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.

Click to enlarge.

Could this be the next iPhone? A photo that was recently posted shows these images, but are to be taken with a grain of salt. If this is the next generation iPhone its pretty sexy and it looks to have a bigger screen and the silent toggle switch moved.

As said before, take this with a grain of slat until Apple finally announces the next iPhone.

In a video that Kevin Rose posted, he announced the Copy and Paste feature with a couple of other features that the iPhone FW 3.0 will have. He also leaked information that the wanted Video function will still not be available due to some difficulties. Another big feature that he leaked was “Flash” will be released for the iPhone after a long wait from users of the iPhone. The iPhone Software 3.0 will also have all the features that the Palm Pre has (which made it a more attractive device), so that the iPhone is not left behind in features.

• Doing a double space will result in a period (with auto correction on) and and a space.
• If you want Caps-Lock on, then just double-tap the shift button.
• When downloading an app on the iPhone you can pause the download by tapping the icon.
• Double-pressing the Home Button when on the Home Screen will take you back to the first page of apps.
• Screenshots are taken by holding the Home button and pressing the Sleep/Wake button. Screenshots are saved to the Camera Roll.
• Turn off WiFi when not needed. You aren’t going to be in a WiFi hotspot all the time. If you are, turn off 3G. Save some of your battery.
• Turn off Push if you don’t use Push Email, Contacts or Calendars. Push definitely drains battery. Settings > Fetch New Data > Push > Off
• You can bookmark a web page to the Home Screen as a Webclip.
• You can save images in both Safari and Mail. Do this by tapping and holding the image. After a couple of seconds and Action Sheet will slide up. Tap Save Image. The image will be saved to your Camera Roll.

To view the mobile skin, simply load up the forums in your browser on your mobile device. Your mobile device will be detected and the mobile skin will be applied.

So please enjoy and report any bugs or suggestions to DotDosh! Thank you.

[Engadget]

AppleInsider cites Apple Store employees as the source of the rumor. Apparently, a new "Home" option (currently inactive) appears in their EasyPay system when they make an iPhone 3G sale. As the 8GB model runs dry on store shelves, there’s also indications a 32GB model could appear fairly soon to replace it, and match the iPod Touch. [AppleInsider via Gizmodo]