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.
[ Full HD version | Low Bandwidth version ]
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.
App Store Link: Backbreaker Football, 99¢
