Review: Backbreaker Football
Score:
85%
So, now that the Soccer review is out the way (Pro Evolution Soccer, yesterday) it’s time to turn to American Football. But not the whole game, just the bit that’s fun to play. Can Backbreaker take a three hour stop and start marathon of a sport and make it into a mobile marvel? You better bet it can.
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Most people, when they look at American Football, just see lots of running, shoving, clocks stopping and starting, and invariably you’ll hear comments that in a real game (like Rugby, Union or League) men don’t wear padding or protection.
That of course isn’t true. Like any sport, there is a subtlety to the game, there are techniques and strategies worked out over many years of playing, both for individuals and the game as a whole. A huge, expansive American Football game would cover all of that.
Unfortunately, Backbreaker doesn't.
Fortunately, what it does have is a cracking and accessible game for absolutely anyone. It’s more like a training exercise for a game of American Football than a full game. You are the solitary player on your team, and you start with the ball. All you have to do is run into the in-zone 100 yards down the pitch. Who’s going to stop you?
How about a number of opposing players that are built like the proverbial outhouses?
Yes, for all the trappings of American Football, the graphical prowess of the huge stadiums, the fine detail in yourself and the opposing players so you can see exactly where they are and what they are up to, this is little more than a digital game of British Bulldog.
It’s fantastic.
First up, the graphics are incredibly clear. Given that you’re going to get tackled with shoulders, being pulled down, charged into, and anything else the opposing players can do, the number of animations and moves on display is impressive. It doesn’t feel like one or two options are being chosen by the computer, but things are being decided at every moment. Which is a great feeling, even on the rookie skill mode, when you consider you’re playing against an AI.
Next, the controls. By default, you are going to be running. Tilting your smartphone forwards and backwards gives you a bit of control on the speed, yes. You can stop completely, if you like. Tilting left and right is mimicked on the screen to allow you to turn. And then you have the onscreen controls. These are tucked away at the side and bottom of the screen, so they don’t get in the way of the action (the game plays only in landscape).
In most cases, you just have to tap the buttons. They let you either jink to the left or right and sidestep a tackle, or do a rather dramatic “spin”, which puts even more distance between you and an incoming missile of flesh, albeit taking a lot longer than a jink.
On the right, you have a sprint button for an extra boost on top of tilting the smartphone, and on the left you have “showboat.” Once you pass all the opponents, you can start showing off as you approach the in-zone. You rack up potential points the longer you hold it down, but once you release it, they all disappear. So pressing it down as soon as possible would normally be advised but it slows you down and gives the other team a chance to run behind you and tackle you. A tricky balancing act, but very rewarding if you can land a long victory run.
Take those easy to understand game controls, add in the risk element of more points the closer to danger you get, and bonus points, multipliers and extra rewards for “combinations” of moves and you have an addictive little game, with each round playing for about 20 seconds at most, all bundled together with a lot of understanding in how the human gaming mind ticks.
You have the endless endurance mode, which just has you running up the pitch time after time, getting more combinations and points as much as you can. But the key challenge is in, err, the challenge mode. Collections of ten “waves” of opposing players, with out of bounds areas on the pitch limiting you to small corridors you need to follow while avoiding the tackles, progressively getting harder with more intricate paths, more (and smarter) opposing players, and each wave only allowing you the customary four tries to score before you get 'game over'.
Complete these batches of ten to unlock more challenges (when you start, only the first two, in Rookie mode, are available) and even tougher opponents. It’s a great learning curve, and it keeps you coming back for more while keeping gameplay short enough to be sensible.
Wait, there’s more! Because that score, with all the multiples, you’ve worked so hard on? You can go online to a global high score table and see how you're getting on compared to the rest of the world!
This mobile version of Backbreaker is a unique take on American Football. Because it’s been tailored for a portable device and on the go gaming, it has a lot of the strengths of a full game but is something you can genuinely pick up and play for as long as you want. It looks great, it’s reactive, it surprises, and it has a good learning curve. Not sure I could ask for much more in a game like this.
-- Ewan Spence, Mar 2011.
Reviewed by Ewan Spence at