[Review]Atari Football for the iPhone

At DotDosh.com we are going to be starting to do reviews for applications on the iPhone. As our first review we will be looking at the game Atari Football for the iPhone/iPod Touch (App Store Link here).

Description:

Based off the table top version you loved as a kid, Atari Football for the iPhone and iPod Touch amps up the game with a new look and feel for the new platform! Name your team, pick your logo, and customize your helmet before you crush your opponent. Catch the The Bomb or Blitz the QB to defeat your friend via local Wifi Multiplayer!

We start out with how the game looks and feels.

You are greeted with a screen that asks you to “touch to start game.” From there you are given a basic menu with options for: One Player, Two Players (Local Multiplayer Wi-Fi), Team Stats, Options, and More Atari Games. To start the game you click on One Player and you can customize your team and the game settings.

You can choose your helmet and stripe color, choose from 11 logos, and name your own team. Once you have all that done the game actually starts. You play as the team that you created and there is a coin that is tossed up to see whether you play offense (heads) or defense (tails). If you play offense you get the playbook for being on offense and if you are on defense you get the playbook for being on defense.

We start off on Offense. On the screen you see the playbook for offense and you can chose any plays to run for your team. Below the plays are the power-ups that you can use in the game, whenever you feel there is a need to use it. There are three different power ups that you can use. The first one is a Turbo Rush, which makes you run super fast! The second one is a Big Helmet, which increases your size, so you can stun any 3 opponents you hit. The third and final one is sure Hands, which is magnet-like hands that makes catching and stealing the ball easier.

Story: There is no story. You are a football team that is trying to beat other football teams. It would have been better if there was a Association/Season mode for you to play in.

Presentation: The visuals for the game is good for a mobile game on the iPhone/iPod Touch. The games menus are easy to navigate, simple, and to the point. The game integrates weather effects into the game. Sometimes the games are played in the sun, sometimes it rains, sometimes it snows, etc. Atari has done a good job at making the game look visually appealing to the old arcade and flash games.

Overall it has a good arcade football vibe, which Atari was going for.

Gameplay: Controls can be a pain sometimes and sometimes it’s not. To run you are supposed to swipe your finger across the device, in the direction that you want, to run. To pass you are supposed to position your QB (Quarterback) by running backwards a little and then with one finger you are supposed to touch the ‘Hold to Pass’ bar at the bottom of the screen. While doing that you are supposed to use your other finger and swipe your hand toward the player that you want to pass it to. To defend you swipe your finger across the screen to get the defender to get the other team’s player with the football.

These controls are not perfect, as there are no buttons, but it can mess you up sometimes. Occasionally when you are trying to swipe to move the quarterback backward or to move the defender to get the other team’s player, it does not register always. That will slow you down and it can make you either lose yards or allow the other team to gain some yards.

Once you master the controls though it can get really easy to gain yards or be a good defender though, even with the occasional un-registering of movements.

Sound: The sound in the game is basic. There are no announcers or anything in that sort of area. There is the whistle from the referee, the crowd, and the player getting tackled. When in the menus there is music, but none of that during the game. Playing an arcade like football game you shouldn’t expect music or announcers anyways.

In Conclusion: All in all the game is not perfect, but good. It can be fun and very easy if you are strategic and if the controls register.

If you are an avid football fan and you can not wait for Madden ’10 on the iPhone/iPod Touch then get this to get a tiny fix of football. If you can wait and save the money for Madden then do it. You are not really missing out on anything breathtaking and will need to buy the game. It can be fun, sometimes, but controls are messy and there is no real story for the game. If there was an Association or a Season mode it would have made the game a lot better.

Final Score:

App Store link: Atari Football, $2.99

Tell us what you think about the game or review in the comments! Stay tuned more reviews are coming your way, like the Terminator Salvation Game for the iPhone/iPod Touch.