstreet with its hip-hop-styled football mini-games. There's no recreation of the beautiful game attempted here: instead, it's all about quick penalty shots and keeping the ball in the air for as long as possible.

The game has you building a career around the fame and fortune that can be yours if you can tap your way to glory. In what my school friends used to call 'keepy uppy,' one of your main goals is to keep the ball in the air for as long as you can using any and as many different parts of your body aside from your hands.

Actually keeping the ball in the air is a question of touching a pad on the right side of the screen when a ball icon turns green, signifying the ideal time to strike the ball. You also control just what part of the body you hit the ball with via a circular panel on the left of the screen. Play involves tapping a body part before switching over to tap the pad in time to meet the ball.

It's less complex in practice than it might sound on paper and it becomes very easy to get into a set rhythm. Challenges usually involve keeping the ball up in the air for a minute or more, picking up a set number of points as you go.

The further you move forward, the more special moves you unlock, each of them coming with their own points bonanza if pulled off successfully. Tricks can only be executed when you've performed a string of moves, at which point you swipe a finger across the panel in any one of a variety of waves.

Also tagged on is a penalty shootout where your job is to choose which side of the goal you'd like to aim for, tapping the pad when it flashes in order to strike the ball at the ideal moment. Mistime your tap and the goalie will, more than likely, save your tame effort. It's a bit of a non-event in truth, thankfully only popping up just once in Career mode.

A more frequent visitor is Target mode, where you have to knock over a set number of targets (sign posts, cars, gates etc) in an open, urban area by thwacking them with the ball. It's a simple enough concept, but one consistently hampered by the controls.

A prime example of how not to implement the iPhone's talents, movement is handled by the accelerometer. The problem is, once you've tipped the phone to set off towards your goals your chosen character never really wants to stop, no matter how far back you then tip the device to compensate.

Actually hitting the targets is a question of tapping the screen when the ball is lined up and the power gauge is at its fullest. Trying to achieve all this while you're actually running towards the very objects you're meant to hit, however, is frustratingly difficult. A lot of the time you find the camera frequently getting caught behind walls as you crudely clatter your way around the map.

It's a shame the developers didn't have the conviction to stick behind the game's one, golden, idea - its rewarding, if short, Tricks mode - and pursue it a bit deeper. Instead, it attempts to tag on a couple of sloppy and soulless mini-games to bulk up admittedly stunted package, putting a dampener on proceedings as a whole.

Nevertheless, iSoccer Backstreet's main meat shows much promise and is genuinely addictive, serving up a short and sweet finger dance that just falls short of its goal.

iSoccer Backstreet

Combining terrific tap action with beat-'em-up style combos, iSoccer Backstreet is sullied by some dodgy mini-games and a compelling reason for replay
Score
Keith Andrew
Keith Andrew
With a fine eye for detail, Keith Andrew is fuelled by strong coffee, Kylie Minogue and the shapely curve of a san serif font. He's also Pocket Gamer's resident football gaming expert and, thanks to his work on PG.biz, monitors the market share of all mobile OSes on a daily basis.