The console versions of Backbreaker have not fared well. Having spent many years in development, the final product came off more as a proof-of-concept rather than a polished football game. While it featured arguably the most advanced physics system in gaming development, the lack of real NFL teams and poor implementation of its key gameplay mechanics made it a stinker.
Going into the universal iPhone/iPad app version of Backbreaker, I was expecting a scaled-down version of the XBOX 360 and Playstation 3 game. However, what Natural Motion gave gamers instead is a game that almost isn’t football at all. Surprisingly, this $0.99 offering may actually be more fun, too.
Backbreaker for iPhone/iPad scales down and abstracts the game of football to the point where it’s not even really a football game. You play as one character, who is in possession of the ball. Your goal is to run to the end zone while avoiding defenders and scoring points. When you see it, it’s almost like an event in American Gladiators. Once you reach the end zone, the process repeats with a new level layout and defender placement.
You’re not helpless against the defenders. You have spin moves and jukes, which can go left or right depending on which button you hit. You have access to a sprint button to break away from tackles. You also get a special “showboat” move, which can only be activated once you’ve passed all the defenders. It’s cool to strut to the end zone, but you also slow down dramatically as you do it. Getting tackled in front of the end zone because you wanted to showboat to the end isn’t the way you want to get taken out.
For the most part, controlling the game works as you would expect it to. All of the buttons are arranged in a way that make sense and are easy to hit. Movement is handled by tilting the device. I actually found this to be a lot more intuitive to do on the iPod Touch rather than the iPad. The added size and weight makes tilt control in this game a bit more uncomfortable than it should be. On the iPod, it worked fine.
As simple as this game sounds, it’s actually quite fun. Breaking tackles, stringing together combos and scoring points within each level come together for an overall fun game. There are a lot of different levels to play at varying difficulties, which should keep the experience interesting for a while. It’s also a great game to pick up for one level and put it away.
One more thing I wanted to note is the use of their physics engine. Thanks to the procedural physics engine, the tackles look more real and different every time. As a whole, the game looks pretty good for an iPhone/iPad game, but in particular, the physics add a lot to the experience.
This is a great game at $0.99. Even if you’re not into football, I would at least give the lite version a chance, since the actual football portions of the experience take a back seat to you running through an American Gladiators style gauntlet. Taking the mobile version of this franchise and scaling it down to this one compact experience really worked for it and I’d like to see more developers take this approach.
In Third Person 