Bola! Soccer Social Game
Bola on Facebook « Check the app out
Well I won’t waste time in putting up a detailed review of this fabulous game - check the review out here instead. I’ll just share some points which I like about the game.
After the review too they have gone forth and launched a lot of newer features.
Why is it so fantastic?
I must have played almost every popular social game out there and this is the first one which actually made me shell out some money!
The timing of the game is super fantastic with the 2010 Fifa World Cup just around the corner.
This is the first sport based social game to get above 2.5M users.
So what are the things which really make this cool?
Managerial Mode + Playing Mode
You get to build a team, make a stadium from scratch, maintain the roster - contracts etc.
(A market and a city for the fans are also chalked out for the future)
And how do you go ahead in the game?
By playing real football matches. Simple keys - reminds me of Fifa 2000 days. Nothing complicated but yet requires skill. Its got multi-player built in…but is asynchronous. You play against your friend’s team in AI mode and then he plays against your team in AI mode. Whoever scores more wins it.
Each game lasts exactly for 1:30 mins. Apart from this they’ve built in tournaments and a mode which allows you to play against other people on the app. So unlike the farmville family of games - where you sow and wait for harvesting…you can keep on playing. It makes you wait between tournaments matches…and you can avoid the wait by paying a lil real money (its so small that it doesn’t end up pinching you).
What I really like about the game is that the economics are so well planned out. You can get a sponsor - and the sponsor here is another ‘Playdom’ game (nice marketing) - the sponsor pays you for maintaining a clean sheet + a daily fee. You can hire a coach for a week and he actually impacts the performance of your team. There is a trophy cabinet for vanity purpose! Over all this is a very well thought out game and is sure to get almost all soccer/football lovers hooked. I’m sure Playfish (now owned by EA) will be watching this carefully. Cos’ this is a game which can actually eat into the market share of EA’s Managerial games.
Oh and this app has also inspired me to get working on an awesome social gaming project myself! Even though cracking Social Gaming in India will be really tough.
