Inside Social Games

Thank God, a game that doesn’t involve fish or aquariums. Frankly, Facebook feels way too much like high school. Something gets popular, and everybody does it. That is why Zoo World from RockYou is such a refreshing change. Originally discovered through the social developer’s Hug Me application, this zoo-keeping title has finally received its own stand-alone rendition that has its 1.4 million players creating their own, disgustingly cute, zoos.

The game actually starts out very similar to most Tycoon-style games. Players are granted a small patch of land with some starting animals on it and a few overly cheerful-looking patrons wandering about. They walk in, spend a little cash, look around, and walk out. That’s about all there is to it.

Starting with a small sum of cash, players are tasked with making their zoo worth more by adding new animals, concession stands, bathrooms, staff, and so on. Actually, one’s zoo is measured by a number of statistics, but is generally categorized into the total value of the zoo (based on the animals, tricks they know, and overall assets owned) and the quality grade of A – F (this consists of cleanliness, happiness of workers, parking, animals, etc.). The higher these are the better the player is doing, and the more money they earn.

Unfortunately, money seems to come extraordinarily slow if you don’t leave the game running in the background. Only $1 comes in at a time, and some of the starting stuff you need is incoherently expensive… especially when compared to other purchasable items. For example, how does a bathroom cost $4000 while a friggin’ tiger costs $450?! That’s about as cruel as charging $50 a use for a washroom at Octoberfest.

Another complaint is that players don’t seem to be able to actually control where their purchased animals and attractions go. The game just places it automatically, wherever there is space. Granted, there isn’t that much to decorate with, but it would be nice to have that choice, just to have a little more control.

It is, however, still surprisingly gratifying to see your zoo grow and evolve.

Speaking of evolution, players can actually breed animals. Sadly, this only consists of rare and ultra rare animals with the latter only purchasable with virtual currency that costs real money. Suffice to say, there wasn’t much to check out in that regard, but it certainly is a promising concept.

The game also has a wonderful, visual style. It is very simplistic, and the animals don’t even move, but with the peppy music (which does end up muted because it does not loop properly, by the way) and absurdly cute looking animals, the game is very… happy. It’s hard to get annoyed with any of the problems it has.

All in all, with the exception of denying players a means to directly customize their zoo, the complaints are relatively minor. That said, however, established companies like RockYou! should be held to a higher standard. Should the cost of items be more balanced? Yes. Should players be allowed more customization? Yes. Should the game be all in one Flash module rather than spread out amongst multiple pages? Yes. Could usability and interfaces be better? Yes. Point is, while the game is pretty good, it could be exponentially better.

As expected, November 17th is indeed the day that Xbox Live goes social with its latest big update. The popular online console service now has integration into leading social sites Facebook and Twitter.

Currently, the integration for Facebook is not the complete version, so you won’t be playing any FarmVille on your high definition television. However, the Live rendition does incorporate all of your major Facebook site features. From your TV, you can view pictures (which was a personal favorite), see updates, and post to your feed. Granted, it is a bit obnoxious to type with a controller, and not a keyboard, but it is still pretty cool from what we’ve played around with so far.

Another interesting feature is that you can see all of your Facebook friends who are on Xbox Live and all of your Xbox Live friends who are on Facebook (once they have installed it on their console). Of course, this doesn’t mean that your normal Facebook friends list is forsaken. On the contrary, you can see all of them and view all their updates, news feeds, and pictures right from your couch. It’s nothing different, really, from what you can do on the web… except the whole 1080i thing.

> Continue reading on Inside Facebook

Last week, we analyzed each of the five virtual aquarium games we’ve previously covered — Top Fish, FishVille, Happy Aquarium, Fish World, and My Fishbowl. But there’s another one, that’s been out for some time. From Clipwire Games, it’s called Fish Life and it has a significant 1.4 million monthly active users.

Players start out just like any other fish game, buying fish, feeding them, selling them at adulthood, and decorating their virtual tank. Frankly, at first glance, there isn’t too much that is different, with many elements (especially the interface) feeling quite similar to Fish World — although we’re not sure who launched first. So just what is so special?

Perhaps one of the most curious aspects to Fish Life is it’s “Mission” system. This is how the player actually learns to play the game and progress beyond it. The game will actually ask you to “Buy a Fish” or “Clean Your Tank.” Doing so will complete the mission and earn you some extra cash and experience towards a new level. Some competing games have this feature, but they don’t make it such a prominent part of the interface.

As with other virtual aquariums, higher levels mean better items and fish…. Right…? Surprisingly, no, levels do nothing for the player directly. Luckily, the developers have stated that more benefits will be added, but as it stands higher levels only allow greater access to more gifts that can be sent. Frankly, this isn’t that big of a deal as the better fish and items still cost a lot of money, and it is actually kind of nice to have the option of buying nicer stuff early on (even if it isn’t a fiscally viable one).

Another nice element is that the fish never actually die. If there is one complaint to be had about some of the other games, it is that if you are not around to feed your fish, you‘ll be making a few flushes when you get back. Not all the games have an automatic fish feeder like Happy Aquarium does.

Furthermore, in Fish Life, the fish look fantastic, and really do feel like real fish (except the whole… on the computer thing). Sadly, this leads to one of a few big complaints. Yes, the visuals are fantastic, but only independently. While the number of artists on this project isn’t known to us at the moment, it does look like there is some need for more style direction. The fish are fairly detailed with smooth gradients, a shimmering sort of look, and very brilliant colors. However, the decorations are very flat looking, almost cel-shaded, and don’t really fit. This is made worse by the heavy shadows and highlights mixed and blurred together in the background to give it an almost water-color feel. Each are good in their own right, but none look like they belong together.

One of the other issues is that the overall inventory of purchasable items felt significantly smaller than other virtual aquarium games. This is mitigated slightly by more ways to earn currency, an amusing Fly Ribbon-style mini-game, and, a personal favorite, a fortune telling fish. However, the point of these types of games is creativity, and a lack of options limits Fish Life, compared to some of other competing titles. Furthermore, any perks are quickly forgotten by the constant intrusion of pop ups reminding players to bookmark and add friends (though the latter only seems to be when you first log on, thankfully). If the player likes the game, they will bookmark it. Brute forcing it with constant reminders is only going to irritate them — although this is something that many other games do, as well.

Overall, Fish Life is a decent virtual aquarium title. It has its creative perks but also a handful of shortcomings. All the same, however, these deficiencies are far from the end of the world and are mostly simple fixes. We expect the game to continue improving, and to be a significant competitor to other fishing titles.

Day in and day out, most of us work for someone else. But just what would it be like to be your own boss? To be the one that is in charge? Well, the folks over at Challenge Games have made that possibility a reality (sort of) with its newest game Ponzi Inc. This satirical tycoon-style game has players hiring quirky employees, upgrading offices, and completing jobs as they try to get ahead in a virtual business world.

It’s been quite a long time since we heard from Challenge Games. The last game we looked at was Nobility back in November of last year. That game’s design was well-done and so is the new one — to some effect, as AppData is showing that Ponzi already has than 26,000 monthly active users.

When starting out, there isn’t much of a tutorial other than asking you for the name of your business. From here on out, everything you need to do is presented in the form of your business “Agenda” (a quest log, of sorts), granting rewards for each completed item (rewards include cash as well as extra benefits called “Perks” that grant bonuses such as faster job completion).

Obviously, any budding business first requires employees, and so that’s your first task. Players are able to hire their friends as well as generic workers, each of which have their own curious, and cliché, personality traits (like the one person at work who is obsessed with Facebook… wait… ). Anyways, workers are needed to complete jobs in Ponzi, which is one of the primary elements of the game. The more workers one has, the more jobs can be done, and as expected, more money can be earned.

This really puts Ponzi into a sort of RPG category, as each job earns a fairly small amount of income but take sa period of time to complete. The lengthier the job, the more money is earned. The key difference, however, between this title and, say, a mafia-style RPG, is the satirical visual presentation.

Visuals are perhaps the greatest draw for this game. Everything in this game pokes fun at big corporations; be it the Dilbert-like characters, the backgrounds wrought with odd animations (such as “Godzilla” traipsing through the city), or the dialog used to explain a job. For example, a personal favorite is an early one called “Update Passwords” that says: “New passwords must have twelve consonants, numbers in the third and eight characters, and at least one comma.” For anyone that hasn’t worked in a corporate setting… yes, it is about that obnoxious.

As players complete jobs and earn rewards from agenda items, they are able to start building up their office. At the start, players begin with the basics of the basics, working out of the garage with a 1980s computer and a flea market desk. However, the more they play, the more they can upgrade that office and all of its content. To this end, the game is “almost” a virtual space type of app, but since players are not allowed to rearrange what they purchase and upgrade, there isn’t any real creativity. Nonetheless, there is some satisfaction in watching your business grow and evolve.

Quite frankly, there isn’t a whole lot to complain about. Other than a few usability issues, such as not being able to go back to your office from the Perks menu (you have to go to another menu and close that one to return), the game is rather amusing. If you are a fan of this type of game, or satirical, Dilbert-like humor, you will probably enjoy it. Who’d have thought that corporate life would make for such an interesting concept, right? Then again, one wouldn’t think city planning (SimCity) would be much fun either, now would they?

This week’s up-and-coming games list is pretty full of ones our readers won’t find too interesting — quiz apps, gifting apps, etc. However, there are a number of interesting games, too, if you look a little deeper, including a few casual and role-playing ones, and a nascent virtual world.

	Name	MAU	Gain	Gain, %
1.	Addict	601,398	+601,360	+99.99
2.	WHAT IS YOUR PURPOSE IN LIFE?	256,515	+206,430	+80.47
3.	Which Zodiac Sign Are You Most Compatible With?	910,660	+202,711	+22.26
4.	The Hierarchy	188,685	+178,264	+94.48
5.	Moment Of Truth	361,659	+62,411	+17.26
6.	Poker Texas Hold’em	406,872	+50,642	+12.45
7.	Gift Creator	499,421	+49,000	+9.81
8.	Which Classic Hollywood Actress Are You?	109,046	+45,585	+41.80
9.	Kamu cocoknya punya pasangan orang mana ?	214,232	+44,646	+20.84
10.	Social Friend Interview	105,418	+42,065	+39.90
11.	Do you think…?	247,436	+39,181	+15.83
12.	Fish Wrangler	626,648	+35,559	+5.67
13.	Happy Harvest	696,372	+31,812	+4.57
14.	World Poker	996,323	+29,875	+3.00
15.	Word Island	234,239	+26,244	+11.20
16.	Doorbell	565,562	+25,268	+4.47
17.	Friend Block	597,611	+21,045	+3.52
18.	Tarjetitas	978,146	+19,977	+2.04
19.	Dogbook	772,348	+19,211	+2.49
20.	Spot The Difference	268,399	+18,726	+6.98

Before we dig in, an important note: This list is created by sorting AppData’s rankings of the fastest-growing apps over the last week by both size (apps with between 100,000 and 1 million users) and by genre (games). The games genre is self-selected by developers when they create apps on Facebook — so developer-readers, if you want to make sure your hot new app shows up on this list, make sure to categorize it as a game in the first place.

At the top is one called Addict, a simple app that calculates how “addicted” you are to Facebook based on your recent activity, the completeness of your profile, networks you have joined, your number of connections (friends), and your number of groups, pages and events. Sounds sort of neat, right?

Unfortunately, as we noted over on Inside Facebook this morning, the app generates a ranking of your friends without providing any transparency into how it arrived at that number. So, it could be making up any old percentage for each user. And in case you click around trying to figure out exactly what the app is telling you, you’ll find that the “Continue” buttons you thought might take you to answers are actually quiz ads. Basically, this developer doesn’t seem to be too serious about building a high-quality application, but does seem to be optimizing for some short-term revenue. Having gained almost all of its 601,000 users in the past week, this app might be pulling in a little money.

Moving on… the list, as has often been the case in the past, also has a bunch of other simple apps — mostly quiz apps, based around questions like “WHAT IS YOUR PURPOSE IN LIFE?” and “Which Zodiac Sign Are You Most Compatible With?” These sorts of apps live and die pretty quickly. There’s also a “Farmville Gifts” simple gifting app. As its page notes it’s “[a]n application that sends FarmVille gifts! However, these gifts can’t be sent to FarmVille.” We expect Zynga will send the developer a take-down notice if it gets much bigger.

However, there are some legitimately interesting apps, too. This list is based on filtering AppData to only see the apps that grew the most, that have between 100,000 and 1 million users — the purpose is to find a few promising ones that are on track to become serious hits.

The Hierarchy, a spy role-playing game from Serious Business, continues its climb. It has nearly doubled from when we noticed it at the beginning of the week, reaching 189,000 monthly actives today.

There are a whole bunch of notable social games that appeared on the up-and-coming list, overall, but don’t appear on this list because their developers chose not to categorize these apps as games. Here they are.

Two other role-playing games are also growing fast, and although neither lists a developer, both appear to be made by LOLapps. While both have the same underlying interface components (more on that over on ISG), each one has surprisingly striking, unique-looking graphics. One, Asian mafia-themed Yakuza Lords, grew by 155,000 users to reach 930,000 monthly actives. It is on its way to graduating from this list. The other app, World War II RPG Band of Heroes, is smaller but growing relatively more quickly. It gained 161,000 to reach 269,000 monthly actives.

Other notables on this week’s list include Ice Climber-style game Icy Tower, which grew by 98,000 to total 833,000 monthly actives. It’s a simple, arcade-style game. So is COLLAPSE!, which gained 83,00 to 178,000 monthly actives. So far, we haven’t seen many casual games of this sort become big, with Popcap Game’s Bejeweled Blitz being the one exception. Perhaps, though, these games show that the arcade style is in the process of becoming a lot more prominent on Facebook?

And finally, and quite interestingly, Slide’s new magical virtual world app, SuperPocus, is starting to catch some air. It grew by 77,000 to end up at 183,000 today.

Virtual aquariums are the latest popular genre of social games on Facebook, and there are so many that it can be a bit daunting to choose one. It is, after all, a pretty big decision. So which one is the best? Which one is right for you?

At a glance, each game looks rather similar, granting users control of a personalized, aquatic world, but there are a few nuances worth pointing out. So we’ve taken a look at some of the top virtual aquarium games, Top Fish, Fish World, FishVille, Happy Aquarium, and My Fishbowl, to see just where each one excels.

New User Experience: Fish World & Happy Aquarium

Luckily, each game is smart enough to incorporate simple tutorials in each of their levels. However, the games that stood out the most for getting a new player underway are Fish World from Tall Tree Games and Happy Aquarium from CrowdStar.

Beyond the basics being taught, the former actually allows a nice bonus of gold to get a player started. Simply by signing up for email notifications (which only use your Facebook account) players are granted an extra 1000 coins. While many decorations may cost a decent sum, the extra coin allows for a much better start for a budding fish business.

As for Happy Aquarium, it is more a presentation and balancing element, although you also get free currency. Frankly, the tutorial is just better than the others and feels more a part of the experience as you are taught how to care for your fish by an old man (perhaps he is a fish store owner?). Furthermore, most of the items cost significantly less than the other games, which really makes advancement feel less daunting (even income is less).

Creativity: My Fishbowl

Hands down, the most creative game of the five is Chinese game My Fishbowl from TwoFishes Interactive. It works the same as any other aquarium game: Feeding, buying, selling, etc. However, there are little bits of polish that stand out. Instead of cleaning algae with a sponge, for example, it’s random trash (like egg yolk) with a vacuum type of fish (yes, take that literally, it has a vacuum-like nose).

Beyond what the designers provide, however, the level of creativity granted to the players is much more open. While the other fishy titles pigeon-hole players into making an aquarium in a more realistic sense, My Fishbowl was the first one we noticed to allow players to decorate in ways beyond what reality will allow. Evidently, this freedom has given birth to some wonderfully creative fishbowls including submarine riding pirates and giant coral ridden ducks.

Convenience & Usability: Top Fish & FishVille

It may sound minor, but both Slide’s Top Fish and Zynga’s FishVille do have some wonderfully convenient and usable interfaces. Top Fish is probably the most useful in regards to two features: Its speed of fish growth and its store.

Early on, fish grow in minutes to hours rather than days. People like rewards, and by granting a few quick perks early on, it really helps to get them hooked. That isn’t to say Top Fish doesn’t have fish that take days; they are just at a higher level. Furthermore, as these games revolve around decoration and buying new items and fish, Top Fish actually allows you to buy multiple items at once from its store and, lo and behold, actually lets you cancel your purchase.

Frankly, this is one of the biggest pet peeves with games like Fish World. If you click on something to see how it would look in your tank, you can’t cancel! Yet the purchase isn’t made until you left click. Thankfully, FishVille doesn’t do this. It allows you to see how items would look in a tank and actually lets you out of a purchase by simply clicking the pointer tool.

Overall Style: Happy Aquarium

Happy Aquarium, easily, has the most interesting style. It is so very simple, but all of the fish and items are highly stylized with only the fish’s key defining features standing out. Everything moves fluidly (unlike the rigid, blocky, and awkward animations of FishVille), and is well… very happy looking. Combined with the steady, calming aquatic-like music, it makes for a very peaceful, zen-like experience.

Of course, such an opinion on style is very subjective. However, it is also worth mentioning that Fish World is a close second. The art is wonderfully done in a more realistic fashion, and everything moves the way a fish should.

Overall, each app is a good game that caters to a number of different tastes. If we had to pick one, it would be a toss up between Happy Aquarium and Fish World — although its worth noting that these games have been around for over a month, while the developers of newer releases like Top Fish and FishVille haven’t had a chance to iterate with new features.

We expect virtual aquarium games to rapidly improve as more apps begin competing, and we’ll keep you posted on those developments.

When we did our review on the Fuel Industries game, Yack Attack, we stumbled across another title from the company called Pogo Puppies. The Facebook application was actually developed together with Electronic Arts; more specifically, EA Pogo. As a matter of fact, this is one of a handful of games to be developed between Fuel and EA (though the others are not announced as of yet), and despite the fact that Pogo Puppies has yet to see its big, official release push, the game seems to be doing fairly well. As it stands, it has around 90,000 users.

This game is a lot like Playfish’s one oldest and most popular titles, Pet Society, which is especially interesting given that EA just bought Playfish in a deal worth up to $400 million. In Pogo Puppies, players begin by creating a virtual, bipedal, puppy with a small selection of breeds (husky, labrador, chihuahua, beagle, pug, dalmation, and poodle). They can then adjust the ears, eyes, markings, and color of their digital pet.

Once they’re finished with a simple tutorial, players are able to feed, play with, and bathe their animal within their own personal “dog house.” This means the primary goal of the game is to be a virtual space app, allowing users to decorate their puppy’s quasi-3D home in whatever creative manner they like.

Together with this virtual space customization, the game also incorporates avatar customization, granting players the ability to buy an assortment of clothing. These goods range from pirate costumes to Hawaiian leis (even swords are available… though that doesn’t seem too safe for an animal). What’s best, however, is that it looks like the clothing is always changing based on special events, and some of it is for a limited time (i.e. Halloween costumes).

Of course, all of this is great, but it does cost in-game money. In order to earn it, your puppy needs to learn and perform a myriad of tricks. Essentially, when you prompt your pet to perform, a bar appears with a bone sliding back and forth. Clicking the “Do Trick” button or pressing the keyboard shortcut displayed will stop the bone and execute the trick. Should you time it perfectly right — meaning the bone lands in the center — the maximum amount of coin is earned. Furthermore, performing tricks and actions earns experience towards new levels, which unlock more interesting and advanced actions.

Tricks consume your pet’s energy, so only so many can be done without rest or purchasable items such as energy drinks.

Truth be told, there isn’t a whole lot to complain about with Pogo Puppies. Granted, it is an awful lot like Pet Society, but it does have a few key differences (like the tricks). In fact, one feature that it does have is a “central park” that allows players to chat with each other through their canine avatar, regardless to whether or not they know each other. From here, they can also play fetch, collect sticks, or just jump around.

Currently, the developers are still stating that it is in beta, so any real bugs (and there are some) are likely to be fixed before the official EA push. Beyond this, however, the game looks and feels great and is an excellent iteration on the Pet Society concept. That said, however, it could benefit from more differentiating factors. Currently there are some, but they only differentiate it from the Playfish predecessor and do not yet feel like quite enough to make the game truly stand out.

There have been a number of games that allow Facebook users to… bully, for lack of a better term, their buddies. One of the premiere examples (at least at the time) was KickMania! that had players punting friends as far as they could with, ahem, “explosive” results. Fuel Industries, in conjunction with Sony and Electric Farm Entertainment, have also recently moved down this friend-abusing route with a disturbingly indigestive title called Yack Attack.

No, sadly, “yack” does not refer to the animal (yak), but rather the slang synonym for vomiting…. The game is actually a tie-in with a new web series called “Woke Up Dead.” In the series, Drex, played by Jon Heder, is a college student that, well, becomes a zombie. Okay, perhaps the reasoning behind the barfing is not justified by this, but he’s a zombie. We’re lucky he’s not trying to eat us.

The game itself is exceedingly simple. Players pick a yacking victim from a list of their Facebook friends and line up their profile picture within a head-shaped frame. Then it’s time to load undead Drex with a little ammunition. This consists of everything from staplers to cameras, because, well, Drex apparently can’t eat human food anymore. Players continue to feed him until his stomach is at capacity, then time a power meter to see what sort of expelling force comes out.

The victim of the zombie yacking will hurdle backwards from the Drex’s projectile vomit with the objective being to send them flying as far as possible. Also, each item that you feed Drex has different levels of “explosive power” and “volume” that affects how far said victim will go, with some items combining to form a sort of reaction that can not only change the color of the yacking, but increase its force as well. Of course, the more you play, the more options are available.

As expected, each item to be fed costs an in-game currency, called Yackers. Unfortunately, they only seem to be attainable through completing offers, buying them, or inviting friends. The last option is perfectly viable, and the virtual currency model is certainly warranted, but not having an option to earn Yackers in the game itself is a little annoying and makes for a fairly short lived game experience for the average player.

Frankly, this is the biggest game play issue with the game. There really isn’t a whole lot of opportunity to get into the game before you’ve run out of your starting sum of currency. Moreover, while the game is intended to be a funny, the whole concept is still a bit nauseating, which really doesn’t help a new player hold interest for very long either. Unless they’re into zombies.

Overall, the game looks decent with well-polished artwork and sound, and while it hasn’t seen too many users yet, it does have the viral potential to spread like KickMania! once did. Furthermore, this will not be the last we see of Fuel either as the developer says it has some major projects with Electronic Arts slated for release in the next couple of weeks. Of these, Pogo Puppies, has all ready launched and is not doing too bad (roughly 90,000 monthly active users), so we will look forward to seeing what comes next.

We’ve seen a number of casual gaming companies try to take their games from the web and desktop clients into Facebook, and one is standing out as a clear winner: Bejeweled Blitz, from Popcap Games.

The game, already popular in web and download form, has been steadily growing, and recently reached more than 10 million monthly active users, with around a third of those people coming back every day. It’s now the tenth largest game on Facebook, according to AppData. What’s the secret?

Partly, of course, it’s that a lot of people already know and love the game from its non-Facebook versions. The Tetris-like game mechanics are basically the same as the other versions. On a two-dimensional board, you try to line up three sets of the same-colored gems, either horizontally or vertically, to make them disappear, and attempt to clear the entire board before time runs out.

But Popcap has also done a good job of making the game increasingly social, since it first launched earlier this year. There’s a very obvious leaderboard showing how you stack up against your friends. There’s a tournament that happens every weekday, which the company has told us accounts for its increase in daily active users in the middle of the week. There are also options to play against friends — just click their name on the leaderboard.

There’s also a contest based on team scores. Teams are calculated by adding together the total number of points between you and your Facebook friends in the game. But you have to sign up individually — with the individual winning, and receiving things like free access to more complex, for-fee, “deluxe” games on Popcap’s home site. There are tiers of prizes, with teams needing to reach a certain total point threshold to be eligible for the better ones. The top prize is a free laptop computer loaded with Popcap games.

And, of course, you can share your activities from the game into your  news feed and on to your profile wall. All in all, the game’s success is a good example of how other casual games can help spread their games on Facebook. Popcap also recently raised $22.5 million, the first outside funding in its decade of making casual games, with the intention to focus more on social games. The company is clearly on the right track.

A few months ago we got the chance to sit down and talk with Hive7 CEO Max Skibinsky about the inner workings of the company and his perspectives on the development of social massive multiplayer online games. It was during this time that we took our first look at the latest in the list of Hive7 creations: The soccer role-playing game, Kick Off. Now, the new, 1.0 version is available.

The game concept is simple enough. Players are tasked with putting together a soccer team of your Facebook buddies and attempting to be the best competitors out there. When you first begin, you walk through a simple tutorial of how to play and set up the field positions for everyone on your team (Goalie, defenders, midfield, and forwards). The game will automatically default to a suggested set up, but manual control is always available.

You see, each player has a set of stats attributed to them that focus on skills such as control, dribbling, shooting, power, foul avoidance, and so on. This means certain skills are better for certain positions. Also, skills are earned through experience, and obviously, the more you play, the greater the experience earned. However, for an individual player to gain said experience, they must be on the active roster before a match starts.

Matches are also broken up into three categories: Challenges, Tournaments, and Championship. Each mode has its own perks (though Championship never seems to want to load), with Challenges being a simple “friendly” match to earn experience from and Tournament granting rewards such as “Staff.”

This is actually one of the cooler parts of the game. In addition to items like health packs, players can also hire staff members like a doctor, a masseur, or tacticians to help boost their entire team in regards to things such as mitigating injuries, improving fitness, and increasing experience gain. Unfortunately, they require credits to buy, which, you guessed it, have to be purchased or earned through offers.

Frankly, the premise of Kick Off is solid, but there are some drawbacks. Perhaps the most obnoxious of all is leveling up players. While it may be just in a place that is overlooked (which is another equally bad issue entirely), teammates must be “contracted” in order to have stat points (awarded for leveling up) distributed. This means that you must request a contract, which is sort of like an invite to play. If they do not accept… they cannot be upgraded (and by the looks of it, they do it, not you… not the actual coach). This means that you have to have 11 people accept or you can’t use that experience earned.

This leads to annoyance #2. Each game is simulated in real-time. Sounds cool on paper, but there isn’t much to really see except some pictures moving about a soccer ball and scrolling text. And, guess what… you can’t skip it! Yes, you have to sit there for five minutes, or however long it takes, before you can see the results and move on.

In the end, Kick Off has some things to work out for the next version. But the idea and much of the game are good enough to be worth a try.