Game review: X2 Football 2010 - iPhone / iPod Touch

The 2009 edition of X2 was already my favourite football game on the platform so it's great to see the best get better.

X2 Football serves up a fully-fledged football sim in the palm of your hand and achieves an impressive level of realism.

When stepping out on to the pitch in X2 Games’ latest instalment you’ll not see any real innovation. Everything will all be very familiar to anyone who’s ever played any of Electronic Arts’ Fifa titles or Pro Evolution Soccer.

The wheel hasn’t been reinvented here – this is still a 3D representation of 11-v-11 football seen from a broadcast style perspective.

But this familiarity doesn’t breed contempt. Instead it breeds admiration because what’s remarkable about X2 Football 2010 is how such a playable footy game has been put onto such small mobiles devices.

From player models and animations to pitch texturing and the way the ball bounces around, everything has been really well put together.

All that you could want from a football sim is here – fouls and free-kicks, goalmouth scrambles and great saves, lucky deflections and long throw-ins plus, most importantly, the lovely rippling sound of the net as you smash the ball in.

What really stands out is how action-packed the game is and how well matches run. There are midfield tussles, there are runs down the wings and there are challenges for the ball in the air – the game ebbs and flows just like you’d expect to see in a real football match.

It’s easy sometimes to forget this game is running on an iPhone or iPod Touch. Very few concessions have been made or corners cut for the platform.

The pace of the action is slightly pedestrian but this is no bad thing on such small screens, allowing players to easily keep up with what’s happening and to craft some attractive moves without worrying all the time about where the ball has pinged off to.

The AI in the game puts up a decent fight on the two easier difficulty levels, and provides a real challenge on the two harder settings.

It’s not like some other football games where scoring a goal is as simple as finding one trick that works and sticking to it, such as low crosses to the goalmouth or popping through balls over the defence. Here scoring requires more deft thinking.

Instant replays and not-too-annoying commentary add to the match day authenticity.

The credibility of any football game depends on its controls, and X2 Football scores well in this area too.

Player movement is handled with a floating virtual joystick type thing which follows your finger around on the left-hand side of the screen.

Floating versus static joysticks might not sound like a big deal, but the flexibility of a floating stick really makes a difference. It avoids any clumsy mishaps where your finger slips off the controls at a crucial moment.

Three buttons on the right-hand side perform various actions depending on whether you’re in possession or not, such as shooting, passing, pressuring and tackling.

A handy arrow under your player’s feet shows which direction he will kick the ball.

Touch controls in sports game still feel like a work in progress. They still don’t feel as intuitive as having a proper stick to move and proper buttons to push.

But I would go so far as to say the touch controls in X2 2010 are the easiest to use and most responsive I’ve seen in any sports game thus far.

Failed tackles, misplaced passes and wild shots are very few and far between.

As well as good graphics, presentation and controls, X2 2010 also packs in a good amount of content.

Last year’s X2 only featured international teams but this time around there are 150 club sides included, with 30 league and cup competitions to contest.

Player names are genuine, although some team names are off, such as Manchester Red and Merseyside Blue. There’s a crafty name editor to amend these.

You can jump quickly into single-player matches or multiplayer games (new for 2010) but the most impressive mode is Dream Team.

Here you start with a team of relative no-hopers but by doing well on the pitch with them you gain tokens which can be used to improve your team by bringing in new players, eventually creating a real dream team.

There are a few shortcomings in the game. For example, the stadiums look slightly odd, with lots of spare grass behind the goals.

Controls, while good, are lacking a few features such as a sprint button for an extra burst of pace or a finesse option for doing a cheeky lob or swerve shot. Goalkeepers are good shot stoppers but still aren’t much use at anything else.

Aside from the Dream Team mode, there are no management elements in the game. It doesn’t seem possible to even change team formations or tactics. Squads are limited to 22 players.

I’m really nitpicking to find these faults because overall X2 Football 2010 is a fine football game.

With EA’s first two Fifa efforts on iPhone/iPod both being lacklustre and with Gameloft’s Real Football series not yet delivering the goods, X2 is able to climb to the top of the league table.

More polished than the Premier League trophy and more fun than watching your average footballer trying to recite his five times table, X2 Football is the golden boot winner of football games on Apple’s mobile devices.

Verdict: 9 out of 10 - The most beautiful version of the beautiful game yet seen on iPhone and iPod Touch, X2 Football 2010 is a worthy inclusion in anyone’s World Cup squad of soccer titles.

Watch a trailer for X2 Football 2010: