iPhone Review: Speedback
by Carter Dotson
Developer/Publisher: Skyworks
Genre: Sports/Arcade
Price: $0.99 (Lite Version Available)
Acquired: Review Copy Provided by Developer
Verdict: Fun core gameplay, but the tiny movement controls can make this game far more frustrating than it ought to be at times.
Pros: Online leaderboards, great basic football concept
Cons: The movement buttons can be inaccurate and the game doesn’t explain how to properly use them.
Speedback is football distilled to its very essence. You play as a running back, who must run the ball past waves of defenders into the end zone. If you get tackled, you lose a ‘life’ or a possession as it is called in this game, which makes more sense given that it’s football. You get 3 lives, and you get an extra possession for every third level you beat. The starting positions are formations that cycle between a set of several, but as you progress the defenders get smarter and faster. In order to keep from getting tackled, you can run in 5 different directions (sideways and/or forwards), can pick up a speedup powerup, and can stiff-arm & spin once per possession. You’re playing for high scores here, and there is an online leaderboard to play on.
The main problem with Speedback is the movement controls – they can be inaccurate, as they are very tiny. Also, the game doesn’t explain how to use them very well, as for a while I was frustrated at how pressing down on the buttons was making running in the direction I wanted to go in impossible, and I wrote a paragraph-long screed against the controls and how they stunk because the buttons were so tiny. I went to sleep, satisfied with what I wrote. When I woke up the next morning afternoon, I decided to play the game again, and at one point I made a remarkable discovery – I was doing things the wrong way the whole time.
You see, you aren’t supposed to press the buttons – you’re supposed to slide your finger left and right across them in order to to turn when you need to. It feels much smoother doing it this way, but it doesn’t immediately seem apparent when you pick up the game for the first time when you play it. My scores doubled when I figured out how to use the controls, as it was easier to make things like quick turns to dart into a quick hole between receivers than it was with the previous method. The area to turn in is still a bit small, and could use a little enlarging to be just that much more accurate, but once you figure out the sliding mechanism, the game plays much better.
So the key to this game is mastering the controls. When I wasn’t able to use them, the game was more frustrating than fun. When I was able to use the controls effectively, I certainly enjoyed it, and it was fun playing a football game where the whole goal is just running and dodging, just being agile and acrobatic. It’s a fun arcade experience, if not slightly frustrating because you do have to fight the controls still. If this game ever is released for DSi Ware or PSP Minis, or any system with a physical d-pad control, then it’d definitely be worth checking out at the right price as my only real flaw with it dissipates. For now, on the iPhone, there’s plenty of fun to be had, albeit slightly imperfect fun.
