Madden NFL Arcade

Madden NFL Arcade provides a nice break from the more serious Madden NFL 10, and even though it’s not without its share of minor issues, none of them are detrimental to the overall experience.

Madden NFL Arcade does a great job of providing a more casual, arcadey experience for football fans that long for the days that NFL Blitz ruled the arcade football genre many years ago.

Madden NFL Arcade is a very entertaining little game. It doesn’t attempt to be an NFL sim, so don’t buy it expecting one. The arcade feel with real NFL teams and players included is a nice combination, and at only around ten bucks this will be a great addition to your library that you can fire up and enjoy a few minutes of fast-paced arcade fun.

Madden NFL Arcade has a great deal going for it and they did almost everything right; they just didn’t follow through and make it a worthy, over-the-top arcade experience.

It doesn’t have the depth of a sim, nor does it engage players fully as a standard arcade styled football game, but Madden NFL Arcade provides some amusing football action in spurts – provided that you’re willing to overlook some shortcomings. The controls could be tighter, the game changers could be harder to acquire and disperse and there could be a season or franchise mode to play.

Fundamentally, the game offers a similar amount of content to 3 on 3 NHL Arcade (playing the computer, playing a friend, playing online), but it costs 50% more, and the most logical assumption I’m left with is that EA figured they could charge an extra five bucks just because the hallowed Madden name is attached to this product. Madden Arcade isn’t bad, but I would’ve had a much easier time recommending it if it were priced at $10.

The presentation is great and if you just fancy a quick game of fun simple mindless NFL (and have some money to burn), then it's a good choice. Hardcore fans would be best to stay with Madden 10 though.

At 1,200 Microsoft Points on Xbox Live and $15 on PSN, Madden Arcade simply isn't the bargain of the $10 NHL Arcade. While it's $5 more, the experience isn't appreciably better -- in fact, I'd peg it as slightly worse.

Another PSN fumble, unfortunately. [Issue#188, p.87]

Uninspiring. [Mar 2010, p.88]

Madden NFL Arcade straddles the line between over-the-top arcade sports games and buttoned-down sims but doesn't wind up pleasing anybody.

for fifteen bucks we wanted a lot more game than Madden Arcade delivers. A bland on-field experience coupled with no single-player season/tournament/anything translates into another failed attempt at “extreme” football. Please, just give us our NFL Blitz back!

For this reviewer it just feels like an expensive demo in which I will forever await a full version that will never come. Sorry EA, 15 yard penalty for a personal foul on the gaming community. Repeat first down.