Flick Champions World Edition for iPhone/iPad Review

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Flick Champions World Edition (universal) from Chillingo is the latest in their series of touch and swipe-based casual sports games, arriving right in time for the Olympics. With eight sports to play, numerous items to unlock, and leaderboards for players to climb, it’s a great compliment to the athletic achievements taking place over the next three weeks in London.

The great thing about the Flick Champion series are the simple controls and accessible arcade action, and World Edition does another great job. For example, the Running challenges rely on players swiping back and forth across the screen to build and maintain speed, while the Handball events involve individual swipes to target passes and shots.

There are a couple events where the excitement doesn’t really translate from life to video game. Handball was probably my least favorite, too stationary and simplistic to be that enjoyable – plus the ability for the computer to move its players in between rounds while I did not seemed to provide an unfair advantage to the computer. Most of the other ones play really well, although I had some serious struggles with the swipe-based rowing in the kayaking event.

A number of different game modes will keep the competition fresh for players for awhile. In addition to the tournament-based cup mode, there are daily challenges players can complete for experience points, and a championship mode with increasingly difficult opponents for players to conquer. I really enjoyed the game’s inclusion of a global ‘medal’ country, where all medals earned by players are tallied country by country on a global leaderboard.

Graphically, Flick Champions World Edition is the same colorful, block-headed style of the other games in the genre. It would be nice to see some character customization included, but with the focus of events like the Olympics being a team sport, it’s understandable why it’s not.

For sports fans or young gamers with Olympic dreams, Flick Champions World Edition (universal) is a great companion to have while watching NBC’s coverage on TV and the internet. And thanks to its special gameplay-changing items and worldwide medal leaderboard, it’s a unique pocket-sized version of the world’s best athletic competitions.

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