Are you ready for some football? The first full-featured football game of its kind for the iPhone, Gameloft’s NFL 2010 promises to be an “enjoyable, 100% authentic NFL game experience with real teams, real players and real action.”

Review
To get you geared for the game, a short introduction clip plays out as NFL 2010 first starts up. As soon as the game is loaded, you will be asked to “touch screen to continue.” You are given three choices, Quick Play, Game Modes and Settings. In Quick Play, the computer automatically chooses your team and your opponent. On the next screen appears the helmets of both teams as the commentator announces the team you will be playing as, who you’re playing against and at whose stadium. For some reason, every time I played on this mode, I end up with the Steelers.

After the introductions are made and your players are on the field, comes the coin toss. As with every football game, if you win the toss you have the option whether to receive or kick the ball. If you don’t win the toss, the computer automatically chooses.

In the offensive game, you can choose from Basic plays or Advanced plays in the playbook. In Basic plays, you can run or throw/pass the football. There is also an option for Special Teams, in the event of a 4th down situation. With the running game, you have three play options: run straight forward, run wide and to the outside or fake a run and throw the ball. In the throwing/passing game, you also have three choices. You can pass the ball for the short, medium or long gain. I sure love those Hail Mary’s. Once you select a play, whether to run or throw the football, you are in the formation to hike the ball.

In Advanced play, you choose the type of formation you want to run the ball, such as the Nickel, Dime, Shotgun, and so forth. Once you’ve hiked the ball and have chosen to run a throwing play, you are shown symbols over each of your receivers. They appear as stars, circles, diamonds or squares. Each one is colored according to the difficulty for that receiver to receive your pass at the moment. Red means it will be next to impossible for a successful catch, yellow will mean you have a 50-50 chance and green means that your receiver has the best chances of catching the football. Just think of it as a traffic signal.

When there is a defender in front of you, you will be given three choices to avoid him. Don’t worry about making those split second decisions, the game pauses until you decide what you want to do. You can spin, (I used this option with great success) fake, or truck.

Kickoffs and field goals are also done in the same way. On the left side of the screen will appear a directional button and to the right will be a power button. You first press on the directional button and then the power button. The higher the power, the further the ball will travel.

Defensively is much tougher…way tougher. You have to quickly react to what is happening on-screen. Sometimes it is difficult to really tell what’s going on with all the players on the field. My solution was to take my chances and hope that I’ve chosen the right play at the right time. You will also be given the option how to react during a pass by selecting either to deflect or intercept using the on-screen buttons. That is basically your defense in a nutshell.

NFL 2010 is on a league of its own. I have yet to see a game that fully packs a punch like this one. The animations are smooth. The players come in all shapes and sizes, just like in a real game. The controls are very responsive. The sound effects are quite good, with lots of hustle noise. I wish the game wasn’t strictly a one-player game, but Gameloft is promising online, bluetooth and Wi-Fi multiplayer modes in a future update. I did receive a phone call during a game, which to my surprise didn’t resume the game when I finished my call. Maybe in the next update, it’ll have an autosave feature?

Recommendation
NFL 2010 is a very well made sports game for the iPhone. As complicated as the game of football is, this game in itself was fun and easy. With lots of on-screen action and three levels of play, it definitely has something for everyone. Now priced for $4.99 at the iTunes App Store, this is one game worth checking out.

Photos

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