Gameloft’s Real Soccer 2009 has recently been challenged by X2 Games’ X2 Football 2009 for the iPhone version of soccer’s World Cup. Although Real Soccer has been available since the early days of the app store, could this established game’s reign as soccer king be coming to an end, despite a recently slashed price tag?

One of Real Soccer’s most notable achievements was landing the license to use real player’s names for its 198 available teams. A dozen stadiums are also available in which to play. There are multiple game modes in which you can compete. You can play a one-and-done exhibition match, enter into cup or league play, enjoy a penalty kick shootout, or practice your skills in training mode. There is even an available multiplayer mode. The settings menu allows you to set real-time game duration (between 5 and 15 minutes), difficulty (easy, normal, or hard), stadium, weather, time of day, and special rules (no extra time, golden goal, etc.). The options menu also has a listing of all of the different control options. It is these control options that most people either love or hate about Real Soccer 2009.

To be honest, when we first played Real Soccer, we weren’t crazy about the controls, especially in comparison to X2’s very intuitive control scheme. However, as we continue playing, we are growing not only to tolerate them, but to actually embrace them a bit and try to use them to further our gaming experience. Playing through the training mode was a great help, too. Real Soccer allows you to make certain moves that X2 just doesn’t make possible, most notably the dribbling moves. By tapping or swiping in an open field area, we can initiate a Step Over, a Flip Flap, or a Marseille roulette. Also controllable are lob shots, fake shots, and one-two passes, moves that are not easily replicated in X2. Defensive moves are fairly basic, but lack any great control. This, in our opinion, is where the controls continue to fall short. Defenders are difficult to control and often end up running in circles. The game auto-changes to the defender closest to the ball, which can be annoying when the guy you’ve been concentrating on suddenly stops chasing the ball carrier in favor of another player. You can manually override this by tapping on the screen, but pulling your fingers off of the virtual A-B buttons is no less distracting. Gameloft really needs to go back to the drawing board on defensive maneuvers.

Graphically, the game looks great. The 3D graphics are clear and the players and ball appear larger than in X2. Game sounds are decent, too. Overall, Real Soccer delivers a fairly authentic soccer experience with just some minor quirkiness thrown in for good measure. Replay value is high, as you are presented with several tournaments and leagues in which to compete. While the recently released and oft-praised X2 Football 2009 has eroded some of the sheen from Real Soccer 2009, the long-standing game still holds its own. If you enjoy soccer games in any way, purchasing Real Soccer at its current price of $0.99, down from its usual $4.99 price tag, is a no-brainer. Gameloft keeps pace with the competition, bending a 4-Dimple rating into the goal.

Real Soccer 2009 gets our AppSmile 4-Dimple rating: