Madden nerds drive me insane. Not only are they nerdier than any WOW player, but they look down their nose at regular gamers that enjoy shooters RPG’s, hack and slashes, ETC. I love football and I love video games. Why does EA make it so hard for me to enjoy playing a video game ABOUT football? This looks like a step in the right direction. By the right direction, I mean the NFL Blitz direction. Kotaku has some good news for those of us that don’t want to control the lead block in our football games:
Today EA announces Madden NFL Arcade, a downloadable, pick-up-and-play, 5-on-5 football game for those of us who get dizzy looking at all of those X’s and O’s.
I’m one of those Madden players who picks up the game every year, beats the pants off of the AI in easy mode a few times, gets his ass kicked online once or twice, and then trades the game back in. I enjoy the game, but when it comes right down to it the whole thing is a bit too deep for me. Perhaps Madden NFL Arcade for Xbox Live Arcade and the PlayStation Network is the answer.
There are no penalties and no field goals in Madden NFL Arcade. Just four downs to make it 60 yards to your goal, with the first team to score 30 points winning. Games can be tailored to your liking, tweaking skill level and points-to-win, and during play you can use any of 13 “Game Changers” to break the field wide open. It almost sounds like NFL Street, doesn’t it?
“When you look around the office and see your whole team playing and having tons of fun with it, you know the game hit the right mark,” said marketing director Nathan Stewart. “We have diehard Madden fans who have worked on the franchise for a decade, and more casual gamers who are all playing together and enjoying it. If our productivity the past few weeks is any indication, we’ve created a game that everyone will love.”
Madden NFL Arcade will be available on the PlayStation Network and Xbox Live Arcade in December for $14.99 and 1200 Microsoft points respectively.
This is more my speed. I always liked NFL Street. It was a fun, over the top NFL game that wasn’t the Tom Clancy version of football that Madden has degraded into. Quarterback vision? Kiss my ass. I just want to play the game and have a good time in between sundays where I can watch the real thing. I know I can run the Redskins offense better than Jim Zorn. GT: chaddukes
October 14th, 2009 at 2:09 pm
I agree with this Thad! I haven’t liked Madden since 2002, but I kept buying them until this year. I’ve had enough. However this arcade version sounds refreshing. I’ll give it a try.
October 14th, 2009 at 7:20 pm
Maybe this will convince me to actually play a Madden game again. I haven\’t bothered since the original version on SNES, with John Madden\’s over-excited face bulging out of the artwork on the cart.
October 14th, 2009 at 7:44 pm
Why can’t the just remake Tecmo Bowl. They pretty much hit the nail on the head with that. Four plays to choose from and sweet high fiving animation.
October 15th, 2009 at 6:41 pm
This is awesome and I bought the annual Madden game from the SNES days to the original X-box. I agree 100% with you Chad about the difficulty. Which is why I stopped buying them. You need an extra hand and three extra thumbs to do everything that needs to be done in the new games! I understand the realism but enough’s enough.
October 15th, 2009 at 11:23 pm
This looks pretty cool. I hate Madden. I bought this years game, and traded it in less than a week later. I had not bought a Madden game since the one that had Eddie George on the cover. I hated it then, hated it now. I did love NFL Street though. Hopefully this new game will have some of what made that game good.
October 18th, 2009 at 3:07 pm
NFL Blitz style games are fantastic (not that Blitz The League bs, if you don’t have the NFL license make up teams and use the game engine that sells). Football is by far the hardest sports game to pick up and just play for a good time so this should sell quite well, especially at the price point.