X2 Football 2009 - Upcoming Soccer Game

theone1007 · May 27, 2009

ORIGINAL ARTICLE: http://www.pocketgamer.co.uk/r/iPhone/X2+Football+2009/news.asp?c=13468

Tucked away in an Oxford backstreet is the most successful developer of DS sports games in the world. Little known but massively played, Exient has made every version of FIFA on the DS as well as four years of Madden, a couple of FIFA Streets and various Tiger Woods games.

It's now branching out on its own with the X2 sports brand. Unsurprisingly the first release in the series will be X2 Football 2009, which is due to go live on the App Store any day.

The most notable thing when you first pick up the game is the controls, which consist of an onscreen analogue joypad for movement and passing, and three buttons: pass, shoot and through ball. Helping you understand what you're doing is an arrow that shows where you're going to pass the ball, or where your player is going to run to.

"There was a real creative challenge in terms of the input method," explains Exient's technical director Charlie Chapman. "From one point of view, it would be much easier for players to have access to a proper D-pad and buttons but in terms of making the best of what we've got on this platform, I think we've done a reasonable job."

The impact of the controls goes deep than you might think, however. Because the touch joypad work as an analogue rather than digital system, the game - in terms of the player animations - had to be analogue as well. "In effect, we've taken a certain weakness in the input system and made a strength out of it," say MD Dave Hawkins.

Another much debated point was the number of buttons. "I was a big opponent of the third button," Hawkins reveals. "It was only introduced thanks to some good graphical design, but it gives us so much more functionality in terms of the through ball."

And the end result appears to work well. Starting out with a simple unopposed training mode, I got into the swing of the game relatively quickly. The action is smooth and fast, with the touchscreen emulation of gaming buttons (an approach also used by App Store rival Real Football), working well.

Unlike Real Football, though, X2 Football 2009 doesn't have any gesture controls for throw-ins and the like. "We decided not to take that approach," explains MD Dave Hawkins. "I don't think it has immediacy and gestures can be misinterpreted."

Aside from the standard pitch view, the other mode is a penalty shoot-out mini-game - something that was required as part of the game's basic feature set. In this, you sweep the ball with your finger to take a penalty, while moving a pair of gloves when you're the goalkeeper.

In terms of the game's setting, X2 Football 2009 is based around international teams. The main reason is the cost of buying official licenses for club teams and national leagues.

"We did the maths about going after licenses and it doesn't add up," Hawkins explains. "We know we have the technology and the production values to make a great game, so we have to build up our reputation first and then we'll can look at licences."

There are ten competitions based around regional tournaments such as the European and World Cups. Apparently you can't copyright a tournament structure. This system also keeps the gameplay clean and simple, without the need for detail such as the transfers and weekly wages that delight players of the football manager genre.

Significantly though, correct player names are okay to use in the international context, so your team won't consist of messers Roony, Gerirrd and Coll. Indeed, the quality of each team is based around the relative attributes of its consistent players.

"We make the point that the player rankings aren't supposed to be totally realistic, though," says Charlie Chapman. For example, in order to maintain game balance, the North Korean players will be more generously rated than they would be in reality. "A player who is good at the game will always overcome the weaknesses of their team. That's part of playing a football game," Chapman says.

So with the first version of the game complete and waiting to go live on the App Store, the team is now considering what features to add in future versions. "Multiplayer will be the first one," says Chapman. "We hope to have a proper multiplayer update which uses the 3.0 SDK by the end of the year."
Click to expand...

Slayer_megadeth · May 27, 2009

Blows away RF09 in terms of graphics. Looking forward to it

Rocketman919 · May 27, 2009

They should make an actual football game. There are already enough soccer games on the App Store and only 1 or 2 football ones.

Feltzem · May 27, 2009

Rocketman919 said: ↑

They should make an actual football game. There are already enough soccer games on the App Store and only 1 or 2 football ones.
Click to expand...

LOL rocketman919 I can tell you're American. Football is what you call soccer. What sport do you use your feet more in, 'soccer' or American football/NFL? I don't understand why you call American football football, because you hardly use your feet but in 'soccer' you always use your feet

arta · May 27, 2009

Needs to be a video.

arn · May 27, 2009

arta said: ↑

Needs to be a video.
Click to expand...

and better screenshots.

arn

Spotlight · May 27, 2009

Rocketman919 said: ↑

They should make an actual football game. There are already enough soccer games on the App Store and only 1 or 2 football ones.
Click to expand...

Please remember that there is a WORLD outside US.
Just because you call that sport "football" it doesn't mean that the "american football" is the "actual football".

It's like if in Spain they start playing baseball and call it "Feet Tennis".
It wouldn't mean that the Feet Tennis is the "actual Tennis".

Please, don't forget there is a world outside US.
It makes everything so SMALL and TRIVIAL.

Thanks,
K.

WunDaii · May 27, 2009

Spotlight said: ↑

Please remember that there is a WORLD outside US.
Just because you call that sport "football" it doesn't mean that the "american football" is the "actual football".

It's like if in Spain they start playing baseball and call it "Feet Tennis".
It wouldn't mean that the Feet Tennis is the "actual Tennis".

Please, don't forget there is a world outside US.
It makes everything so SMALL and TRIVIAL.

Thanks,
K.
Click to expand...

lawl...

very true however...

i can't wait for this one!

yourofl10 · May 27, 2009

Looks really good, also looks like it kicks Gameloft's Soccer game by a mile....Anyways, I'll be looking for for this in the Appstore.

don_k · May 27, 2009

Looks very promising, but... who'll make FIFA 09 now?

Tucked away in an Oxford backstreet is the most successful developer of DS sports games in the world. Little known but massively played, Exient has made every version of FIFA on the DS as well as four years of Madden, a couple of FIFA Streets and various Tiger Woods games.
Click to expand...

theone1007 · May 27, 2009

Added more screenshots. IMO, this game doesn't look better than Real Soccer.

don_k · May 27, 2009

theone1007 said: ↑

IMO, this game doesn't look better than Real Soccer.
Click to expand...

Graphically, it sure does.

arn · May 27, 2009

added some full size screenshots

http://toucharcade.com/2009/05/27/x2-football-2009-to-deliver-another-sports-title-for-the-iphone/

arn

walsh06 · May 27, 2009

donkei said: ↑

Looks very promising, but... who'll make FIFA 09 now?
Click to expand...

EA sports

WunDaii · May 27, 2009

walsh06 said: ↑

EA sports
Click to expand...

make that EA Mobile

FearlessFreep · May 27, 2009

I really don't see a lot of difference between RS 2009 and this. Wish we'd get more American football games than soccer ones, though I'd imagine they're much more difficult to code for hence the reason we're seeing these.

iamPro · May 27, 2009

FearlessFreep said: ↑

I really don't see a lot of difference between RS 2009 and this. Wish we'd get more American football games than soccer ones, though I'd imagine they're much more difficult to code for hence the reason we're seeing these.
Click to expand...

It really shouldn't be a matter of American football being harder to code than soccer. (not even sure if this is true)
RS2009 was a port, meaning most of the difficult coding such as AI & physics (ball) in particular has already been taken care of.

Having said that,
As much as I do look forward to this game... bear in mind RS 2009 had great gameplay.

In the pre-nextgen(?) era of soccer games, the WinningEleven series easily held the crown over the FIFA series gameplay-wise.

With, RS2009 playing a lot like WE, and knowing Exient tied to EA's FIFA. I'm anxiously waiting to see the how the game actually plays not how it looks.

caubetocdaido · May 27, 2009

Wow !

Fletch · May 29, 2009

I'll probably be picking this one up, I never bought RS2009, so I'm in dire need of a good football game.

Also, does anyone find the positioning of the analog stick kind of wierd?

ex86 · May 29, 2009

Fletch said: ↑

I'll probably be picking this one up, I never bought RS2009, so I'm in dire need of a good football game.

Also, does anyone find the positioning of the analog stick kind of wierd?
Click to expand...

Yes, that was the first thing I noticed. They might as well put it in the middle of the screen. If this turns out to be much better than RS (which is quite good), then I might pick it up as well.

X2 Football 2009 - Upcoming Soccer Game

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X2 Football 2009 - Upcoming Soccer Game

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