Gameloft's Derek Jeter Real Baseball [App Store] joined the rest of their impressive sports lineup on the platform this evening. Featuring full 3D graphics, several different game modes ranging from home run derbies to full season modes, and full in-game commentary, Derek Jeter Real Baseball seems to display the same high quality production as other Gameloft games.
We'll post a more detailed look at this game soon as I'm anxious to get deeper into the game to see how it compares to Gamevil's Baseball Superstars 2010 [App Store], another full-featured baseball game we recently gave 4.5 stars to.
Update: A hands-on gameplay video has been embedded above. The game offers two control methods for batting. There is no targeting of the ball for each method. The first is touch in which you simply tap on the screen to swing the bat as the ball approaches. The second method is slide in which you slide down to pull your bat back, and quickly swing upward in time with the pitch. Neither mode requires you to aim at the ball.
Pitching involves a combination of picking your pitch, timing a tap to determine power and accuracy, and use of the accelerometer to direct where the pitch will go. The video shows all these modes.
Gameloft has provided screenshots of its upcoming iPhone sports title Derek Jeter Real Baseball, along with an indication that the game will be available in the App Store very shortly.
Details of the forthcoming title, as listed by the studio.
Best graphics of any baseball simulation on the App Store with all 3D players and stadiums
Lifelike animations when batting, pitching or catching and also features an innovative gauge to use for batting so swings can be even more accurate and powerful
iTunes Music Library access
Delivers intense realism thanks to audio commentary, sound effects and spectator reactions to your plays
Celebrating the release of the game, Gameloft is running a video contest where the top 10 winners can take home (depending upon ranking) an iPod touch, an official MLB jersey, or an official MLB cap. All 10 winners will be featured in Derek Jeter Real Baseball as players in a special team.
The rules of the contest are explained in this video, and are as follows:
Print the official target of the contest
Record a video showing a spectacular and accurate pitch at the target
Upload the video on the contest website
Users can then vote for their favorite videos.
The contest, which is limited to the US and Canada, began Friday, October 2nd and runs until November 15th.
See a bit of the upcoming game in action in the following gameplay video.
EA's FIFA franchise carries a 16 year history of creating a sim-like soccer experience on various console and computer systems. This, of course, has led to somewhat lofty expectations for the iPhone/iPod Touch version which is a bit of a mixed bag.
FIFA 10 has a ton of content consisting of 30 leagues, 570 teams and 12,620 players as well as 20 tournaments. While some may take issue with specific team omissions, let’s not forget the depth of content that is included. FIFA offers 4 levels of difficulty: Amateur, Semi-Pro, Professional, and World Class, and 5 modes of play: Tournament, Manager, Penalty, Training and Be A Pro. There is also a local Wi-Fi mode in which you can play against your friends.
Tournament mode allows you to play in any of 20 tournaments and is where most will spend their time. The presentation of the different groupings and post-games scores are well designed and part of the enjoyment is the simplicity in which you can easily scroll through the results of the daily matches. Manager mode allows you to manage your own team and provides a set of season objectives that must be met to succeed and continue to the next season. These can be as straightforward as securing a winning to season to more difficult objectives such as winning the finals. Be A Pro is a rather interesting mode where you guide a player through a full career. You can either use an existing player from the 12,000+ included in the game or create your own. When creating your own, you can customize player attributes including speed, shooting and tackling among others as well as play a specific position (e.g. goal keeper, defender, etc.). Finally, Penalty mode pits your team against others in penalty shooting contests, where success will lead to additional contests.
FIFA 10 also provides plenty of customization options depending on the mode of play including minutes in a half, camera angles, HUD layouts, weather conditions, time of day, commentary on/off and more. The replay system and camera angles are among the best you’ll find on the iPhone. Replays can be viewed from multiple angles, zoomed in/out, and played at various speeds.
FIFA 10 is billed as a visual extravaganza amongst soccer games, but the reality is that it could be better. While it does deliver decently designed stadiums and lush playing fields, the players themselves lack any basic facial characteristics, which is disappointing. Often, I find that the commentary audio used in sports games don't match up well with the gameplay, but, fortunately for FIFA fans, the commentary in FIFA 10 is relatively good and some of the more accurate you’ll hear. The actual sound quality of the announcers, however, seem particularly muddled, presumably due to excess data compression to reduce the game's size.
The biggest hurdle for many, however, will be the controls found in FIFA 10, especially compared to the other App Store offerings. Moving the player can be done by either a virtual d-pad or the accelerometer. Unlike Real Soccer 10 and X2 Football, however, the control pad is fixed in place rather than floating. As a result, there is the frustrating tendency for your thumb to slide off the edge of the screen especially during sprints. Meanwhile, even with sensitivity tweaks, the accelerometer's accuracy left much to be desired.
In addition, two key action buttons—A and B (a C button is also provided when using accelerometer controls)—are provided. Through a combination of taps of these buttons, specific commands are carried out. The basic offense commands are relatively simple for passing (A), shooting (B), and sprinting (C when using accelerometer controls). However, when attempting other commands such as lobbing or attempting a 1-2 pass, the learning curve can be quite high. For example, a lobbed through ball requires sliding from B to A to B, while a 1-2 pass involves sliding from A to B to A. Even crossing a ball isn’t as easy as it sounds.
On defense, tapping on the B button will switch control from player to player, or you can simply tap on a specific player. Again, specific actions such as tackling and slide tackles require a certain combination of taps. A to B for slide tackles and while a standing tackle only involves tapping A. I understand that EA is attempting to provide a variety of moves, and the controls overall are solid after overcoming the learning curve. But at the same time, they don’t feel as accurate as they could be, especially compared to other App Store soccer games.
Once you overcome the controls, the gameplay itself is rather enjoyable with a balanced AI. Even on the Amateur setting, FIFA 10 can be challenging. The game does an admirable job creating an immersive experience from the better than average commentary to the intense gameplay. Like most soccer games, teammates can sometimes react poorly, but seems to be less of a problem with FIFA 10. Depending on your success, you also unlock rewards that provide additional training, home stadium upgrades, and even unlock an additional teams. These all contribute to a well-balanced game.
FIFA 10 is not perfect by any means, although it does offer a good deal of depth and is well-balanced in AI gameplay, with mostly top-notch graphics. EA has delivered a well-presented and well-packaged soccer experience in FIFA 10, but then again, it’s up to you to figure out all the intricacies.
EA's much anticipated FIFA 10 has been slowly being released internationally throughout the day. The U.S. release should happen in the next few hours, but the game is already available in Europe and Australia. Forum user Feltzam posted a detailed impressions post breaking down various aspects of the game:
Overall I'm quite happy with this game so far. The controls take a while to get comfortable with, but the game isn't too easy or too hard, and … there's multiple difficulty settings so you can find the perfect setting for you. I'm impressed with the level of content that EA put into the game. A lot of what's in the console versions is in this version.
We'll provide a more in-depth look at the game after we have had more time with it. In the meanwhile, further discussion is being collected in this thread. We will also update this post with the link to the U.S. version when it's released tonight.
Glu Mobile's latest release Super K.O. Boxing 2 is a terrific new game that is as intense as it is fun. With its vibrantly colored cartoon animations, Super K.O. Boxing 2 delivers the heavy hitting gameplay that many have been waiting for.
The objective is to win the title belt, but don’t let the cartoon visuals fool you. This is both an exercise in entertainment and futility as you take on 12 unique and eccentric boxers on your climb up the heavyweight ladder. As the K.O. Kid, you’ll need to conquer and win your way through each of the 3 circuits. Win every bout in a circuit to earn a belt and unlock the next circuit to take on a new cast of characters.
Super K.O. Boxing 2 has 3 modes play: Circuit is the story mode where you face the most fearsome and crazy boxers on your way to the world title. Versus mode consists of fights with previously defeated boxers. Finally, Challenge mode unlocks after winning your first circuit and presents specific objectives for winning a bout. Circuit mode is where you will spend most of your time, and you’ll need to show progress here before the other modes are unlocked. Each fight lasts 3 rounds each 3 minutes in length. Aside from the funny physical appearance of the boxers, each has unique attributes and powers that make them formidable opponents.
For example, 15 Cent is a bling-wearing, high strung boxer who can disorient you with his smile, while Chief will counterpunch you relentlessly every time you take a swing. I can’t overstate the humor in Super K.O. Boxing 2. From the strange poses and dances of opponents to the funny text dialogue exchanged between opponents in between rounds, Glu Mobile has done a solid job.
Super K.O. Boxing 2 also seems to get the controls right with two basic control options — Touch Pad and Touch Regions. Unfortunately, in-game documentation is practically non-existant so it may require some trial, error and frustration to get comfortable. Using the touch pad, throwing punches consists of tapping dual buttons to throw left/right punches. Meanwhile, touch regions allows you to tap specific parts on your opponent to throw the corresponding punch. One small hitch with touch regions is that your finger will block part of the screen which can hinder the ability to block and dodge punches in some cases.
The different types of punches that can be thrown are nicely incorporated so it becomes second nature for the player. Body shots, upper cuts and combinations are all possible in this game and require timing and practice. Most notably, hooks can be thrown through a combination of dodging and swinging at an opponent’s head.
In addition, you have other weapons at your fingertips. Part of your task will be avoiding and dodging punches. The more you’re able to dodge punches and land your own will charge up your Super Punch Energy. This is tracked in the bottom right corner, and once fully charged, you can throw a Mega Punch that will floor your opponent if landed properly. Of course, you don’t need to wait until it’s full charged to use it… it just won’t be as strong. Both you and your opponent have the ability to taunt each other, and this will also build up Super Punch Energy. Of course, you’re more vulnerable in the middle of a taunt.
The gameplay is fast paced and intense, and the AI is well balanced. Both K.O. Kid and the opponent have health gauges that recharge slightly after a knockdown. The initial fights with Big Gip and 15 Cent are relatively easy, but they ratchet up significantly as opposing boxers become adept at dodging, blocking and more importantly, going on the offensive. Challenge mode is even more difficult since you’ll be limited in what you can do within a short period of time. For example, one challenge involves knocking out an opponent in one round without using Dizzying Combos and avoids being hit even once to win. The game can also be frustrating because often after you’ve knocked down an opponent, they get up with a fully charged health gauge. This is where you will either persevere or get pummeled.
All in all, Super K.O. Boxing 2 combines great cartoon visuals with some intense gameplay. I would say that the attitude and personality the devs infused into the game shine though. This is one of those games that delivers the thrill of victory with the agony of defeat all in one well-designed package.
Last week we took a look at NaturalMotion's Backbreaker Football [App Store], a title that lies somewhere in between a very impressive tech demo and a fun football minigame.
The gimmick behind Backbreaker is the morpheme physics engine. Instead of having pre-generated tackle animations, everything is done on the fly and because of this no two tackles ever should be the same. Like most games that use some variation of a ragdoll physics model, sometimes things can go awry producing hilarious and highly unrealistic results, but overall the animations are cool enough to sometimes make you want to watch the multi-view replays after each tackle.
More information on Backbreaker can be found in our review:
The gameplay of Backbreaker is structured in to a series of challenges where you run down a football field juking, spinning, and sprinting past defenders attempting to tackle you. You run by tilting your device forward, and the direction you run is controlled by tilting left or right similar to how you would control a racing game.
The different levels start simple, initially only asking you to evade a few defenders on a wide open field. Backbreaker quickly adds a twist with the inclusion of red lines on the field that you must run between without getting tackled. Step across one of these lines and you have to start the whole level over.
Backbreaker Football is a technically impressive game that can be a lot of fun as long as you realize that you're only getting a running minigame and aren't actually looking for a full football experience. I've had a great time playing it, and similar to Homerun Battle 3D [$4.99], Backbreaker is a great game for sports fans to play for a few minutes at a time.
Freeverse's upcoming baseball game, Flick Baseball is looking even more impressive than when we first saw it at WWDC. In the past few months the developers have been adding all kinds of functionality to the game, creating an amazingly complete baseball experience for the iPhone. We had a chance to take a look at an early build of the game at GDC Austin 2009.
Different game modes are included ranging from exhibition games to a full 165 game season mode where you play from opening day to the championships. If you don't want to commit to quite that much baseball, 11, 33, and 66 game seasons are also available. There's even a multiplayer homerun derby mode.
Flick Baseball has a lineup of 34 teams to choose from, each with different rosters and statistics. The game doesn't have MLB licensing, but you can customize absolutely ever aspect of the teams from names to jersey colors. If playing as the Cubs is important to you, and you're willing to spend the time to build the entire team, there's nothing stopping you.
Freeverse has released this trailer video of the game's customization and gameplay:
And of course Flick Baseball has Plus+ along with the standard load out of social networking integration to brag about your scores via email, Twitter, Facebook, and others.
Flick Baseball is still in development and should be released during the fourth quarter of this year.
Korean game developer Gamevil released their latest entry in the Baseball Superstars series last night with Baseball Superstars 2010 [App Store]. According to Gamevil, the original Baseball Superstars is the best selling baseball game on the App Store, and given my experience with Baseball Superstars 2010 so far, it's safe to say they've got another hit on their hands.
Baseball Superstars 2010 is a full featured baseball game with multiple game modes ranging from simple exhibition games to full seasons or homerun derbies. What sets the game apart from the pack are the RPG elements that allow you to create your own pitcher or batter and build their statistics in "My League" mode.
Various exercises and social events are available to train your players along with items to purchase such as bats and shoes with your annual salary. Once you have built up your players (up to 4 batters and 2 pitchers), you can use those players in the full season mode where you will need to manage your team's ability to work together as well as their morale.
If this sounds crazy, that's because it is. Both Baseball Superstars games have this odd mixture of really solid Baseball gameplay and these strange RPG elements that seem silly at first but start to have the same allure as leveling up any character in an RPG. I've never really been a sports gamer, but the RPG elements in the original Baseball Superstars really sucked me in, and the sequel is doing the same.
There's an additional level to the lovable absurdity in Baseball Superstars 2010 with the included "super" players. There is a pitcher that's a robot, a batter who is some kind of nurse, and in a game I just played the opposing team's pitcher performed a super move turning all the baseballs they pitched into bombs. These crazy components to the game with the RPG elements mentioned earlier somehow really make this game appeal to me, and I'm not even a baseball fan.
Baseball Superstars 2010 also offers an interesting solution to online multiplayer. Everything is done via a asynchronous match mode where you can go online to search for teams to play. In this mode, you're essentially downloading the player statistics of the team you select and playing against them locally on your device.
Sure, it's not real-time multiplayer, but the ability to download your friend's team and play against them when you have time should fit in well with the portable gaming habits of a lot of iPhone gamers where you're only playing in small increments while you're on the go.
If you don't want to get involved in a full baseball game, the homerun derbies and missions are great for playing for a few minutes at a time. Competing in both of these game modes will earn points that you can then spend to unlock additional characters and buy items.
Similar to how the Madden games work, Baseball Superstars 2010 is the annual evolution of Baseball Superstars. There are many small tweaks and refinements that make the 2010 edition worth owning if you enjoyed the original. If you haven't played a Baseball Superstars game, there is no lite version for 2010, but there is a Lite for the original Baseball Superstars [Free] that can give you an idea of what to expect out of the sequel.
While Gameloft and EA are busy battling each other with their own respective full football games, NaturalMotion is taking a different approach in tackling the sport. Backbreaker Football: Tackle Alley is part tech demo and part physics-based mini game that takes a fairly basic game concept and turns it in to something really fun.
The gameplay of Backbreaker is structured in to a series of challenges where you run down a football field juking, spinning, and sprinting past defenders attempting to tackle you. You run by tilting your device forward, and the direction you run is controlled by tilting left or right similar to how you would control a racing game.
The different levels start simple, initially only asking you to evade a few defenders on a wide open field. Backbreaker quickly adds a twist with the inclusion of red lines on the field that you must run between without getting tackled. Step across one of these lines and you have to start the whole level over.
The red boundaries are eventually joined by zones on the field that award extra points when you run across them and during the last half of the game you will be darting all over the field both to stay in bounds and to rack up extra points.
The best (and by far my favorite) way to rack up points is by showboating. After you evade the last defender in a level, the showboat button will light up on screen. Holding this button down makes your player start one of a few included showboating animations such as spreading your arms out or high stepping. It's not that simple though, as the defending players will still chase after you after they get back up from their failed tackle.
This creates a hilarious balancing act between showboating for maximum points, but still making it to the end zone without being tackled. Since you don't have a very good view behind you, it's not uncommon to need to switch from showboating to sprinting, only to barely score a touchdown without being taken down.
Since there are only a few players to be rendered on screen at once, Backbreaker has much better player models than Gameloft's and EA's football offerings. Also, with the addition of the impressive morpheme physics engine, no two tackles are ever the same. After each tackle you're offered an instant replay, and I oddly found myself watching them quite often. Like most games that rely on ragdoll physics, there can be some funny (and highly unrealistic) anomalies, but by and large the tackle animations really are fun to watch.
Backbreaker is an unlicensed football game, so there are no NFL teams or players to be found anywhere within the game. Instead, there are a few generic teams bundled in for you to choose from. Your player can also be customized with skin color, number, and even your name which actually appears in game on the back of your jersey.
Five different sets of challenges are included, with 10 waves of defenders in each challenge. Bronze, silver, or gold helmets are awarded depending on your score, and you can revisit challenges as many times as you'd like to get gold helmets in everything. Once you complete the challenge mode, you can take a crack at endurance mode where you have to run through all 50 waves of defenders for one score total. There is allegedly some secret content that is unlocked when you beat the endurance mode, but I've been unable to successfully do that yet.
So I suppose the inevitable question here is whether or not Backbreaker is worth owning if you already have Madden 10 or NFL 2010. I think there is room for both (or all three) on your iPhone if you're a football fan. While EA and Gameloft's offerings provide a more complete football experience, Backbreaker is a fun mini game with cool graphics and animations that seems more accessible for playing in short bursts due to the simplicity of the game.
The best way I've come up with to describe Backbreaker is that it's the Doodle Jump of football. There isn't anything overly technical about the gameplay, but it has a strangely compelling aspect to it, especially as you're high stepping to the end zone.
Backbreaker Football: Tackle Alley has been submitted to the App Store and should be available soon.
Gameloft's Real Soccer 2010 is now available both Internationally and in the U.S. The game first appeared in international App Stores just a few days ago as Real Football 2010 with the U.S. version finally arriving tonight. The game, of course, is a followup to Real Soccer 2009 which was well received at the time. Gameloft has since added more content, better controls, online multiplayer and YouTube uploads of replays.
The early impressions from International adopters of the game found that the controls were indeed much enhanced, but early online multiplayer games have been laggy, from Metzas:
-The game is indeed improved from last year, but not in a major way. It is still in essence a dumbed down PS1-era Pro Evo clone.
-The controls are greatly improved. No fixed digital controls any more, the players run accordingly depending on the position of the analog stick and in all they feel smooth.
-The online experience so far has been disapointing. Having played 3 matches so far, each and every one of them had so much lag it was practically non playable (at least not enjoyable) so at this point at least, I wouldn't position the mode as a counterpoint to other app store offerings.
We'll have to spend some time with the U.S. version to see if this issue persists with the online play in the U.S. A sample of the uploadable YouTube replays can be seen here:
Gameloft's Derek Jeter Real Baseball [App Store] joined the rest of their impressive sports lineup on the platform this evening. Featuring full 3D graphics, several different game modes ranging from home run derbies to full season modes, and full in-game commentary, Derek Jeter Real Baseball seems to display the same high quality production as other Gameloft games.
Freeverse's upcoming baseball game, Flick Baseball is looking even more impressive than when we first saw it at WWDC. In the past few months the developers have been adding all kinds of functionality to the game, creating an amazingly complete baseball experience for the iPhone. We had a chance to take a look at an early build of the game at GDC Austin 2009.
