Is today some sort of holiday? I heard a rumour about that. To celebrate this, EA chose this week to offer their newest addition to the billions of Madden titles out there. Madden NFL Arcade hits Xbox LIVE Arcade for 1200 MSP. An arcade take on Madden, developed by the same team (EA Tiburon) who’s responsible for the yearly games? It sounds like good stuff. I loaded it up and gave it a few rounds of play.
Madden NFL Arcade should not be confused with, say, NFL Blitz. I was a huge Blitz fan back in the day of Nintendo 64 and came into this whole experience expecting something along those lines. NFL Arcade is 5-on-5 American football, with licensed teams and stadiums. It runs nice and smooth and looks pretty good, with exaggerated player models and a clean interface. The game is a super-simplified take on football: 60 yard field, no clock, no penalties, and no first downs. Every game is a race to 30 points. No special teams means no field goals, punt plays, or even a kick-off.
Plays are quite minimal. Each team has the exact same playbook. The four face buttons give a run play, and three pass plays. Defenders get a blitz and three zone defenses to counter this. Teams are randomly assigned Game Changers at the start of plays. These can be activated with a button press, and do suitably over-the-top things like freeze a player in place, swap the scores, force a fumble, or keep a dropped ball ‘live’. The game has 13 Game Changers in total.
I don’t really understand who NFL Arcade is being aimed at. People who appreciate the depth and subtleties of the full-fledged Madden release will probably be unhappy with how much of a crap-shoot NFL Arcade can be, not to mention how dumbed-down it can feel. Yes, the game only takes 10 minutes or so to play, but how much fun is being up 26-8 and getting scores swapped?
Unfortunately, a casual audience might not fare any better. It’s still pretty tough to play. I had a lot of trouble doing well (I admittedly suck at pretty much every game ever), and I had a bit of football knowledge to draw on. Someone who isn’t familiar with football will face quite an uphill battle.
There’s multiplayer support for up to four players locally and online play as well. The game has high production values and the trial is easily worth a download to see if it clicks. It might be good as a party title. I think the asking price is a little high for how much fun I had with it, but I do think there’s a decent game in here somewhere. I’d love to hear what others think about it.
Brad Petch has been playing games longer than most gamers have been alive. This does not mean he's good at them, or has good taste in them. Online interactions are not rated. 