Forget the big licensed names and major league franchises, with Real Football 2009 you’re promised 90 minutes of authentic jumpers-for-goalposts action.
You get the usual choices of teams, strips and stadiums – with the exception of un-licensed Premiership clubs – and the option to choose formations and strategy.
While Gameloft has included training modes, including those ever-stressful penalty kicks, the arcade-like controls are so straightforward you may as well just jump into a match.
The beauty of Real Football 2009 on N-gage is that you can choose between landscape or portrait views. As you’d expect, landscape gives you a better view of the pitch. Annoyingly, though, you only get the pitch ‘radar’ in portrait view, so it’s easy to find yourself hoofing the ball up the field with no one there to work it. Graphics are spot on – crisp and smooth enough to look realistic, but not over-fancied up to slow the gameplay down.
Sound is even better, with the crowd murmuring, roaring and chanting national songs as the game ebbs and flows. There’s pop-up commentary, controllable replays and lots of skippable cut scenes.
It’s not all good news, though. Controls are both basic and slightly inconvenient, with the pass button bizarrely located on the OK key (although you can re-programme this). Passing and shooting are pretty intuitive, with a selection key switching between players and enabling some tame special moves. There’s little feeling of real responsiveness or control, though, and it’s difficult to string plays together.
The Real Football AI is no walkover, even on Easy, and there’s value to be had working your way through the various cups, leagues and internationals on offer. Whether you’ll have the enthusiasm to do so depends on whether you prefer the pick-up-and-play simplicity of Real Football over the slick skill moves (and real team names) of FIFA 2009.
Details
Price: £8
Rating: 3+
Size: 23MB
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