Football Heroes by Run Games is a sports lover’s wet dream come true. Combining crazy gameplay elements from past satirical sports franchises (Mutant League Football, Blitz, and Tecmo Bowl) with simplistic and strategic play-calling, Football Heroes is without question the best American sports portrayal on the app store.
FORTUNE -- After watching the success that independent developer Imangi Studios has had with its Temple Run franchise, which has been downloaded over 170 million times across mobile devices, executives at NFL Players Inc. (NFLPI), the marketing arm of the NFL Players Association, saw an opportunity for their 1,800 players. What piqued NFLPI's interest was the partnership with Olympic gold medalist sprinter Usain Bolt, who was added to the free-to-play Temple Run 2 as a 99-cent downloadable character, which showed the marketing potential for sports celebrities in games. It also showcased that a small development team – Imangi has a handful of employees -- could break through the tens of thousands of game apps and succeed.
Does that mean EA has nothing to do with it? Please be a sign for something other than Madden this year.
Four mobile games from four different developers were released in 2013 that nailed the free-to-play model. Some are better than others, but each still manage to remain enjoyable and completely playable without ever having to pay for a single in-game item. If you’ve been searching for a free-to-play game that is actually worth investing your time in, then you will surely find the answer to your quest down below.
Plants vs Zombies' f2p model, in my opinion, ruined what could have been a great sequel to one of the all time best portable games.
F2p, in all forms, presumes you either want to play one game non-stop for 3 months, or that you don't mind paying cash to cut it to a reasonable length, essentially paying to win.
Here's how to do f2p: make a crap version for people who have no standards and offer it as f2p and then charge me $10 for the real version. I would have paid it in a second. Please no one tell me I can accomplish this by paying for iap's because that's the point, I can't. The second I feel like I'm, arguably, paying to win my fun factor drops to zero.
Evidence is rapidly mounting that the physical abuse real football players take on the gridiron is bad for their long term health. Happily, football players in video games suffer no ill effects, so we can pile on the excessive violence guilt-free – especially when it comes via Football Heroes and its nostalgic, over-the-top arcade action.
