Review: Real Football 2010 for mobile

Real Football 2010 marks a small increase from Gameloft’s usual £2 price point; but it’s still great value for money. The FifPro licence comes with an unparalleled roster of licensed player names for a handheld game with 8 real leagues and 245 teams, albeit with mainly terrible pun versions of their real names.

However, as these can be changed in the editor this hardly matters and the important bit of ‘being’ your favourite overpaid footy star ensures the healthy escapism we all demand of footy games.

In fairness, there was nothing much wrong with the Real Football series and this latest update builds on the same basic engine.  Once again, it’s a deft combination of passing and tackling, trick shots and shots on goal; the first executed with a tap on the 5 key, the second with the * key and a helpful onscreen guage to indicate the direction of shots before hitting 0 to take them.

A yellow icon indicates when a player is ready to receive a pass, making it easy to establish smooth flowing play and even skilful one-twos.

As far as playing modes are concerned there’s several to choose from. There’s a turotiral mode to get accustomed to the controls, friendly matches if you want to get stuck in immediately, and then the various league and Cup competitions at both national and international level.

There’s also a limited management ode called Club Master  and the RF league that rates your performance against others in an online league.  Finally there’s Enter the Legend – a curious anomaly that focuses on a single player, right down to limiting your view of other players, with regrettable effects on an otherwise sterling passing game.

Real Football 2010 takes an already great engine and crams a busload of new modes in. It’s not Gameloft’s best which given the price increase is a worry, but it’s still head and shoulders above most handheld footy games. Given the start of a whole new season, it’s just what the parrot ordered.

Price: £3
Web: www.gameloft.co.uk

Verdict: 8/10

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