NaturalMotion’s Backbreaker Football [App Store] is part physics engine tech demo and part arcade sports game combined together to create a tilt-controlled pick up and play experience that is extremely enjoyable despite being so simple.
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.
In our review we even drew comparisons to the legendary and beloved Doodle Jump. Some of the complaints lodged against the original on our forums regarded the difficulty level and the amount of challenges in the game. NaturalMotion responded by releasing the 1.1 update which features a new challenge mode with 10 additional waves of defenders as well as both pro and hardcore difficulty modes. (And even an unlockable Backbreaker helmet.)
I had a great time with the original, and the update only serves to improve the game even more. Unlocking the higher difficulty levels involves playing through the normal difficulty, so if you have deleted the game from your phone since its release you will need to make your way past the standard set of challenges again to ramp up the difficulty.
App Store Link: Backbreaker Football, 99¢
