Alberninho Football

Okay. Sport, for me, can be summarised as different kinds of people chasing different kinds of balls around different kinds of fields. It's not something I'd personally choose to do with my spare time - not when there's drinking, debauchery and being indoors to be had. That said, sports and video games have produced some damn entertaining combinations, not least of all on the mobile format.

So although I go into Alberninho Football without any knowledge of quite what the title of this game means, I like to think my penchant for gaming more than substitutes for my sporting ignorance.

All the big footyballs cup thingies that have gone on recently have encouraged developers to put some serious effort into crafting decent representations of the game on the micro screen, so Microforum has some stiff competition to live up to.

The first impression is one of 'no nonsense'. This is a serious and efficient digitisation of soccer, which seems to bring with it both benefits and setbacks. Getting into the game isn't just quick, it's practically immediate. There are just enough menu options to ensure a fan of the sport can tailor their game to whatever type of tournament best suits the mood.

Should you wish to pit England against Germany, the Exhibition mode allows that quick and simple choice. If you want to take part in a world tournament, there's an option for that too, and the table can be 'original' (presumably representing the opening of whichever tournament this game is based on) or 'randomised', for a little extra interest.

Getting onto the pitch, the controls are equally simple and accessible, yet with just the right amount of depth to give you an impressive level of control. When in possession of the ball, tapping the '5' key passes to a team member (assuming one's in range) while holding it down charges a power meter that sets the ball off accordingly upon release. Spin can even be put on the ball using the direction key as the boot hits leather, so there's a lot these little fellows can do with their feet.

When chasing the ball, the highlighting around the currently controlled player changes to denote what actions are available, from sprinting to tackling – again, excellent and easy to pick up.

There are free kicks, injuries, penalties, yellow cards, red cards, team formations, substitutes – seemingly everything required to represent the sport accurately and efficiently. Which makes it even more of a surprise when Alberninho Football ultimately fails to shine.

The foremost problem seems to be the actual game speed. The player's running pace is quite laboured, which only gets worse as the injuries pile up. Coupled with the severe lack of intelligence exhibited by the system controlled characters – who only seem to make any move to tackle, and don't retrieve the ball when it's free – there's a distinct feeling of wading uphill through warm toffee when making your way down the pitch.

Tackling is simply a case of touching the player with the ball, which often enough leads to bouts of snatching it back and forth between clusters of players. The sliding tackles work great and look better, but the option to show a little dynamic ball control is removed by the simple mechanics of stealing the ball from the other player.

Perhaps the effort to simplify and take the game seriously has gone a little too far. Alberninho Football is concise, but very dry. That elusive dynamism that turns good games into great games is missing, making this a thoroughly decent, yet unpolished football simulator rather than an exciting soccer videogame. Close, but not quite in the back of the net.