Volley Soccer scores an own goal with it’s limited features and controls

Volley Soccer Rating: ★½☆☆☆

It seems that the World Cup has inspired a plethora of soccer related titles from full scale soccer games to skill based games where certain aspects of soccer are recreated and that is what we have in Volley Soccer for iPhone where you get to practice scoring goals in one of the most popular and spectacular ways.

In Volley Soccer your task is to score as many impressive goals on the volley as you can to score as many points as you can. Points are awarded for scoring each goal and additional bonus points can be achieved by scoring overhead kicks, chest volleys and hat-tricks.

The graphics are in the style of the Roy of the Rovers comic strip and you can choose to represent 8 of the top nations including England, Brazil, France and Argentina although unfortunately your selection is not remembered so each time you start a new game you have to re-select your team. There are also three levels to play through from Easy, Normal and Hard where the timing of your shooting becomes more and more sensitive and more accuracy is required to score goals.

Playing the game is simple as are the controls, too simple in my opinion and you’ll find yourself scoring goals certainly at the easy and normal levels with relative ease. Your player starts at the edge of the penalty area and the location where you need to strike the ball from is shown somewhere in the penalty box. Once the count down has completed you can move your player to the target area using the d-pad on the left side of the screen, the movement is rather slow but there is plenty of time to get to the target area before the ball is crossed into you.

As you wait the ball will appear for the right, it always appears from the right, and as it approaches you then hit the volley button on the right hand side of the screen to volley the ball into the back of the net. Your player will automatically position and address the ball as appropriate for the particular shot so there is no need for you to worry about whether you are about to to a bicycle kick, overhead kick or normal volley as this is will be handle be the game, your timing simply determines whether the ball flies into the top corner or goes wide.

These limited options minimize the sense of achievement when you do score a goal as it feels that most of the work is being carried out by the game itself rather than any skill on your part. Scoring three goals in a row will also add additional bonus balls enabling you to score additional goals and ultimately score more points.

Each new type of goal also earns you achievements as part of the OpenFeint integration where there are a total of 27 to be unlocked, although many of these are the same achievement just scored on a different difficulty level. Online leader boards are also provided via OpenFeint while there is also a local high score table too.

While other simple games are addictive and have the can’t put down factor that keeps you coming back for more the same cannot be said for Volley Soccer. The lack of control in scoring the volleys ultimately leaves you feeling more World Chump than World Cup.

Pros

  • OpenFeint Integration

Cons

  • Minimal control over scoring the goals
  • Repetitive achievements
  • No addictiveness

Price: $0.99 (iTunes Store)
Category: Games
Updated: Jun 30, 2010
Current Version: 1.1
Size: 59.4 MB
Language: English
Seller: White Room Games Limited
© 2010 White Room Games Limited
Requirements: Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Requires iOS 3.0 or later.

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