The onset of the NFL’s hundredth official season has brought with it, as we’ve all come to expect, a new iteration of the long-running Madden franchise. Given how watered-down and microtransaction-driven the premium console version of the game has become, perhaps it’s time for once-bitten-twice-shy players to check out the freemium mobile version and see if it’s worth their time and potential monetary investment.
First introduced in 2014, the Madden NFL Mobile app has been around in some form for about a half-decade. While it appears to be a fairly faithful translation of the main game, these games cut a ton of content and—if you can believe it—push in-app purchases even harder. EA hasn’t so much released new games over the years as they have offered significant, seasonal updates to the same one. Yet, even with a heap of new additions and a fresh-faced Patrick Mahomes emblazoned on the home screen icon, it’s tough to claim that there’s much substance here.
To be fair, the game at least succeeds in terms of visuals. Mobile games have, on the whole, received a huge bump in terms of graphical fidelity since Madden first debuted on the Play Store. Though some of the player models look a bit rough when viewed up close, this could almost be passed off as something that would have released during the early days of the Xbox 360. Console quality graphics may be a buzz term on the mobile market, but Madden NFL Mobile really does deliver.
From a gameplay standpoint, however, the game suffers. With nothing save for a touchscreen to work with, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the controls feel a bit cramped and clunky. What’s more, the playbook doesn’t seem to be nearly as robust as it is in the console versions. Given these limitations, executing complicated play calls may not be the best decision to begin with. Suffice it to say that this feels like a watered-down version of the regular game, and that’s to be expected.
The game also compares unfavorably to others when it comes to team organization. Madden NFL Mobile was clearly built from the ground up to harvest money from its player base, and it’s card pack/loot box mechanics are unabashed and plentiful. The crux of the experience revolves around getting and training new players, and these things are earned more so through artificial waiting times than actual gameplay.
Players can earn player cards through various means, but the typical method would be to earn players, packs, and other boosts and upgrades by playing through seasons. These seasons ask players to serve as both the general manager and head coach of an NFL team for the duration of a season. It’s up to them to make trades, cut and pay players, and decide on overall team strategies. As previously mentioned, during actual gameplay, players both call the shots and control the on-field avatars in a dumbed-down approximation of the real Madden 20.
Players are rewarded based on how far into the postseason they take their teams, though even Super Bowl-winning squads won’t bring home anything too fancy in terms of rewards. One real bummer is that the game forces players to wait twelve hours before they can start up another season, which is an egregious example of the wait-to-play artificial pacing we’ve seen in so many similar mobile experiences.
Users will also be able to trade players and items through the auction house, but it’s not a peer-to-peer service, which takes a bit of the excitement out of it. While it would be awesome to cut deals with your friends like a true armchair GM, it just isn’t possible. This is likely to prevent players from creating multiple accounts and funneling everything back into their main account, but it’s still a worthwhile system that would have been a neat inclusion.
Madden NFL Mobile is and always has been about boosting stats. Teams have overall power rankings, and that’s increased primarily through wins, player acquisitions, and individual player upgrades. However, while making such moves may advance your OVR, it also depletes your stamina. Once that’s out, you’re basically out of luck and have to wait around for it to recharge. It’s another bogus freemium mechanic, and it only serves to remind players that EA really, really wants their money.
Sure, Madden NFL Mobile may be a free game, but it’s loaded down with so many nickel-and-dime tactics that the whole thing feels more like an ATM than a game. It could be worse: there is, after all, some actual gameplay here, though the game’s been designed to keep you from it until your patience wears thin and you pay up. Overall, it’s probably a step up from those hyper-generic mobile pseudo-RPGs we’ve all seen advertised to death, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s worth your attention.
If you’re really itching for some slightly-out-of-season mobile NFL action, then it’s serviceable, albeit deliberately designed to wear you out and get on your nerves. Still, you'd be better off loading up a mobile PSP emulator and playing Madden 08, even with its out of date roster.