Chillingo lays a niched football sized egg in desperate need of restructuring.

Super Shock Football ($1.99)

Finally a football game that anyone can play! Immerse yourself in the fun filled nostalgic world of Super Shock Football.  Featuring game-play simple enough for the casual gamer, yet deep enough to satisfy the hardcore football nut.

Enjoy a touch of something old, as well as new, in the charming re-envisioning of the classic football game.

My Take

Well I had the privilege to watch the trailer and get the preview build.  I am much older than the admin here, and I have fond memories of playing electric football.  I was so excited to see this, but I have to say I had a bit of let down when I opened the app.  It’s football, I’m a football fan.  But how we played this was mostly run plays and timely formation setups.

The game plays a little too stiff for me, and I can’t get the passing down right!  As much as I love Chillingo, I just think Super Shock Football was a gamble that should have been researched a little further.

Presentation

If you have seen the Backyard Sport franchise, you’ve seen Super Shock Football.  Judging by the splash screen I was under the impression I would be playing a point and click game.  Don’t get me wrong, the art is done well, it just has a good amount of similarities.

One point of interest is you must restart your iDevice before playing the game.  As they say, it pushes the processor and memory.   While it doesn’t look like it, you are dealing with 22 randomly movable characters spinning from the vibration of the table.

Gameplay

Gameplay is the same for all football games, beat your opponent by scoring.  I shouldn’t have to explain that should I?  The second part of the equation lies on the fact that you, the quarterback moves your players into a specific formation to make room for your passing or run play.

Once you hike the ball, the table is turned on and the players move all over the place.  One way you man with the ball is towards the right endzone.  If you happen to vibrate and go the opposite direction, the play will keep going until roughly 20 yards is backtracked.

The kicking is spot on, a little sensitive, but spot on.  You don’t have to be precise but timing the meter for a strong, straight kick is tough!  For the most part I’d just continue to “go for it” on 4th down and take my chances.  Open Feint and achievements are implied.  If you want to find me by the way, I’m Hugh Jazz in the system.

Suggestions

@fpugirl said it better in her reviews, no cons here!  These are suggestions and I’m stating these from experience:

• The Vibration: The table needs an option to control how hard or soft the vibrating is.  It’s playing like it’s stuck on mediocre.  We used to crank it up sometimes to move the game along.
• Tackling: The game right now only records tackles made by front contact, we played by ANY touch of the opposite team.
• The Players Part 1: Substitutions possibly?  We took great care of the players and how the vibration affects there running or lack thereof. There’s no sign of wear on the players.
• The Players Part 2: When prepping the players before hiking the ball, I can only place move them horizontal or vertical.  It would be a VERY nice update if I was able to do a two finger rotation.  The formations we come up with literally push away any incoming tacklers, plus my guys will stay in the middle longer and push off each other.  There’s a reason why it was so popular, I felt like a general setting up game-plays at times like it was chess thinking several steps ahead.

Conclusion

It would be great to see a lite version, just so if there was anyone thinking about it.  Again, it’s fun, but there’s a certain about of variables missing from the real deal.  If that is what the devs were after, Super Shock Football needs to be updated, badly before making the purchase.

And again, the presentation and trailer rocked, but the game needs to be improved.