Flick Champions iPhone Review
Both iPhone and iPad have plenty of addictive sports games, but we'd love a compilation, similar in scope to Nintendo's Wii Sports Resort.
Chillingo somewhat filled the void with Flick Champions, a collection of eight sports watered down to their most basic elements, where you'll simply "flick" to serve, kick and shoot, either against the computer or another person through offline pass and play. Not necessarily the deepest title, and some sports miss the mark, but it's worth a buck.
The best sports, Hockey and Tennis, are glorified versions of Pong, where you smack a puck/ball from your side of the screen to the other. Not much flicking involved, but fun nonetheless.
Basketball, meanwhile, strictly involves shooting, sometimes the full length of the court. While entertaining to a degree, we felt the touch mechanics were a bit off, as the ball traveled in a different direction entirely.
The same can be said of Soccer, which is more like foosball. Instead of maneuvering players around the field, you ricochet the ball off walls and the opposing team. We grew bored of that quickly.
As for the rest of the bunch, Bowling is decent (it's tough to screw up bowling), though it's also much slower than we expected. Mini-golf is the same way. Archery can be a pain for the same issue that crops up in Basketball, and American Football, while decent, won't replace Madden NFL 12 anytime soon.
Through it all, you earn experience points that go towards unlocking new balls and sports. If for some reason you're impatient, you can unlock everything after forking over an additional $0.99, which seems a bit silly. Chillingo and developer Nawia Games should have made all sports available from the get go.
That said, Flick Champions comes up a bit short, but for the price, Tennis, Hockey and Bowling make the package worth it.
Requirements: Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch and iPad. Requires iOS 3.1 or later.
Requirements: Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Requires iOS 3.1 or later.
What's Hot: Eight different sports, offline multiplayer, cute "block head" characters, a ton of different balls to unlock.
What's Not: Paying $0.99 to unlock everything, the flick mechanics need work.
3/5
