Arena Football Retrospective

when you think of great sports video games you usually don't think of anything close to an arena football game people want to see n-c-double-a football returned or a sim competitor to Madden or NFL Street were fight night or MBA ballers and while those are the popular options perhaps the reason arena football games were so unpopular was due to the league they were representing arena football is an American football game played indoors with eight players on each side rather than the traditional eleven the field is half of the size of a regular professional football field and instead of there being an out-of-bounds sideline that there is instead walls meaning there is no out of bounds unless a player gets flipped over the wall the result of this was high scoring fast-paced football that was entertaining to watch the original Arena Football League began in 1987 and ran until 2008 when they filed for bankruptcy during this time the league was successful enough to have its own minor league dubbed arena football - because of EA's exclusive rights agreement with the NFL only EA can produce simulation NFL games so it makes sense why football fans beg for a company to pick up the license to new football leagues when they arise people want options with the AAF and then the XFL people really wanted to see video games for those leagues but leaks folded before that was even an option even I made a video pounding the table for an XML video game which has not aged well with arena football however we actually got not one but two games from none other than Electronic Arts that's right the company with exclusive rights to making NFL games during a time when they were the only company making NC double-a football games as well as experimenting with the NFL head coach games decided to give yet another attempt creating a football video game and the result was actually surprisingly good I'd argue the game holds up better today than it did back then and serves as a time capsule for a league that failed shortly after the second game's release after ceasing operations and liquidating their assets the original arena football league ended in 2008 but the owners of arena football - minor league teams banded together to relaunch the league in 2010 the second go-around never received a video game and in 2019 ended once and for all other indoor football league's came and went throughout the last decade but none stayed the last remaining footprint of arena football is the China Arena Football League which is still running today the arena football video games were likely created too late to be successful back when Kurt Warner forced his way into NFL stardom after an incredible run in the AFL and arena football video game would have made more sense to capitalize on the eventual NFL MVP success and the attention he brought to the league it happened how it happened however and I'm happy with the result because the result was one of the most fun and underrated sports video games ever made in I G ends review of the game and yes I know IGN is the last place you want to hear from about sports video games but hear me out they fully encapsulate the excitement and thrill of the arena football game it's the fourth quarter and with four seconds remaining in the game the Arizona Rattlers score a touchdown and a two-point conversion to go up by six points over my San Jose SaberCats all is lost right in arena football you will quickly learn no game is ever out of reach on the ensuing kickoff my receivers sprinted left following his lead blocker he then throws a vicious stiff-arm shakes a tackler and Sprint's loose down the left sideline on the way the opposing coach just happened to be standing on the field and the receiver was sure to lower his shoulder and knock the coach to the ground before crossing the goal line to tie the game while celebrating the receiver started bowing to the crowd and yelling I'd like to thank all you people over here and turning around and all the people over here suddenly an angry rattler defender pummels my receiver and screams you're welcome Punk the ensuing extra point wins the game for San Jose with no time left on the clock that's right this isn't mattad in the AFL games you can truck through the opposing team's head coach players talk trash scoring can happen at any time punting is not a thing and EA knocked the game out of the park despite having three other football video game franchises at the time EA did not skin Madden for arena football they actually took the challenge of creating a unique football game head-on and the result wasn't a buggy mess but an enjoyable and exciting arcade sports game EA Tiburon created a game that captured everything great about arena football games averaged a total of over 100 points part hits could knock players over the wall and into the stands authentic play books were created based on the ones used by real AFL coaches such as Jay Gruden who was an AFL coach at the time throwing the ball was the move as running was used mostly in short yardage situations because of the 8 on 8 rule set the field was wide open crossing routes and deep bombs were the best plays and hitting a receiver on a Drac is an easy way to flip over the wall which is just awesome to see one of the best parts of the gameplay is user in your receivers throwing a bomb switching to a receiver diving for it and then getting smacked by defender is awesome the game is full of one-handed leaping and other crazy catching animations EA could have gone the easy route and simply skinned matted and while the two arena football games do use the same engine as ps2 era Madden which is obviously not a bad thing EA created a ton of new animations exclusively for the arena games when playing defense you'll notice how many different in very tackling animations there are the addition of the walls add physics to the tackling allowing you to smack an offensive player into the wall and watch their body flail through the air like a helicopter every time you view a loading screen or pause the game you are met with AFL rules after playing through the game for a bit you'll be an expert on the AFL some of the rules take some time to get used to such as only one linebacker being allowed to blitz and I must be through the a gap and that linebackers cannot drop into deep coverage and must stay in a box which the game will highlight for you in terms of defensive controls this game had what Madden 21 is essentially advertising which is user controlled defensive lineman moves you can use the left stick while holding B to either swim spin or bull rush EA also added a telemetry system that shows you the health and fatigue of your opponent's players as well as scoring and passing patterns which is basically in game scouting because the field is only 50 yards even if you're backed up against your own end zone few goals are always the move on fourth down unless you want to go for it because field goals are so prominent in punting isn't a real option EA remade the kicking mechanic for the game with the right stick in terms of depth the game does feature a 20 season deep mode where you can sign players there is no draft in the AFL but it lacks player development training camp or anything like that the initial game simply titled arena football released for $29.99 which makes sense considering the game features a lesser-known league and doesn't have the same amount of depth you'd expect from a ps2 era Mattingly that said today the game holds up incredibly well as current Madden games have devolved to a state where even games from 2006 that were considered shallow for their time actually rival the newer ones today you can find the game for super cheap for either the xbox over the ps2 and it is a blast to play the best part of the game is easily the gameplay which is not only a fun diversion from traditional football games but it's also incredibly addicting to play despite the season mode lacking the micromanaging level of depth you might want the gameplay is just so unique that it's easy to sink multiple seasons into this game fun fact the cover athlete John Dutton was not playable on this game in classic EA fashion even though the rest of the game was awesome they just had to screw something up that said I wish the flaws of modern sports games were this minor the next year EA released a sequel called arena football Road to Glory the game had some slight changes such as the ability to user both your receiver and your quarterback at the same time a roster creator created team unlockable historic teams the Arena Football to minor league and a fuel gold challenge minigame while the game isn't that different from the previous one it is the definitive way to play it and the small additions do make it a better purchase it's also still cheap but it's the only version you can find as the original you really aren't missing out on that much the game was criticized for being nearly a roster update by IGN yes IGN I wish they were as critical today many media outlets called out EA for sticking to old gen hardware for the game as their NFL n-c-double-a and NBA franchises were already two years in on the ps3 and xbox 360 but perhaps EA knew something we didn't as the Arena Football League died the next year even when the league returned in 2010 no new games were released for it from a business perspective that makes sense but it's a bummer considering how fun and unique the arena football games were had league not filed for bankruptcy could we have seen an arena football game on the next-gen maybe unfortunately due to the lackluster sales of the series and the demise of the league no major publisher or developer has attempted to create a video game on a smaller football league for those looking for an alternative to Madden on today's Hardware it's not going to happen that said however these games have aged pretty well and even today are a blast to play whether it's on the original Xbox ps2 or an emulator on PC that can render the gaming 4k arena football and arena football road to glory our worth your time take yourself back to an era where ei cared enough to make four separate games on a single sport and they were all actually really good thanks for watching [Music]

Channel: SOFTDRINKTV

Views: 106,666

Keywords: arena football, arena football road to glory, madden, ea, ea sports, softdrinktv, softdrinksports, retrospective, madden is bad, nfl 2k5, espn nfl 2k5, ncaa football, ncaa 06, ncaa 21

Id: 87naBPFWiAw

Length: 10min 55sec (655 seconds)

Published: Tue Jul 21 2020