Avatar Football News Post

Avatar Football Hits Xbox 360 Indie Marketplace - Gameplay Video Included

06:21 PM - January 5, 2013 by Steve_OS

Check out more Avatar Football screenshots, right here.

Coinciding with the start of the NFL playoffs, veteran Xbox 360 Indie developer, Barkers Crest Studio, just released Avatar Football onto the Xbox Live Marketplace.

For 240 Microsoft Points ($3), gamers get:

2D gameplay inspired by Tecmo Super Bowl
Play as Xbox Avatars or as realistic football player models
3 vs. 3 online multiplayer
Fully editable players, teams and playbooks
Create-a-play editor
Share edited rosters over Xbox Live
Offline single season mode
2 vs. 2 local multiplayer

As of this post, an error on Microsoft's end is preventing the free trial version from appearing on the marketplace. Barkers Crest Studio has gotten in touch with Microsoft and is currently doing everything than can to get a downloadable trial version working.

UPDATE: Check out the Avatar Football video, captured last night from the 4th quarter, it was a crazy finish!

Game: Avatar FootballReader Score: 7/10 - Vote Now
Platform: Xbox 360Votes for game: 1 - View All

Avatar Football Videos

Member Comments

# 1 Bull_Dozer @ 01/05/13 06:58 PM

As someone who loves Tecmo, this looks pretty cool. Anyone tried this yet?

# 2 KingNick865 @ 01/05/13 07:15 PM

From what I've played of it, it seems to be a lot like Tecmo Bowl. The action is a little slower though, but for $3, and with all the customization you get with it, it isn't a bad deal.

Still need more actual gameplay experience though to get a better feel of things.

# 3 jyoung @ 01/05/13 07:19 PM

I was playing a 3 vs. 3 online game earlier today with Pappy Knuckles and it ran great even with 6 people in the game. The lag was minimal and did not interfere with the gameplay at all. I'm very impressed with the online performance.

For playbooks, there's 110 default offensive plays and 58 default defensive plays in the game. You can put them all into a single custom playbook if you like.

Default offensive formations:

Pro Set
I Formation
Weak I Formation
Single Back
Shotgun
Trips
Empty
Spread
Wishbone
Goalline

Default defensive formations:

4-3
3-4
Nickel
Dime
6-1
Goalline
Prevent

You can also create your own formations and your own plays.

# 4 Steve_OS @ 01/05/13 07:30 PM

Where can we download it jyoung?

# 5 jyoung @ 01/05/13 07:31 PM

It looks like the custom playbook/roster sharing is a little weird in how it's setup.

The person sharing and the person receiving the custom content both have to be online at the same time.

Then the sharer invites the downloader into a room and its syncs up the custom content.

I am in the roster room right now if anyone wants to download a simple NFL roster. I added all the correct conference names, division names and team names. I also tweaked the jerseys a little bit. No changes yet to the players.

# 6 jyoung @ 01/06/13 01:15 AM

The free trial version is now up for download if anyone was waiting to try the game before buying it:

http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-US/Pr...5-d80258550c7d

Great games tonight! I had one game with Pappy that was went to overtime on a last second hail mary.

Then in the battle of New York, the last play of the game was a goal line fumble during a failed two point conversion that would have won the game for the Giants.

# 7 Wiggy @ 01/06/13 04:52 AM

Definitely a fun time with this game. Great features for an indie title, and it easily could stand confidently on XBLA as a solid product.

That goal-line fumble is going to haunt me forever =)

# 8 jyoung @ 01/06/13 11:19 AM

Shades of Earnest Byner in 1987:

I finished editing all the NFL uniforms today, so I will be in the roster share room for a little while this morning if anyone wants to grab my roster.

I will keep working on getting all the names done, as that's all I've got left to finish up a complete NFL roster. I've got 2/32 teams finished so far.

# 9 boomhauertjs @ 01/06/13 11:33 AM

Do you need Xbox Gold to share rosters?

# 10 jyoung @ 01/06/13 12:22 PM

The game doesn't create a separate "roster" file on your hard drive, but it does have a single "save" file like all other Indie games have.

I am not sure if that would be enough to get offline roster sharing working. You can try rehashing/resigning my save file to your Xbox profile, but I don't know if it will work:

http://www.mediafire.com/?zmbsdd1e87811y2

That link is my Avatar Football save file.

# 11 Cletus @ 01/06/13 01:44 PM

so when is the Avatar Pro League sponsored by Operation sports starting? This game is going to be a cult classic

# 12 Steve_OS @ 01/06/13 01:58 PM

Here is the 1st half of one of the many games we had last night.

http://youtu.be/XG6pn83WONo

http://youtu.be/WUxFZvTzZHA

2nd half coming up, which was EPIC!! Especially, the last play of the game.

# 13 nc0ffey @ 01/06/13 02:17 PM

I will be d/l this later...keep an eye out for me if yall want to play. GT - NCoffey

# 14 Steve_OS @ 01/06/13 02:22 PM

Here is the 2nd half, if you watch any of them, watch the 4th quarter, it was crazy!

http://youtu.be/39sg0PTEA4c

http://youtu.be/5ceJKMNLWaA

# 15 jyoung @ 01/06/13 02:36 PM

The entire second half was nuts after a fairly unexciting first half.

I am in the roster sharing room right now if anyone wants to grab the NFL roster.

# 16 KingNick865 @ 01/06/13 03:00 PM

This game has some fairly interesting quirks to it.

There is dynamic field degradation when playing in the rain to the point where it's hard to make out the sideline in the 4th quarter. Haven't played in snow, so I can't answer if the snow envelops the ground by the end of the game (similar to NCAA 08 if I remember correctly).

The weather does have an effect on gameplay. When throwing in sunny weather, I was hitting a lot of my passes. When throwing in rainy weather, receivers are more prone to drops. Rainy weather also causes there to be more fumbles in a game as well.

The custom playbook maker is a lot more fleshed out than you'd think a $3 game would have. The amount of plays you can draw up is almost endless. For example, I love the air raid offense, so I've been busy drawing up staple plays in the typical air raid playbook. (Meshes, Y Shallow Cross, Four Verticals, etc.).

Another interesting thing about this game is that in the menus before the game starts, you can have one team from one roster play a team from another roster. For example, if you have an NFL roster, and an NCAA roster, you can take one team from the NFL roster and have them play against a team from the NCAA roster.

The gameplay is pretty solid, and is definitely inspired by Tecmo Bowl. You aren't going to be pulling any Bo Jackson stuff though, especially on the "Hard" difficulty, which does offer a pretty substantial challenge without it seeming like it's trying to cheat you out of the game.

A couple things I would like to see be added if there is ever a future update.
- The ability to edit how many teams are in a save. (Specifically for the function of cutting teams that you don't need)
- The ability to edit how many teams a division and conference will hold.
- The ability to edit the schedule before your season begins. (I don't know if this is already available or not)
- Oh, and the ability to watch CPU vs. CPU games.

# 17 jyoung @ 01/06/13 03:14 PM

Hard difficulty is definitely a legit challenge. I was playing week 1 as the Titans, and the Patriots blew me out by 20+ points. I couldn't get any pressure on Tom Brady, and my secondary couldn't cover any of their receivers.

# 18 statnut @ 01/06/13 04:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jyoung


	The entire second half was nuts after a fairly unexciting first half. I am in the roster sharing room right now if anyone wants to grab the NFL roster.

How does one do this?

# 19 nc0ffey @ 01/06/13 08:57 PM

I'm interested in rosters if anyone is sharing.

# 20 boomhauertjs @ 01/06/13 09:29 PM

If you only have Xbox Silver, you can't download shared rosters. Tomorrow I'll try downloading JYoung's offline rosters (unless someone has an unused Gold free trial they'd let me use).

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