Football Challenge 2009

Put Your Best Football Foot Forward

As the name suggests, Football Challenge 2009 is a modern football game that gives gamers the change to play football in the comfort of their own home. But is this game a challenge or a walk in the park? Find out by reading the detailed review.

Football fans are probably more than aware of football simulators by now and have their favourites. While many of these games can be rather complicated to get into at first and feature long and often boring tutorials to follow, Football Simulator doesn’t have these problems. Almost as soon as the game begins you will be ready to play your very first match. Don’t worry about selecting your team or naming your players, as these features are not an option here.

Gamers take part in an international football tournament comprised of teams from the USA and Europe. The matches load almost instantly, meaning that gamers do not have to wait around for several seconds or even minutes as with other games. After the game starts your main task is to score as many goals as possible and win the match. It really is as simple as that.

Gamers can choose the point where they want to hit the ball as well as the height that their player’s foot will be raised when the kick is made. The next step is pressing the Hit button and watching the ball sale across the pitch to score a goal or miss its mark entirely. New obstacles appear in higher levels to help make the game more challenging, but not much more. Players also need to take the skills of the goal keeper into account, while the wind factor also plays a part in whether or not you successfully score a goal. A handy training mode is provided to teach gamers skills that they need to win the match such as how to score a penalty, although many gamers may find that they do not really need this tutorial.

Even gamers who are not particularly interested in football are sure to fund Football Challenge fun. One of the great features is that the controls are very easy to use and there is not too much to learn before the game can begin. Players simply use the arrow keys to move their players around the screen in addition to two action buttons that are used to either pass the ball or kick. However, the simplicity of the games also has its downside. After playing a few matches against different teams, gamers could easily find that they become bored.

Other football games offer variety in the form of selecting team members, managing the team and learning special skills that can be used on the pitch to score goals. However, all of these elements are missing from Football Challenge, making the game play rather repetitive after a while. This is a game to practice on rather than moving on to and gamers who have already honed their computer football skills will probably want to give it a miss.

There is no doubt that the fun of playing football is well represented in this game and the graphics are very pretty. However, experienced gamers and serious football enthusiasts will not find much to challenge them here and are better off turning to more complicated games that provide more depth and detail.

Pros

• The game is very easy to play
• The players’ uniforms can be customised

Cons

• This game is a bit too simple to keep experienced gamers engaged