The Madden football franchise has been going strong forever it seems. EA has pumped them out left and right and it doesn’t seem like they’re going to stop any time soon. Why would they?
The franchise is a money-making machine that football fanatics can’t help but buy every time a new installment comes out. Madden NFL 21 is EA’s latest football simulator that just came out a couple of days ago (August 28). So how has it fared thus far?
Well according to Sony, it’s one of the best-selling digital games for the PS4 in August. However you feel about this franchise as a whole, it’s hard not to be impressed with this stat. It took just 3 days to beat out the likes of Fall Guys and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. It’s clear: Madden-fever is in full swing once again.
There are a lot of shining aspects of Madden NFL 21. For example, the new mode called The Yard is a throwback to the NFL Street franchise. It’s a completely different experience compared to what players are accustomed to when playing traditional NFL football. The trick animations make you feel like an unstoppable force capable of anything.
You get to play with a custom avatar, which can be decked out in many ways visually. You’ll earn new gear through an in-game points currency system. The more you play and win, the more you can build up your rep as well. Face of the Franchise is also respectable in a lot of ways, although the writing could be better.
Running feels like an improvement compared to previous installments and so do the crowd animations and player models. However, many have commented on the game’s lack of ingenuity. It shares a lot of similar elements found in previous installments.
That’s always a major criticism with re-occurring sports titles. Developers that put them out every year have a lot to live up to and there’s only so many improvements that can be made in a year’s time. Madden NFL 21 is a fun game and has several big changes, but as a whole, there seems to be a lack of creativity and novelty.
That’s to be expected though for a franchise that comes out every year. Still, if you enjoy playing these sort of sports titles, you could do a lot worse than Madden NFL 21. It may not be a ground-breaking installment, but the things it gets right keep you entertained for hours.