American football on your iPhone or iPodTouch
By Gareth Powell
QB Pass Attack Football and X’s & O’s Football have come to the iPod Touch and the iPhone. These two machines are always the ideal way to pass endless and mindless journeys. Until now I have read books and not put anything on my two i machines. (The lower case ‘i’ can now stand alone. The English language can adopt many styles.)
My ignorance of American football is about to change – is changing.
Skyworks, developers of Arcade Hoops Basketball and Arcade Bowling have two football game for i machines. This is, for non-American readers, American football which has very, very little resemblance to English football or soccer as it is called. In the first place the fans are better behaved.
The two games are:
QB Pass Attack Football which has three sound tracks, 3D graphics, and two game modes, Classic and Progressive. And, no, I initially did not have the faintest idea what they are about and scored appallingly. But I got better as I went along and, strangely, did better in Progressive Mode than I did in Classic Mode.
To prepare myself I read Semi Tough so that I knew vaguely what was going on.
One line is very appealing: ‘If you come up short on fourth and inches, it’s back to your own 20 yard line, but if you can hit the far receiver when the scoring hole is lit, it’s an instant touchdown’. There may be a specialized appeal to American football that had passed me by.
Once a pass is thrown, use the accelerometer to adjust the ball’s flight by tilting right and left to affect its direction, and up and down to affect its height. That requires practice and co-ordination and is a major part of the appeal.
X’s & O’s Football is different. This is a wholly casual football game that simplifies the experience down to a passing game. You control a team of helmets (maybe that is what coaches do) against another team of helmets. It has you hammering your way offensively downfield to score as many touchdowns as you can in four ‘60-second’ quarters. It gets a little confusing for an Absolute Beginner as you are playing as the coach, quarterback, and receiver — sometimes almost simultaneously.
(Have you ever noticed how tense American football coaches appear to be on television? This is possibly why they seem to have several assistants in case they have a heart attack during the game. They all look as if one is almost immediately due.)
Using the game you can learn enough about American football apart from just fancying the cheerleaders. (Although I once saw a team of cheerleaders from Texas in Hong Kong (true!) and my life was changed.)
As coach, first take your Valium, then select the play from the playbook and set your receivers to run a variety of passing routes such as the curl, deep out, and post. Then as quarterback, set your players in position, hike the ball and choose your receiver.
Time your pass carefully to get the ball right into your receiver’s hands (he is the one allowed to run up the field and leap and catch the ball if he is damned lucky) and then control the receiver to run downfield for a touchdown.
Once the receiver has the ball, you can tilt your iPhone/iPod touch to control his movement to the goal line. At the same time the other team is trying to stop him using methods that would have given the Crusaders pause.
Use the accelerometer to adjust the running direction by tilting up and down, and adjust the speed by tilting right and left.
More complex to write than do.
For me, football always meant yelling for Llanelli at Stradey Park when in 1972 they beat the All Blacks and the town was drunk for three days. (You do not understand a word of what that was about but it is vitally important to me.)
If you already know and understand American football, which I would guess would be most readers, these are highly enjoyable games.
If you are not, if you are an ignorant Welsh person then these games teach to help understand American football and take part in very exciting contests.
Two questions: what do they talk about in those huddles? And why cannot they have radio communication with their coach built into their headgear?
Would I recommend them? Absolutely. I am no afficionado but I was kept seriously entertained. Price for download seems to be US$2 or so,
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August 4th, 2009
What a technology. I will surely buy an iphone because I like American football that much.