JAVA GAME (320X240; 240X320): EURO FOOTBALL

Polish developer Gameleons is known in the community of mobile players mainly for first person shooter 3D Alpha Zone. The developer is announcing their first football game now. The portfolio of the football games genre is growing recently, the new releases such Real Football 2008, FIFA 08 or Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 were published within last 2 months. Let's see if Euro Football (EF) will be tough competitor for other mobile football games. Or it will be the disappointment?

EF is not real football simulation game like games mentioned above. It is more arcade than simulation. Did you play mobile game Playman World Soccer (PWS) developed by Mr. Goodliving, which was released at the beginning of year 2006? At that time 2005 Real Football was the most popular game and it fought for the throne of mobile football games with FIFA 06. PWS was based on the action arcade gameplay with 7 players in each team, excellent graphics, very smooth play and it became hit within short time. It was the best mobile soccer game for most players during year 2006. And many of them are playing this game also nowadays rather than football games from Gameloft and Electronic Arts. EF is nothing else but a clone of PWS. EF is releases one and half year after PWS but seems like older game than PWS. I must say at the beginning: EF is a disappointment for me.

The graphics of EF is not as nice as the graphics of PWS. It is quite simple. It is similar to PWS but does not reach the level of its graphics. You see the playing field from above. One football goal is in the direction of the upper part of the display and second goal is in the direction of the bottom part of the display. You have to attack the opponent’s goal always up.
You will play on various fields and also in various weather conditions; it makes the gameplay more interesting.

The music in EF is also worse like in PWS. You will always hear only one melody – the same melody is in the game menu and also during the game. In PWS there were some football sounds in the game and I think it was better. The melody in EF will bore you after couple of minutes and you will turn the sound off.

The game has three main modes: Friendly game, League or Cup. You can choose from 16 different national teams in each mode: Italy, France, Germany, Netherlands, Portugal, England, Spain, Czech Republic, Ukraine, Croatia, Scotland, Romania, Greece, Russia, Poland and Turkey. The developers didn't buy the license for player names, for example in the team of Czech Republic you will find names like Beros (instead of Baros) or Keller (instead of Koller) – it was also a problem of PWS. If we compare it with Real Football 2008, which has full license for all players and you can play for all European national teams, the possibilities of ES are very poor.

The game is not as quick and smooth as in PWS. When you make a pass it takes too long, sometimes you think that the ball is going to your player and it only passes you. Sometimes the game is not clear. It also happened to me that two players sprinted opposite each other and when they met, they were stuck for 10 seconds. Other example: I made slide and the opponent ran further on. If you play in the defense, there is no possibility to switch between your defending players. The biggest problem is that you can't change the length of the game; there is only the default setting. There is also no possibility of changing difficulty of the game. Mainly at the beginning you will loose the games, I think that the game is not appropriate for the beginners. It is very hard to shoot the goal. I shot most goals from the distance from the left side. If I came with my player straight in front of the goal, the goalkeeper always caught the ball. The controls of EF is similar to PWS – the players run automatically, you only change the direction.

I will mention also one big positive of the game – the multiplayer. Gameleons named it – multiYou! – it is Bluetooth multiplayer and we will find it also in other games from this developer. Not many games support Bluetooth multiplayer nowadays, so this feature can attract many players to EF. One question now: Would you like to play the game with your friend if you played it in singleplayer mode and you were disappointed? I think that you will try it, but not play it for hours.

DOWNLOAD THIS GAME