Real Soccer 2008 - a severe identity crisis ~ Mobile Gaming Expert

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Monday, March 24, 2008

Real Soccer 2008 - a severe identity crisis

If you go to the site of the mobile game developer Gameloft you will see that one of their most heavily marketed games has a severe case of identity crisis - in the menu the game is called Real Football 2008, while on the banner it proudly carries the alias Real Soccer 2008. Being born in a part of the world where soccer is indeed called football I have no problem with that, however this might not be the case for all the potential customers.But let's go to the review.
The game is supposed to give you full 3D graphics (although depending on your handset you might end up with a 2D version), more than 200 unique teams, high quality digitalized sound and the opportunity to participate in the 2008 European Nations Cup with all the regular teams.
What it really gives you is a fifa-esque experience. If you've played more than one game from EA games PC series you know what I mean - the game's main difference from its predecessor is the graphic style, which in that case went from cartoony to pseudo realistic. If you're one of the lucky guys whose mobile phone can support the 3D version, you'll have the chance to play a slightly less edgy version than the last edition. The game still looks better in 2D though, thus confirming once more that 3D graphics in mobile games are still more of a marketing gimmick than anything else. The "realistic" colors of both versions make things a little too dull IMO, not to mention a few really ugly visual elements that are sub-Gameloft quality standards in every way.

 

   image010 2D V/S 3D image011 


Other than that, you have at your disposal double the teams from the last edition and a better sound, although the audio of a mobile game was never of prime importance - how often do you get to play a mobile game with the sound on?
The gameplay is the same as in the previous editions and you'll see nothing really different in the menus except the order of the items. No innovative minigames or anything...

image012 image013 image015

Graphics   8/10
Sound    
10/10
Gameplay 8/10
Novelty   
3/10
Total        7/10


The bottom line: Real Soccer 2008 is a decent but not really great game. It falls short of being the greatest sports game on a mobile but it will be interesting to the fans of the series.

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