Wild Card Football Review

It’s not often that sports games stray from being as close to realistic as possible, with the Madden franchise being no exception. American Football is not often portrayed as a more cartoon-like experience in videogames, although Wild Card Football sets to change that. Developer Saber Interactive is no stranger to turning simulations into stylised arcadey madness, but does Wild Card Football have what it takes to score the touchdown?

One look at Wild Card Football is all you need to know that this is not your bog-standard simulator with a heavy emphasis on realism. In fact, Saber Interactive’s previous history with sports titles — such as WWE 2K Battlegrounds and NBA Playgrounds — show that they know how to make what can be otherwise serious sims more accessible and fun. This extends to the overly stylised visuals: chunky, action figure-looking character models, overly animated movements, and more visual flair than a Super Bowl Halftime show. It seems like Saber Interactive has carried over the template used in the two games mentioned earlier (the menus in particular look practically identical in terms of layout) but swapped out John Cena throwing a guy 20 feet in the air for Colin Kaepernick surrounded by spheres of energy that zap anyone who dares to try and tackle him.

So it’s very obviously over-the-top, and that includes practically every animation on show. Tackling another player looks ridiculously fun, and would make any professional wrestler jealous of the hard-hitting slams! It’s fast and fluid to play, with a lot less downtime than you’d see from the more simulation-orientated titles, meaning you’ll spend more time making the plays than deciding which one to choose. Which is never a bad thing!

Whilst there are no licenced teams, stadiums, or music to be found here — with the music and audio being generic songs and one-liners from players — you will get to see the likes of Ja'Marr Chase and Aaron Donald in all their bulky, cartoon glory. However, though the idea of no official teams may be a bit disheartening to hear, the sheer amount of customisation in the main game mode (Dream Squad) makes this idea rather redundant. Seeing a player dressed as an aggressive-looking chicken hitting a sick dab after scoring a touchdown never got old.

If you’ve watched or played American Football before, you’ll know the basic rules of Wild Card Football. You’ll set up an offensive or defensive play, with the aim of getting the ball past the opponent’s goal line. If you’re attacking, you’ll need to avoid the opposing team's defence by throwing, juking, sprinting for your life, or, in this game's case, smartly using your Wild Cards to gain an advantage. But more on that later… If you're defending, then it’s as simple as tackling whoever has the ball to ensure they gain as little yardage as possible. It’s definitely less intense than a Madden title, thanks to simple controls meaning a minimum number of inputs to remember and the smaller teams of 7v7. As long as you know what buttons tackle, sprint, and pass are, you’ll be able to play easily enough.

What sets Wild Card Football apart from others is its namesake: the Wild Cards. These are customisable decks that can be used before the start of each down, with simplistic stat boosts such as increased speed or higher passing accuracy. There are also debuffs to use on the opposition, with things such as making them more vulnerable to tackles and the like, which can really turn a game around if used strategically. Then there are the crazier cards; things such as turning your receiver into a giant that smashes anyone out of their way, or dropping pinball bumpers around the field to knock the opposing team about. Whilst it sounds silly (because it very much is) it’s a whole lot of fun to completely halt an attacking play by using a rock wall to stop a Wide Receiver from sneaking around your defensive line.

Thankfully, these aren’t unlimited, and require enough energy points to activate. The bigger advantage a card gives you, the higher the energy cost, although you’re limited to a maximum of 10 points that regenerate slightly at the start of each down. Knowing when to drop all your remaining points on a special card and when to pass up using any of them at all is an additional level of strategy I didn’t expect, but one that made each game that much more enjoyable. Be warned, though, as your opponent has their own set of Wild Cards at their disposal!

As for the game modes, unfortunately there isn’t a whole lot of variety here. You’ve got the standard Exhibition match-up, where you can play against the AI or a human player, either online or locally. Season lets you play through a standard season of matches in order to reign supreme over the other teams, although its lack of depth makes it little more than a series of exhibition games. The true draw here is Dream Squad, which is by far the most interesting way to play.

Focusing on Dream Squad, then, this is the mode players will spend the most time with. Granted, there aren’t a lot of other options, but this is still a fun experience akin to Ultimate Team, minus the microtransactions. You’ll start with a fairly low-rated team with a handful of options to choose from when customising their uniforms, but the more you play, the more players and customisation options you’ll acquire. After making your team, there are three types of game modes to play: Quick Game, which sets you up with a random player online, League, which again pits you against an online player in order to climb the ranks to unlock exclusive rewards, and Tour, Dream Squad's singleplayer mode. Whilst I couldn’t find any online games to join due to the game not being released at the time of writing, Tour was an enjoyable mode that put me up against various computer-controlled opponents whilst unlocking a treasure trove’s worth of rewards. This does seem to be a finite mode, however, so if you’re unlikely to want to play online, then unfortunately Dream Squad won’t have the longevity of something like Ultimate Team.

Whilst the core gameplay feels like a fun off-shoot of the Madden formula and the Wild Card mechanic adding a lot to the experience, I was always left wanting more. Sure, I did spend a lot of time taking my custom team through Dream Squad, but if you’re not that concerned with multiplayer, then there’s very little here to keep you coming back for more. Additional modes would have been nice, but you’ll be hard-pressed to find a more entertaining take on American Football than what Wild Card Football has to offer.