Review

I always find it interesting when EA take one of their franchises and give it that super deformed stylized feel and then try and bring it to the people who are less than hardcore about the usual EA games. But now it seems that they have done it to the Madden franchise.

Madden NFL Arcade gives you a 5 on 5 player scenario featuring no first downs, which means you get four plays to try and get a touchdown before the ball is turned over to your opponent (unless you fumble the ball or it gets intercepted – which the computer seems to do at very annoying moments).  You also get some very interesting (read weird and annoying) power-ups – like allowing you to punt kick in the face of your opponent. With no timer, it’s just a first to thirty free for all, six points for a touch down, two extra points for a conversion (which is like scoring another touch down) or you just get a point for a field goal which you get by pressing a button – you don’t actually get to take them. Then again, you don’t actually take the beatings your on screen players do – so it probably all works out in the end.

Madden Arcade is really just a quick pick-up and play game. It’s nice to see that all of the NFL teams are represented and the teams’ big stars are playable. You just pick one of the teams you want to play as and then play against another team who’s AI or an online foe. There are no first downs, a 60-yard field and no coin tosses. Absolutely no complicated franchise modes and no epic season modes and ultimately no licensed EA Trax. To get everyone playing this game, EA have taken away the picking of multiple inside runs and fake passes and to keep the game fast paced and make it easier for all gamers, you can pick only 1 of 4 play options which are assigned to the 4 buttons on your pad. You can pick from: Run, Short Pass, Medium Pass, Deep Pass for offensive plays, and on defense: Blitz, Short Cover, Medium Cover, and Deep Cover.

As for the power-up side of things, a few of these are really bloody cruel. They are called ‘Gamechangers’ and they come in many forms:

• Triple Threat – where you disguise which receiver you’re throwing the ball to by deploying a couple of decoy balls.
• Bonus Play – this will give you an extra down to help get into the end zone and acquire more lovely points.
• Make it, Take it – if you score whilst using this, you basically get to keep the ball on the next possession.
• Turbo – this makes players super fast for a short while.
• Molasses – this makes the game have a slower pace.
• Fumbilitis – makes your opponent forget how to successfully hold the ball.
• It’s Alive – this will turn any incomplete pass into a live ball.
• Frostbite – basically freezes one opposing player from moving.
• Fast Pass – this will allow the Quarterback to throw the uber amazing bulleted pass.
• Flying Blind – lets you sabotage your opponent by turning off their passing icons.
• Flip Flop – I told you some were cruel and as EA puts it, “Flip Flop will nicely borrow the score and never give it back.” Yes… very nice… especially if you’re on your 29th point.
• Then you have what is called The Dud… it does nothing… hence it’s a dud.

You can have a quick match against the computer or an online match. If you wanted to play an online match, you have to login to EA’s own servers which is a little annoying and this is where you can play ranked and unranked quick matches and custom matches.

It’s really all about the leaderboards, the rankings and looking better than all your friends. There isn’t much else to do apart from making your friends cry at the hands of a ‘Flip Flop’ power-up.

If you don’t like American football, then you probably won’t get this. If you do like American Football – you’ll probably find it a very shallow experience. It doesn’t even have the classic ‘ambulance running every player over’ glitch from the old school Madden.  In fact, Madden on the Megadrive is probably as fun as this.  ’NBA Jam: Tournament Edition’ on the Megadrive is a much more fun American football game… and it’s a basketball game!

Summary

After the attempt of making 'Madden 5 on 5' for the Nintendo Wii failed due to it being a full price game, making it for XBLA and PSN means EA are hoping that some fanatical football fans may buy this game to add to their Madden collection. I think it will do the opposite as most Madden fans are very dedicated to the realism in the full epic Madden games. 1200 MSP seems a lot when you only really have one mode which is either online or offline but it is a fun arcade game, I just think you still need to like American Football to enjoy it.

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