Tony Karakashian reviewed Artificial Life’s game iSoccer Backstreet $1.99

In my youth, I had the opportunity to be a ball boy for Philadelphia’s short-lived Indoor Soccer League team, the Philadelphia Fever. Had they actually won a significant amount of games, that might be impressive…Soccer isn’t as prevalent in the States as it is abroad, but those who do follow it love it. Based on Artificial Life’s newest release, iSoccer, the game appears to be very well enjoyed in inner cities.

iSoccer is a freestyle soccer game.  While the elements of the sport are present in the game, iSoccer’s more about them.  You start the game by choosing a character, with a small range of ethnicities and colors to choose from.  You choose your clothing and the color of your ball (although to start, you just get the standard white/black ball).  You then travel around “the city” by following the map to different areas.  Each area presents a different challenge before you can move on to the next. 

The first challenge is freestyle juggling.  Your goal is to keep the ball in the air for as long as possible by having your character hit it.  The ball bounces on its own, and you just have to hit the “Hit” button when the ball is in an area indicated by a green outline.  It seems simple at first, but when the ball’s below your character’s waistline, you only have a very short time to hit the ball in the right spot!  Other challenges include trying to get the ball past a goalie or running around smashing and breaking things in a junk yard by kicking the ball at them.  That one was a lot of fun.  When you’ve completed each challenge, you’re given the opportunity to move on to the next one as well as new clothes and skills to customize your character with.  Apparently fashion is as equally important in inner city soccer as skill.

Overall, Artificial Life’s got itself a winner with iSoccer (I tried very hard to avoid using the phrase “scored a goal” there).  The graphics are quite amazing and they’ve managed to get a lot of detail that shows through on such a small screen. But, after reveling at the graphics for a few minutes I realized something huge: I’d been reveling at the graphics for a few minutes! Despite the level of graphics in the game, iSoccer is the least crashy game I have ever played on the iPhone. I realize the amount of memory Apple put in these devices was a seriously bad decision, but Artificial Life has managed to work around it quite well in this game. I was able to play it one night for an hour straight without a single glitch. 

Playability wise, iSoccer’s interface can take a bit of getting used to. Because there is so much going on, you can sometimes lose track the ball with negative consequences.  For example, in the first challenge, the words “Excellent” or “Good”  would pop up regularly to recognize a good hit. If these overlapped the ball, it could become invisible quite easily. Considering how critical timing is for this challenge, it made it a little more difficult than necessary. I’d score a good hit only to be told so and then drop the ball because I couldn’t see it for the next one.  On the whole, though, it’s a fun little game that soccer fans should enjoy highly.

Four out of five!

Tony Karakashian - iPhonetunes.net