Talking UEFA Champions League on mobile with EA... and Peter Shilton!
It's a whole new game, says EA product manager Christian Sponziello
The January transfer window may be long gone and it's too late to register new players for European competition, but that hasn't stopped EA from drafting in another mobile footie game to compete with the likes of FIFA and Real Football.
And whilst the PSP version of UEFA Champions League 2006-2007 may tread familiar ground, the mobile version, according to Christian Sponziello, the game's product manager, really is a whole different ball game. In fact, it's closer to being a card game than a ball game!
Pocket Gamer: We've just had FIFA 07 on mobile, what's the idea behind the new game?
Christian Sponziello: We've taken a different approach with UEFA Champion's League, we really wanted to offer a new innovative football experience to what already existed.
We're looking to build a football library, there's FIFA which is eleven men vs. eleven and FIFA Street offering a four-on-four arcade-style game and now UEFA Champions League is something different again that we hope will attract more football fans: We asked the question how could we make a game playable with just one button?
Okay, so how have you done it?
Essentially we've implemented a card-based game mechanic within the football world, so you're still part of the action but your involvement is via a series of cards.
Blimey, that is a different approach! Where did the inspiration for that come from?
Well, we're also building a card-element into the Xbox 360 version, but the original inspiration for the mobile game came from a combination of us looking for this one-button approach and seeing a football game arcade machine that used cards as part of its gameplay. I don't remember the name of the machine [we reckon its Sega's World Club Championship Football] but we thought that was really interesting and could translate well to mobile.
So how does it actually work?
The basic structure of the Champions League is recreated with qualifying rounds, groups and the knockout stages to play through.
Each match kicks off as it would do in FIFA, with two teams of 11 playing against each other, although in this case you don't directly control the action and your players will continue to run, pass, tackle and shoot without your assistance.
In truth, they might not do a very good job and you're unlikely to get very far if you just sit back and let them play. Instead, you need to guide your team to make the right tackles, passes and shots at appropriate times by playing a series of cards that you select from the bottom of the screen.
Tell us more about these cards
They're divided into four types: defensive (from sliding tackles to cat-like saves), passing (short, long, crosses, and so on), shooting (power, placement, volleys and headers) and special 'wild cards,' which could be anything from a magic sponge to heal injured players to 'assistant referee confusion', which leads to a throw-in.
There are 19 cards in total, but you only start off with around eight of them and can then choose to exchange points won during matches for additional cards. Obviously some are more expensive than others, so the back pass costs five points but the perfect shot, which helps ensure you'll score, costs 35. As you only get a few points each match, you have a decision to make as to whether to flesh out your deck with smaller cards or save up for the super powerful ones.
Perfect shot sounds a bit too easy. Does that mean you'll score every time?
No, the cards sometimes fail or can be countered by your opponent. However, they do increase the chances of a pass or shot being successful.
Can you play each card more than once?
You can play the cards as often as you like during the game, but the thing is that each one of them has a recharge time, so once you've played a pass card, you can't play another one until the pass deck has been recharged.
That sounds quite involved
There is actually quite a lot of strategy to consider – you can also change your line-up, formation, and so on, and the players have stats which affect their performance.
However, the player doesn't really have to worry about much of this, as it's really simply laid out and you can access all the options via the thumb pad. Also, as the clock stops when you start selecting a card, you have plenty of time to make your decision.
The Champions League is quite a constrained competition. Even with home and away legs there are only 15 games to play through. What about replay value?
It takes the best part of two hours to get through the competition and then there are different skill levels to play the game on which you unlock. Obviously you can play the game with different teams and there's also a Fantasy team option in which you can build your fantasy football squad to take on the rest of the world.
Ultimately we see this as a game that players will drop in and out of, playing one or two games at a time.
Obviously this mechanic could work well in other games, sports in particular. Have you got any plans to use it elsewhere?
Well, nothing that we can confirm yet, but we're certainly looking at using the same idea in other areas and if it does well you can most definitely expect to see it again!
Extra time with Peter Shilton
When EA gave us the mobile game (at a rather swish press event), we also got the chance to throw a few questions toward Peter Shilton, one of England's best ever goalkeepers and double European Cup winner with Nottingham Forest.
Pocket Gamer: We're here talking about the UEFA Champions League but it was the European Cup when you won it. How do you think the new format compares? Peter Shilton: Of course there are differences between the competition now and in our day, but a lot of things are the same. You still need to be a great side to win the competition, whatever the format.
Do you think the addition of so many teams has devalued it?
In our day it was the best of every country – you absolutely had to beat the top team in every division to win, but now you can finish fourth and still be in with a chance.
Is bigger better? I think it was a more exciting competition in our day, a one-off thing, more special. It was amazing that Real Madrid won it so many times and I can still remember how exciting it was when Celtic won it. Obviously it's more of a league now and there are more games for the fans to see, but I think it used to be more special.
Is it harder to win now, though?
In some ways I think the pure knockout basis was harder than the current league system. If you had just one bad night then you could be out, whereas now you have more matches to come back. Then again, it's possibly harder overall to win now because of the number of teams involved.
Which of your European Cup finals stands out?
Well, the first game (1979) was a much tougher game as we were playing Malmo who were very defensive. We were 1-0 up with ten minutes to go and they still kept ten men behind the ball! The second game (1980) was far more exciting to play in and more satisfying – we beat Hamburg playing with Kevin Keegan in the Bernabau. It had been a long, hard season and we were absolutely shattered afterwards, but it was really satisfying game.
