Our Rating: 8.9/10

[Screenshots]

Version Reviewed: 1.2
Developer: X2 Games/Exient [Interview with iPhone App Reviewer]
Price as of Review: $6.99
Current iTunes Rating: 4/5
Size: 81.1MB
Lite Version: [iTunes Link]

X2 Football 2009 is the kind of game you’d see on a system like the Playstation Portable, it’s completely 3D with amazing graphics and an excellent control scheme.  This app is a full board sports app which allows you to play soccer (or football for our British readers out there) against a computer opponent.  You’ll start by learning the controls and strategies in a training area with many different options and scenarios such as free kick and left corner.  When done you can quit training and launch tournament mode or penalty shootout.  You can also just go ahead and play a quick match with teams of your choice!

When creating matches you can choose starting positions and other team management abilities.  Afterwords you’ll be thrown into the playing field in a fully 3D environment.  For control there’s three side buttons for passing, sliding, shooting and other actions.  You then have a very responsive touch joystick for movement of the player.  The artificial intelligence is excellent – the computer opponents are challenging and even details such as red/yellow cards have been added.  You can tackle other players and steal the possession of the ball.  Not to mention you have in-game replay’s which are saved and can get zoomed in, panned and rotated around and played and multiple speeds.

The graphics are absolutely stunning for an iPhone app and the game runs them with perfect stability.  The field is clear and all the player’s animations are perfect.  The sound effects include dynamic commentary – roaring crowds and even the swift sound of that soccer ball hitting the net.  Unfortunately there’s no accelerometer controls, nonetheless the touch control scheme is amazing, X2 Games has done an excellent job.

All in all X2 Football 2009 is an amazing sports game app for any fan of immersing gameplay and detailed 3D graphics.  Definitely seven bucks well spent.

Final Ratings:

Gameplay: 9.4/10 – It’s a complete soccer game!

Enjoyment: 9/10 – Awesome to see something like this being so well executed on the iPhone.

Graphics: 9.7/10 – Probably the best in-game graphics I’ve seen.

Sound: 9/10 – Stunning, love the commentary.

Technology: 9/10 – Have I said wow yet?

Replay Value: 7/10 – This is the only part of our review that is not simply excellent.  Without a full tournament mode, unless you simply love soccer, you won’t play games a lot.

Final Rating: 8.9/10

Further Improvements:

• Full tournament modes
• Multiplayer Mode

More screenshots of X2 Football 2009 on iPhone App Reviewer’s Flickr Page.

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Exient is a software development company that’s been around since the time of the gameboy.  Although they publish iPhone games under the pseudonym X2 Games [iTunes Link].   The questions are being answered by Charles Chapman and David Hawkins.

iPhone App Reviewer: Given the success of the App Store it’s quite obvious why you’d get into iPhone development, but how easy was it to get started?

X2 Games: Getting going with our first project was pretty easy – we’re professional game developers and have spent the last decade getting to grips with the demands of handhelds across just about every portable format that exists, so we’re used to working with new hardware and adapting our workflow to it. The only difference with iPhone was that we were working with Macs a lot more!

iPhone App Reviewer: We all want to know, how much profit can you actually make out of app development?

X2 Games: How long actually is a piece of string? I’d say that entirely depends on your approach. There’s one angle, where you fire small, cheap games onto the store and hope one sticks or virally becomes a friend-shared phenomenon, delivering a good return in the process. This is pretty close to the current browser-based Flash gaming model and as a result, you’ll see one successful game design iterated into almost infinite variations. This isn’t the market we’re in – we see the iPhone as a platform worthy of investment on the same level as traditional gaming platforms. We aim for console-level production values and approach the iPhone platform as a console developer first and foremost. This means costs are higher for us, but they’re not as high compared to home consoles and we believe that if the quality is there, we’ll get the sales and the returns to make it worthwhile. We’re in this for the long-term, and will be developing our IPs to be definite brands for the platform – brands that we believe customers will trust and keep returning to. In that sense, we’re looking to create a sustainable flow from iPhone, rather than rapidly firing out hit and miss titles.

iPhone App Reviewer: How many work hours are involved in creating a successful app?

X2 Games: A lot, if you want to do it properly! X2 Football had several thousand hours from various people across the team, but then we set out to make the definitive football game on the platform. Realising a goal like that demands considerable skill and resources across the board – coding, in-game assets, animation, game design, music and sound and so on. It also depends on what you class as ‘successful’ – I’m sure someone could develop a simple, but incredibly addictive, low-asset title in quite a short time, but then any truly ‘good’ game needs considerable playtesting to be worth its salt, which will again bump up the hours involved. Either way, you need to put in the time!

iPhone App Reviewer: Is the App Store approval process really as painful as a lot of people make it seem?

X2 Games: We had no problems whatsoever, though we’re well used to tough approval processes with console platform holders. This meant we put a lot of effort into making sure our submission candidate was up to standard as a matter of course.

iPhone App Reviewer: How detailed and highly rendered graphics can the iPhone handle? A lot of people complain about lack of graphics capabilties in apps but who’s fault is it really? The iPhone’s or the developers?

X2 Games: Like all platforms, there are good and bad ways to do things on the iPhone. It can take time to work out the best way to get the most from the hardware, but once you do, it’s a pretty good piece of kit. Sure, the iPhone could be better but that’s true of any hardware – it’s down to the developers to find out how to make their ideas work, really. A good workman never blames his tools…

iPhone App Reviewer: Are you using the 3.0 development SDK?

X2 Games: Yes, we’ve started using 3.0.

iPhone App Reviewer: What do you like in the new SDK? Is the transition simple?

X2 Games: True local multiplayer is probably the most exciting feature for us and we plan to implement it in an update for X2 Football 2009. There are other features in 3.0 that are really interesting, so we’ll be looking into best uses for them in our future projects.

iPhone App Reviewer: What goes into making a truly successful and creative application?

X2 Games: The iPhone’s game library is pretty broad now, so unless you can nail an original concept and deliver it, we think you need to be producing games that are markedly better than what’s already available – and offer a really good reason for people to buy into your version. In our case, we felt that football games could be improved across the board – animation, AI and most importantly, control method. These were our main goals when we started the X2 Football project and our various chart positions suggest that we’re definitely on the right path!

iPhone App Reviewer: Do developers pay much attention to using the application with the iPod Touch or is it primarily iPhone focused?

X2 Games: We want to address the widest audience we can, so we needed to make sure the app worked across the range. With this in mind, we develop using the whole range of iPhones and iPods. Quality Assurance is no different – we test rigorously on every variant the game’s compatible with.

iPhone App Reviewer: How much resources are available to developers? Is Apple’s documentation sufficient?

X2 Games: Apple’s support documentation is great. We’ve had no significant problems with Apple’s level of support.

iPhone App Reviewer: How heavy is the competition in the app store? Do you have lots of marketing to do in order to compete?

X2 Games: Marketing always helps but ultimately, the quality of the app is the most important thing if you really want to compete. With the App Store’s reviews and ratings system, products generally get the reviews they deserve, so if your app is good, it’ll always review well and get positive attention as a result. There’s only so much that marketing can do with a bad product on the App Store, as faults will always come out in the wash.

iPhone App Reviewer: To wrap up, how do you like being an iPhone app developer?

X2 Games: It’s a great platform to be working with and developing games for it is fun – partly because of the fresh challenge of developing on iPhone and being able to implement new ideas. There’s also the aspect of directly addressing a really sizeable audience.

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