UEFA Euro 2024 will kick off 14.6 and as David Clarke says, we’re “locked in” for the upcoming competitions. Gearing up to it, this week’s ASO breakdown will analyze the top (the REAL) football titles and how they are displayed in the app stores.
Key Selling Points
Unlike many other genres, the games in this list prioritize showcasing gameplay in their visuals. A notably high number of these games do not include taglines in their screenshots, emphasizing action and player engagement instead. Out of the 11 apps analyzed, only 5 featured taglines, highlighting a trend towards minimalistic and straightforward visual presentation. Additionally, the art style is predominantly photorealistic, with only 3 games opting for a different approach. This focus on realistic graphics enhances the immersive experience, making players feel more connected to the game’s environment and actions. By prioritizing gameplay visuals and realistic art styles, these games create a compelling and engaging user experience.
These football games offer a diverse range of experiences catering to various player preferences. From casual gamers to dedicated football enthusiasts. They introduce unique twists and innovative gameplay mechanics. For example controlling the ball instead of players in Crazy Kick or experiencing fast-paced multiplayer free-kick face-offs in Football Strike. Games like Soccer Super Star and Mini Football focus on simple, pick-up-and-play mechanics with progressive difficulty, making them accessible yet challenging. Customization is a significant aspect, with options to build and develop dream teams, upgrade players, and personalize team kits and stadiums, as seen in Dream League Soccer 2024, Top Eleven 2024, and Head Ball 2.
On the other hand, eFootball™ 2024 and EA SPORTS FC™ Mobile Soccer emphasize realism and authenticity. It offers licensed players, teams, and leagues, along with high-quality graphics and immersive gameplay. These games provide comprehensive football management experiences, including real-time 3D PVP fixtures, advanced player development, and strategic team building. The inclusion of career modes, global competitions, and regular live events ensures long-term engagement and competitive play. Score! Hero and Football League 2024 further enhance the experience with dynamic controls, realistic match conditions, and extensive progression systems, offering players an immersive football journey that combines strategy, skill, and entertainment.
Icon analysis
Crazy Kick emphasizes a completely unique positioning within its genre. Featuring a traditional hypercasual character, the game stands out with its beach-like background, offering a fresh and distinctive approach. Despite this unique setting, the game prominently displays a football on the screen, ensuring it remains clearly tied to the football genre. This blend of unconventional visuals and genre-specific elements sets Crazy Kick apart from other titles.
eFootball leverages official branding to enhance its appeal. By featuring different teams directly in the icon, the game gains an official stamp of authenticity. However, this approach often requires adherence to brand guidelines and team regulations. The icon effectively uses split-screen best practices, showcasing the different teams, creating a balanced and visually appealing representation. This strategic use of branding and design helps eFootball stand out while maintaining strong ties to the official teams it represents.
Soccer Super Star excels at capturing the dynamic action and speed of football. Its realistic art style ensures the icon looks impressive on larger displays. While the strong contrast between the player and background maintains excellent readability on smaller screens, making Soccer Super Star stand out.
DLS24 embraces the fantasy football concept by depicting two players wearing generic shirts in the brand colors, without representing specific teams or team colors. While this approach provides excellent contrast, the icon does not clearly indicate its association with a particular sport. Consequently, the icon’s applicability could extend to various sports, leaving its interpretation heavily dependent on the user’s perception.
Mini Football cleverly incorporates a subtle reference to a specific player (Messi) with a #10 shirt without explicitly showing him. The icon features cartoonish proportions, with the character prominently displayed. This design effectively conveys action and speed, making the game’s dynamic nature immediately apparent.
Football Strike, similar to Soccer Super Star and Mini Football, effectively captures the essence of speed, action, and iconic football moments. The icon’s simplicity ensures excellent readability, but it falls short in conveying the game’s detailed and visually rich gameplay. The plain design is clear and accessible. However, it doesn’t fully represent the high-quality experience players can expect within the game itself.
Top Eleven, a game that puts you in the shoes of a football manager, excels at immersing players in this role. The icon features two managers, one holding a ball, set against the backdrop of a stadium, perfectly capturing the managerial fantasy. This design maintains excellent contrast and readability, ensuring clarity. Additionally, the inclusion of “2024” at the top keeps the title relevant and competitive in the market.
Head Ball 2 stands out in the genre with its unique style and gameplay. The icon effectively conveys the game’s competitive nature. It features two characters with “vs” displayed between them, emphasizing the head-to-head aspect. The inclusion of a football in the center ensures clear association with the sport. This makes the icon both distinctive and immediately recognizable.
The original giant of football games, formerly known as the FIFA game, EA Sports’ mobile football, deviates from typical mobile best practices in favor of a beautifully crafted brand presentation. The icon features Haaland in his iconic City shirt. It is a real image, with both EA Sports and FC Mobile logos displayed on the side. This design choice creates a visually stunning icon. On the flip side it may be slightly challenging to read on smaller screens due to the intricate details.
Score Hero makes its branding unmistakable, with the logo occupying the majority of the screen’s focus and space. While the background features a player holding a ball, this detail becomes less discernible on smaller screens. Additionally, the icon’s design doesn’t clearly indicate that the game is about football. It leaves room for ambiguity—which could just as easily be interpreted as representing volleyball or another sport.
Football League takes a straightforward approach, and it works well. The large football positioned in the middle of the field ensures excellent readability and a clear association with football. The tilted pitch adds a sense of action and motion to an otherwise static image. This enhances the overall dynamic feel of the icon.
Screenshot Analysis
The hypercasual look offers a distinctive angle compared to other football titles. Voodoo focuses on showcasing the unique and varied fields and environments where you play. It gives the game a playful, minigolf-like feel that sets it apart. With only five screenshots and a portrait orientation, the game’s presentation further differentiates it from the competition. Its unique charm and casual appeal is emphasized with this.
eFootball focuses entirely on showcasing gameplay, combining setup screens and actual in-game footage with stunning cinematics. However, the absence of taglines to explain the screenshots’ content makes the generic UI-driven images less engaging. Additionally, the most visually appealing cinematic shots are placed at the end of the screenshot sequence. On the other hand the more mundane UI shots appear at the beginning, diminishing the initial impact.
Soccer Super Star seamlessly extends its well-crafted icon content into its screenshots. The screenshots showcase dynamic action and satisfying shots that immediately engage users. While the visuals effectively highlight the gameplay excitement, incorporating taglines could further enhance the experience by providing additional context about the game’s meta and content, offering a more comprehensive view of what players can expect.
DLS24 primarily focuses on in-game shots, enhancing them with taglines and a branded frame. The taglines and frames make the screenshots stand out from other football titles. The visual strategy effectively combines gameplay with branding elements. From a messaging perspective, the screenshots directly address returning players by emphasizing the enhanced UI and new game modes. In addition to the typical genre messaging, DLS24 also highlights the management aspect. This is showcased with a screenshot of your stadium to underscore the comprehensive football management experience.
Mini Football showcases enhanced gameplay footage complemented by small yet effective taglines at the bottom of the screen. The messaging revolves around three key topics: the fun and engaging football gameplay, the collection and management of your team and items, and the competitive aspect of the game, including stadiums. This multifaceted approach ensures that players are drawn in by the excitement of the gameplay, the depth of team management, and the thrill of competition.
Football Strike excels with its portrait screenshots, effectively highlighting the action through well-crafted marketing shots. The key focus in its messaging is the diversity of the multiplayer experience, allowing players to engage as either striker or keeper. Small taglines at the bottom of the screen provide essential information without cluttering the visuals, allowing the dynamic gameplay to take center stage while still informing users about additional content.
Top Eleven delivers a clear visual presentation that adheres closely to its brand imagery. By showcasing actual gameplay within a framed layout, it provides space for additional marketing shots and clear taglines. From a messaging perspective, Top Eleven remains true to its core by emphasizing the management and progression aspects of the game, highlighting the player’s role as a manager. This focused approach enhances the game’s appeal to those interested in football management and strategic growth.
Head Ball 2 emphasizes its unique gameplay by exclusively showcasing in-game action in its screenshots. The initial screenshot features a slightly exaggerated version of the gameplay with enlarged players and a football, while the remaining screenshots present straightforward gameplay visuals. However, similar to other games in this analysis, the absence of taglines represents a missed opportunity to provide additional context and enhance the overall user experience.
The license is leveraged exceptionally well in this game. By using a framed shot of gameplay, EA effectively showcases both the gameplay and FCMobile branding, while also highlighting real pictures of the biggest superstars. The messaging emphasizes the game’s unique features, including elite shooting systems and the ability to watch league matches live, making it a standout experience for players.
Score! Hero cleverly capitalizes on official teams without directly using them, featuring a player in recognizable colors without showing an official shirt. The initial screenshots highlight the fantasy aspect, drawing players in with engaging visuals. By the third screenshot, taglines are introduced, providing a clear focus on the actual gameplay and mechanics, balancing fantasy with practical insights into the game’s experience.
Football League offers the most straightforward representation of the sport, featuring simple screenshots of actual gameplay and in-game cinematics. The visuals consistently display the recognizable green pitch, reinforcing the football theme. However, like many other titles, it misses an opportunity to provide additional information and context through the use of taglines, which could enhance the overall user experience.
💡Tips & Tricks
Localization
There is a significant opportunity to enhance user engagement by customizing the icons and screenshots to include local preferences, featuring specific players or teams that resonate with each region. This tailored approach ensures that the visuals are relevant and appealing to the local audience. For example, the players displayed in the UK, Finland, and Spain should be carefully selected to represent the top talent and popular figures in each respective country, thereby fostering a stronger connection with the users. This strategy not only increases the appeal of the content but also bolastically strengthens brand loyalty among users in different locales.
I tapped into this more in my recent icon roast! Be sure to check it out 😉
Jesse Lempiäinen
Taglines
As highlighted earlier, numerous screenshots failed to maximize the potential of providing additional context through the effective use of taglines. Taglines serve as an invaluable resource for imparting greater insight into the game’s overarching themes, strategic depth, and distinctive aesthetic. Moreover, they are instrumental in elevating the perceived value of the game by prominently featuring its unique branding characteristics. Incorporating well-crafted taglines not only enhances the visual appeal of these images but also plays a pivotal role in capturing the interest of potential players. By offering a clearer depiction of what the game entails and what sets it apart from others, taglines help to build a stronger narrative and create a more compelling case for why players should engage with the game. This strategy enriches the overall marketing approach and significantly boosts the game’s appeal to its target audience.
Psst… Did you check out our previous ASO Breakdown about casino games yet?
