[Review]Gameloft’s NFL 2010 for the iPhone

At DotDosh.com we started doing reviews for applications on the iPhone, like Atari football.  As our second review we will be looking at the Gameloft’s NFL 2010 for the iPhone/iPod Touch (App Store Link here).

Description:

Enjoy a 100% authentic NFL game experience with real teams, real players and real action. Whether you’re are a fan of the Steelers, Cardinals or Cowboys, you can lead your favorite team through an entire season and battle for the ultimate prize: The Super Bowl.

We start out with how the game looks and feels.

You are greeted with a loading screen and when loaded it asks you to “touch screen to continue.” From there you are given a basic menu with options for: Quick Play, Game Modes, and Settings. You can play a “Quick Play” game, which chooses two random NFL teams for you to play with or go into “Game Modes” and play an Exhibition game (like Quick Play, but you choose the team to play with and against), Season (Franchise Mode), or Playoff games.

In “Season Mode”, you get to chose the team to play a whole season with. After you choose your team, I chose my favorite team the Green Bay Packers, you are greeted with a screen that shows your schedule, stats, team roster, standings, settings, save & quit, and play your next game.

When you start your next game, you are greeted with a screen that tells you what team you are playing and at who’s stadium it is at. After that it loads the game and you are greeted with two helmets of both teams clashing against each other with the announcer talking about the game. The stadium’s fan’s can be heard cheering, but they do not move at all.

After the introduction you are greeted with the coin toss. If you win you get to choose whether to receive or kick the ball. If you lose, the other team chooses what they want to do.

We will start with offense in our review. When you start your offense you are greeted to choose from basic plays or advanced plays in the play book. In the basic play’s you can choose to run the ball or throw/pass the ball.

In the basic play’s option, you can choose to run the ball or throw/pass the ball.There is an option for special teams, but you use that for 4 down situations.

In running you have three offensive play options. You can run straight forward, run wide to the outside, and make a fake run and throw the ball.

In the image above it shows offensive plays for running to the outside.

In throwing/passing you also have three offensive play options. You can pass the ball for a shot gain, medium gain, and a longer gain.

In the image above it shows offensive plays for passing the ball a medium range to the receiver.

When you have chosen a play to run with, whether it is to run the ball or throw the ball, you are in the formation to hike the ball.

You can also choose to do an advanced play, in which you can choose what formation you want to run the ball. You can see that in the above picture.

When you have hiked the ball and you are going to throw it you are given symbols over the receivers names. They can be stars, squares, circles, or diamonds for the receivers. A symbol with the color red means that its going to be very hard for the receiver to catch it, yellow means that its going to be a 50-50 shot, and green means that its going to be a very good chance that it will be caught.

When a defender is in front of you, you are given three options to try to avoid a defender. The game pauses for you to choose what you want to do. You can spin, fake them, or truck them. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don’t, so it’s all chance to avoid a defender.

Kickoff’s and field goals are done the same way. On the left there is a cursor that moves around and you have to try to get it as near or on the center for it to go straight into the goal or for it not to go out of bounds during kickoff. The right is the power meter. The higher the power, the farther the ball will go to the receiving team or the farther you can be to hit a field goal.

In the end, you can either win the game or lose the game.

After you have won or lost the game, you are greeted with the stats of the game. It shows you the final score, total yards gained, passing yards gained, rushing yards gained, how many first downs you got, how many sacks/interceptions you made,  and your possession time with the ball.

When you have won the game you are sent back to the main screen where you can see your stats, standings, and what your next game is.

Story: There is no story. You are a football team that is trying to beat other football teams.

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 does not integrate weather effects into the game, which would have been a nice option. The crowd just makes noise and does not move at all, which is unrealistic, but it is a mobile game, which means less resources available to use.

This is the first game on the iPhone/iPod Touch that uses official NFL team names and player names. That gives the player a better feel for the game that they are playing.

Overall it has a good NFL football vibe, which Gameloft was going for.

Gameplay: Controls are decent for a football game. You use the joystick to move the player that you are controlling and there are buttons that allow you to change who you are controlling. When there is a defender in front of you, the game pauses and allows you to chose a move to dodge. This disturbs the free flow of sports games, as other football games don’t just pause in the middle of the play for you to dodge the defender. This might appeal to some, but for others it might not.
Defending the other team’s offense is very simple. If they are throwing it is VERY easy to intercept the ball or throw the ball down before the receiver can grab it. If they are running it is also simple to tackle the runner before they can get away from you.

We are sad that there is no multi-player for the game, but Gameloft has said that in the next version there will be Online, Bluetooth, and Wi-Fi multi-player.

Overall game play is well done, but the pauses might not bode well with some fans.

Sound: The sound in the game is basic. There is one announcer and after a couple of games it is just the same thing being repeated over and over again. There is no commentary like in Madden if that is what you were expecting. There is the basic noise of football going on and with the crowd’s cheers in the background.

In Conclusion: All in all the game is not perfect, but good. It can be fun and very easy if you get the hang of it. It is no Madden NFL for consoles, but it is a very well sports game done for the iPhone by Gameloft. WE also love that it is a licensed NFL game.

This game is very fun and worth it for the $7.99 that is being charged. If you can wait until Madden ‘10 on the iPhone/iPod Touch I would suggest that you do. That way you can compare which is better and can let you have more fun. If you are planning on buying both football games though, then this is a great football game for a mobile device.

In the next version of the game Gameloft will be adding: Online, Bluetooth, and Wi-Fi multi-player, NFL RSS feed of your favorite team, upload re-play’s to youtube, a Special match: Zombies vs. Skeletons, and Gameloft Live compatibility.

Final Score:

App Store link: Gameloft NFL 2010, $7.99

NFL 2010 – Gameloft
Price: $7.99 [App Store Link]
Played On: iPod Touch 2G

Tell us what you think about the game or review in the comments! Stay tuned more reviews are coming your way! We will be reviewing Madden NFL ’10 for the iPhone/iPod Touch as soon as it releases!