Bonecruncher Soccer might sound like a cartoony soccer brawler at first, but its actually quite a realistic feeling game. The game’s levels have you weaving through defenders by yourself to score, and also has a shootout mode to test your shooting skills.

Realistic motion capture is what gives this game its value. The running motions, the slide tackles and kicks are all very fluid, with the good graphics adding to the experience. Unlike some other soccer games, where a virtual gamepad is superimposed on the screen, your character is constantly running while you tilt your device to control which direction he goes. Sidestepping is performed by swiping left or right, and spin moves are done by swiping from down to up. It would have been cool if more moves were added, or if spin moves were done by actually swiping in a circular motion, but I’m already content with how natural the game feels.

This game actually has more in common with those tackle football games, as you never pass to another player (there are no other players beside the opposing defenders). Speaking of defenders, they come at you with slidetackles mostly, and sometimes even when you sidestep their tackle, you have to keep sprinting or else they catch up to you and knock you down with an appropriate bonecrunching sound. Shooting is done by swiping in the direction of the shot, but there are limits to how well that works. For one thing, you can’t really do strikes (shots that stay on the ground), and also I can’t see any way to put spin on the ball. To hardcore soccer fans, that might seem too simple and limited, but for someone like me its enough.

All in all, the defining merit of this game is its realism and fluidity. If you’re looking for all-out soccer matches then it might be better to look elsewhere, but if they expanded this game to include full match play, then it would be a must buy for soccer fans.

check it out at the App Store here.