Urban Futbol

Urban Futbol Review

by Michael Sawh on September 14, 2012

As the likes of New Star Soccer and Fluid Football have shown, you can make a decent football game on a phone and it doesnt have to have life-like player animations or fussy virtual controls to be a success.

Some of the best games based on the beautiful game rely on simplicity and the fact that most people will probably play them on the way to work and adopting the iconic Flick Kick football formula, Urban Futbol puts it own unique twist on the finger-swiping genre.

Based on the Red Bull Balcony Shot, (which you can see here) your goal is to try to scoop the ball into balconies on a three-storey building assigned with different scores. Working against the clock, all you need to do is swipe the ball from the centre of the screen to score points, bonuses and multipliers to increase the time or points.

You can add curl to shots by sweeping left or right on the touchscreen and to have more success hitting the top balconies which hold the best scores, a quicker swipe will loop the ball up higher.

Theres five levels to work your way through and rack up scores to post on the online leader board, Twitter, Facebook and unlock a host of achievements, but only the first two levels are free with more level packs unlocked at £0.69 per pack.

Crucially the ball physics work extremely well responding to variations in flicks and curling the ball with a realistic sense of direction. The stylish visuals, graffiti-style fonts and at times repetitive hip hop soundtrack help create the simplistic Urban Futbol environment.

In terms of other features, theres a Red Bull news feed that runs at the bottom of the menu screen and can be expanded but irritatingly has a big ad stuck right in the middle to obstruct viewing. There is also an option to play Street Style which is a forthcoming game mode to be added to the app in the future.

Considering theres just two free levels to play, theres enough to entice you to return to post a bigger score, but whether you would purchase more levels I am not so sure. Its well executed, and you will have to spend to get more life out of it, but its hard to pass up on a game that lets you boot a ball into a balcony like its a challenge from Wayne Rooneys Street Striker.

Download Urban Futbol Android app