Madden NFL Mobile

Madden NFL Mobile is an American football sports video game based on the National Football League and published by EA Sports. Part of the Madden NFL series, the game was released for both iOS and Android platforms on August 26, 2014.

Gameplay

Madden NFL Mobile is essentially the mobile version of Madden Ultimate Team (MUT), with features like players and cards being available. To earn these, players participate in "Live Events", which can earn them card packs and coins. Another mode that is available is "Season", which allows players to play a full 16-game season, which extends to the Super Bowl.^[1] Being a freemium game, players can spend real-life money to purchase packs and "Bundles" that include a certain number of packs and a topper of an item. The game is also level-based, and features like certain plays are restricted until one reaches a certain level.^[2] There is also another mode labeled "Leagues" where players may join or create a "league" alongside other players that face in Tournaments against other leagues, offering a chat box, goals with rewards such as players and packs, and the ability for players to send other players within the league packs.

The game itself features standard football rules, such as scoring mechanics including touchdowns, field goals, and safeties. It also features real plays categorized as "long passes", "short passes", "play action passes", and "run" plays for the offense; "man coverage", "zone coverage", and "blitz" plays for the defense. It also features four special plays available at any point including punts, field goals, quarterback kneels and spikes. There are also up to four different styles for kickoffs, kick returns, punt, and punt returns (left, right, middle, duplicates, onside kicks, etc.)

The game is connectable with Facebook to allow for more social features, though players can also create anonymous accounts.

Season

Players may participate in a series of 16 regular season games before advancing to the post-season. During these games, the player competes against real players as characters matching their real team. If the player wins at least 8 games in the regular season (which increases to 9 after several seasons), they advance to the post-season, where they play a divisional game against a divisional rival and the conference championship game, before making it to the Super Bowl. The player may lose any games in the first sixteen games, but in the final three they automatically end their season (as the real post-season is the same.) During these games, the player may stumble across Spontaneous Challenges, rewarding the users with cards which can be used in a set. They can also play as a receiver or blocker (exclusive to Season mode, and rarely in Live Events).

Live Events

Live Events is a game mode in which players may participate in live events. Some could cost as low as 1 stamina, or as much as 10 stamina. Completing these events earn the player rewards, such as card packs, coins, and experience points. There are three daily events, Scrimmage, Legacy, and Daily Warmup. Completing Scrimmage will earn the player a random scrimmage set player/collectible alongside a single postgame set collectible (useful for the weekly Postgame set), and the Scrimmage event occurs more than once a day, and could be completed more than once throughout the day.The Legacy live event gives players a chance to play with their team from the previous Madden Mobile Season. The Daily Warmup awards a single Daily Warmup and could only be completed once. Other challenges include Game Changers, JourneyMan, Veterans, Champions, Domination, Coin Up, Treasure Hunt, and more. There are also seasonal live events for things such as Black Friday, Thanksgiving, and Christmas, Easter as well as Super Bowl and Playoff Recap events.

Head to Head

Head to Head is a social mode in which players may compete against other players in a turn-based style, with up to 6 regular drives – 3 drives for each player – and more in overtime. A player may start a match by playing one drive, then allowing the opponent to play one. A player's drive ends in a turnover (interception/4th down/fumble), touchdown, field goal, or a safety.

Leagues

Joining a League will give the player user interaction to other players inside the game. In a league one can match each other in a head-to-head match for bragging rights. There are League Tournaments that a league can play in as a team: all players participating in the tournament will have three drives to score as high as possible against another league. Winning the tournament will give the player three League-vs.-League collectibles; if it ends in a draw, one will get two collectibles, while losing will earn only one. These collectibles are used in the League-vs.-League set which guarantees a couple of gold players, silver players, and one League master collectible, which can be used for a 99 OVR TE Madden Mobile Master Rob Gronkowski. There are also League achievements in the categories of rushing, passing, and points scored that unlock a 95 OVR HB Patrick Dimarco, TE Tyler Eifert and CB Richard Sherman, respectively. Finally, there are League Championships, in which players compete against each other in a championship tournament that will rank them based on their performances in the tournament.

Sets

Players can complete sets to get coins or players for their team. Sets require different amounts trophies or players from the 4 tiers (bronze, silver, gold, elite). Some sets also require collectibles that can be acquired from packs or by completing various live events. There are many different types of sets which organized into categories that can lead to special players, trophies, or collectibles. Examples include the Captains and Road to the Playoffs sets, one for each team in the NFL and 32 in total for each. Completion of these sets gives the gamer an elite player from that team that contributed to the teams success in the year before (Heroes) or the first half of the season (Road to the Playoffs). Other sets include NFL Domination which guarantees the player a 99 OVR CB Richard Sherman (2014–15), a 99 OVR TE Rob Gronkowski (2015–16), and a 99 OVR LB Von Miller (2016–17), if they beat the live event, and Champion sets which grant them different Champion edition elite players if they collect 10 different NFL Division collectibles.

Some sets such as the weekly NFL Postgame are timed sets that require to be completed within a certain amount of time (displayed when played), while others may be done at any time. Some sets are seasonal, based on holidays like Halloween, Thanksgiving, Black Friday, Christmas, Super Bowl, Easter, and 4th of July, or NFL events like the NFL Combine and NFL Draft.

There are also Legends sets, which made an appearance in both versions of Madden Mobile. In Madden Mobile 15, these sets usually required a rookie version of the legend, a few highlight collectibles, and gold trophies. In Madden Mobile 16, the sets required highlight collectibles and elite trophies. Completing these sets award the player an "NFL Legend", a player from the past who have breakout years or have led their team to success. Examples include Joe Montana and Marshall Faulk. After the NFL season ends, the second type of legends are released. In Madden Mobile 15, the legends were released as "Mobile Masters", while in Madden Mobile 16, they were released as "Ultimate Legends". Usually, these types of legends' overall rating range from 98–99 and are usually an upgrade from the legends. These sets are usually much harder and more expensive to complete. Examples of these legends include Michael Vick and Reggie White.

Auction House

The Auction House is a place where players may bid/buy cards sold by other players. Bidding allows the player to bid slowly against others with a slightly lower chance of winning the item. Buying the item allows the player to immediately end the bidding process and earn the item for the amount bought for. The player may not buy the item if the buy price is less than the bidding price. A common activity on the Auction House is referred to as "sniping," or buying items for low prices as soon as they are available and reselling them for profit. The Auction house shuts down a few days before a new season begins, but posting to the Auction House is disabled 3 days prior to going down. Ten percent of the coins made on the transaction are deducted.

Packs

Packs are another key element to the game. Players can purchase various packs in the Store for 3,500–250,000 coins or numerous amounts of in-game cash. There are many different packs available for different times and lengths. Some packs such as the Pro Pack is available 24/7, while others (such as Super Bowl) are available for a few days. Packs could include rare collectibles, bronze to elite players, etc. and vary in value.

Cover athletes

The cover athlete corresponds with the winner of the Madden NFL cover vote. For the 2014 NFL season, star Seattle Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman was the cover athlete for the game. In 2015, he was replaced by New York Giants wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. for the 2015 NFL season. The cover athlete for the 2016 NFL season is New England Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski.

Launch

2015 season

The game received a soft launch on the Canadian App Store on August 12, 2014.^[3]

On August 26, the game was officially launched on the iOS App Store and on Android's Google Play, the same day that Madden NFL 15 was released on console. On August 17, 2015, the Mobile servers were shut down in order to prepare for the new and upcoming season.

2016 season

On August 21, 2015, four days before Madden NFL 16 was released, a mandatory update was released and required to play the game for the new season.

The servers of the mobile version of the 2016 season were shut down on August 14, 2016, following the closure of the Auction House on August 13, 2016 and reopened on August 17, 2016 for Apple users for the 2016–17 season (Update 3.5.5)

2017 season

Madden Mobile 17 reopened on Google Play and the App Store on August 17, 2016. EA released the following promos during the season: Madden Season (August 22 – September 8), NFL Kickoff (September 11), BCA (October 1 – October 12), Most Feared (October 22 – November 4), RTTP (November 12), Ultimate Feast (November 19 - November 31), and Black Friday (November 25).

References