For those who prefer their video game football to be fast and frenetic, Wild Card Football has recently come blazing onto the field from Saber Interactive, the makers of such other similar arcade offerings as NBA 2K Playgrounds and WWE 2K Battlegrounds.
As an alternative to Madden, it attempts to separate itself with a backyard 7-on-7 free-for-all involving bone-crushing hits and those titular wild cards that can transform your players from superstars into superheroes. While there’s clearly been some effort to carve out its own space in a market dominated by Madden, I’m left wishing that the game had gone even further in establishing its own identity. Once the novelty of the power-ups wears off, you’re stuck with a game that doesn’t really play all that differently than Madden‘s The Yard or Superstar KO.
Let’s get into the chaotic scrum and determine what aspects of the game are living up to its name and where it could maybe stand to walk a little more on the wild side.
What I Like
Players & Teams
Because Wild Card Football has a license with the NFLPA, you’re able to play as some of the league’s top players. However, the game does not have a partnership with the NFL itself, so these players aren’t on their actual real-life teams. This isn’t too big of a deal though, since it’s easy enough to surmise that Team Mahomes is obviously the Chiefs and Team Rodgers is essentially the Jets for all intents and purposes. It’s amusing too to see the animated likenesses of the players that have been included here, as designers have clearly accentuated certain features to transform them into subtle caricatures.
Once you’re out on the field though, the players tend to blend together with little to differentiate them from each other. It would be nice if players came with their own unique wild cards that were specific to the player’s actual skills that you see them showcase every week on the field.
Game Modes
For an arcade-style game, Wild Card Football has a surprising array of modes to keep things interesting. Playing exhibition games against the CPU is bound to get boring before too long, and that’s why it’s great that you can make the games count a little more by playing through a season. The season isn’t quite as long as an NFL season, with each team only playing 8 games, but it’s in keeping with the rest of the game to be able to quickly speed through a campaign. There are daily challenges that you can complete in any mode to earn rewards and keep you coming back to the game. It’s interesting that you can even play games without the use of any of the wild cards, though it’s a little strange considering that these are a huge selling point and the entire basis for the game’s name.
The best mode is without a doubt Dream Squad, the game’s version of the ubiquitous card-collecting mode that’s all the rage in sports games now. This allows you to collect players and upgrade your team as you compete against others online in either quick games or league play. There’s also a tour mode where you can play against the CPU in a series of challenges to help level your team up and earn pack rewards.
In addition to collecting players, you’ll also accumulate an assortment of your own wild cards that will inevitably influence your style of play when you go up against opponents. There’s an overwhelming amount of customization available in the mode, as you’ll receive logos and vanities that you can use to shape the look of your players and the uniforms they wear. If you’re looking to improve any aspect of your team, make sure to check out the option to trade in tickets for cards that will serve you better.
Controls
As someone who’s become accustomed to the controls of Madden from playing for decades now, it’s relieving to find that the majority of the buttons are the same in Wild Card Football. Though it’s clear that the game is trying to steer clear of comparisons to their biggest competitor, it doesn’t hurt to harness everyone’s familiarity with those controls to allow for jumping into the fray with ease. With only a few changes from the Madden setup, the difficulties are remembering how to stiff-arm on offense and that the tackle button on defense launches an aggressive lunge towards a ball-carrier instead of a more conservative wrap-up.
Of course, you could probably benefit from a constant reminder to press the R1/RB button on Wild Card plays that require a trigger, as it’s easy to forget and waste a play that should have been way more exciting.
What I Don’t Like
Gameplay
Despite some nice window dressing with the presence of real NFL players and a healthy amount of game modes, it’s disappointing to find that the actual games themselves in Wild Card Football don’t really add up to a lot of fun. Running the football while on offense can be a slog, especially on any runs up the middle where holes can get clogged up quickly by defenders that will wrestle you to the ground in an instant should you get anywhere near them.
There are times where any of your efforts to evade defenders or break tackles are brought to an abrupt end by a cutscene that will show your player getting violently slammed down by someone on the other side of the ball. Passing plays fare somewhat better, but the limited number of plays available and the shortcomings of the ground game mean you’ll probably end up calling a lot of the same ones. Defense is at its best when you’re laying out ball-carriers with huge hits and at its worst when you completely whiff on those hits or struggle with the timing of when to leap in the air for an interception.
The initial charm of the increased speed of the game and arcade style wear off quickly and give way to a redundancy that eventually curdles into tedium. Any excitement at the outset of the contest rapidly fades and it’s not uncommon to find yourself wanting the game to be over at halftime, even with the quarters being relatively short at 3 minutes. If the game is slightly reminiscent of Mutant League Football at first glance, there’s the nagging sense that Wild Card Football should have taken more cues from that title to constantly be pushing the envelope with outlandish happenings on the field.
Wild Cards
The wild cards that are the obvious focus of the game are definitely an interesting idea in theory, but they fail to generate as much enthusiasm when you see how they are utilized throughout a game. Each team selects wild cards following its play selection and you’ll be able to see what the other team has chosen (if they’ve chosen any at all) before the snap. A big issue is that most of the wild cards don’t have as much sway over how a play unfolds as you’d expect. Too many of them will provide ineffectual influences like strength or speed boosts (or ones that slow down the opposing team) that aren’t even all that evident during a play.
You’ll often annoyingly find duplicates of cards within your hand at any given time too, reducing how dynamic these cards are intended to be. The best ones then are those that live up to that “wild” name by turning a player into a rocket or making a ball-carrier invisible. The concept of having to spend a certain number of points in order to play a wild card, with the most powerful ones costing you more points, does yield some intriguing strategy.
Bottom Line
Wild Card Football makes a play at zagging where Madden is zigging by offering a zany arcade-style take on the sport, but it doesn’t quite live up to its potential. Its NFLPA license adds some authenticity by including real NFL players (but not their real NFL teams). A plethora of modes gives you an opportunity to experience the game in a variety of ways, with the card-collecting Dream Squad being a standout for its extensive customization.
The game is a bit of a letdown once you hit the field though, becoming too bland and repetitive to keep you engaged for the length of an entire game. The titular wild cards aren’t nearly as impactful or thrilling as you would hope, with too many of them not doing all that much to alter how a play ultimately shakes out save for a few notable exceptions.
