American football juke moves and a challenging soccer game: iPhone apps of the week
(Credit:
CNET)
Apple released an update today for iPhone which addresses some issues and fixes some crashes in specific situations. According to Apple, iPhone 3.1.2 resolves a sporadic issue that may cause the iPhone to not wake from sleep; an intermittent issue that may interrupt cellular network services until restart; and fixes a bug that could cause an occasional crash during video streaming. If you've experienced any of these issues (or even if you haven't), make sure to plug your iPhone into iTunes to get the latest update. Be aware that the update is over 200MB so will probably take some time to get through the process. When you're done, come back and check out my latest apps!
This week's apps are both games, with an American football skills challenge type of game, and a long-awaited soccer (football) game with unique onscreen controls to pull off advanced moves.
The spin move is extremely effective (and high scoring) if you hit it at the right moment
(Credit: Screenshot by Jason Parker/CNET)Backbreaker Football (99 cents for a limited time) is not a "complete" football game like Madden 2010 or NFL 2010, but instead focuses on the challenge of running around defenders to make touchdowns. Control your runner by tilting your phone--forward to run and left and right to turn. Onscreen buttons give you a variety of moves to make defenders miss including right and left juke moves, spin moves, and a turbo button to break free for the touchdown. There's also a showboat button so you can high-step into the end zone. Each move has a certain point value and when you string moves together (or showboat for more yards before the endzone) you get more points to add to your score.
The great thing about Backbreaker Football is that it doesn't take an enormous amount of time to play a few waves (running the distance of the field), so it's easy to get some quick playing time in. You get two game modes including Challenge and Endurance. Each challenge round lasts 10 waves as you try to get past defenders to score touchdowns. As you progress, red lines will block out parts of the field forcing you to dodge defenders within a smaller space. The Endurance mode has you run through wave after wave (50 waves) with an ever increasing number of defenders and difficulty. Get high scores to unlock extra items like different uniforms and new touchdown celebrations. Overall, if you're looking for an American football game minus the need to play an entire game or sift through giant playbooks, Backbreaker Football offers enough football action to be a lot of fun.
Use the radar at the bottom of the screen to make sure you have someone to pass to before hitting the button
(Credit: Screenshot by Jason Parker/CNET)FIFA 10 for iPhone obviously follows a long line of console soccer games (of which I've played many) and while it does a fairly good job, the control system can be difficult to master. You get buttons for passing and shooting, but to pull off more advanced moves like through passes or slide tackles, you need to hit multiple buttons in succession (A to B to A, for example). It takes some getting used to and you won't be able to pull off some moves every time simply because of the lack of physical buttons, but I found it to be effective with some practice. Overall, FIFA 10 satisfies the need to get in a game of soccer, and even without all the extras of console versions, offers enough to be worth the money for soccer fans.
What are your favorite iPhone apps? Does Backbreaker Football have enough features to be your favorite football game? Is FIFA 10 the soccer game you've been waiting for? Do you know how hard it was to decide how to differentiate between the two sports without offending fans here at home or abroad? Let me know in the comments!
Jason Parker writes software reviews and features for Windows, Mac, and iPhone. If he learned to dance, it would make him a fabled "quadruple threat," but we can't get him to do it. 
2) If there some other professional (american) football league that would have a chance against the NFL? Right, they are world champs - just because other countries don't play it doesn't mean anything.
*rolls eyes*
FIFA founded in 1904 (The International Federation of Association Football)
NFL founded in 1920 (National Football League)
Just because the league is founded as a national one the doesn't mean it isn't an international game. There's also something called the National Hockey League that pulls dozens and dozens of players from the international community. As I said later on, soccer fans seem to care more about countries than they do about teams so FIFA is the ultimate goal - baseball, hockey, and (american) football are all about the best players regardless of where they come from so that's the ultimate goal for them.
If you don't think the NFL, MLB and the NHL are the top places to play a sport you should ask all those international players who left their home lands to play in it. (american) football was founded as a team game, FIFA, as you've pointed out, is a country game - that's the only difference...
American Football is the correct way to be used and NFL need to be NAFL
And Football is a better sport that the American Rudby.....jajajaj
- by Barçafan October 9, 2009 5:18 PM PDT
- @bigmc6000. Really..? Well, that's weird; because they call the NBA champion "world champion", same thing with the baseball champion. Now, don't tell me that this is the only basketball league or baseball league in the world. I mean, don't take me wrong, I love this country, but people here need to understand that the world doesn't end in the Canadian and Mexican borders.
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- by bigmc6000 October 12, 2009 7:11 AM PDT
- It's about the fact that it's the best players in the world. The boarders don't stop at Canada and Mexico for either the NFL or the NBA. There are good players from all over the world that play in the professional leagues of the USA. The foreign basketball leagues are like the minors, same goes for NFL Europe. If you wanted to say the winner of the Premiership is the world Champs I'd go with you on that but, at least for soccer, people seem to care more about seeing country vs country than best players vs best players. Part of that has to be due to the fact that if the US was to compete in American Football against the rest of the world it'd be a joke. As far as basketball is concerned the teams that win the Olympic Gold medals are full of NBA players. That simple fact gives it legitimacy in terms of declaring it a world championship (same goes for baseball).
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(13 Comments)Let me explain to you really quick what being a world champion is: FIFA has over 200 NATIONS, not city teams, nations that go though a qualifying process to decide the 32 national teams that will go to the world cup that takes place every four years. Such process takes over two years and is divided by regions. Every single country in the planet has a chance to go to the world cup. Only the best 32 teams make it. The next WC will take place in South Africa in June 2010. It lasts for about a month and the entire planet (except the US) stops during that time (metaphorically speaking). The final is the most watched event in the world (oh yeah, much more than the super bowl). That's what being a world champion really is, and that's why "soccer" is the most important sport in the world.
I know you're a big soccer homer but man, do you think you could at least try to disguise it a little?
Every single PERSON in every single country in the world has a chance to play in he NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, etc etc so your point about having a bunch of different nations is a moot one.