G4TV

Electronic Arts has made a bizarre change this year. Rather than continuing on with the hugely over-the-top NFL Street franchise, they’ve gone with this watered down “kinda-more-like-real-football” arcade football game. For better or worse, the game feels more realistic … but that make it better?

Cool As Being A Kicker

Now that the wild moves have been excised by EA’s arcade football game, they’ve been replaced by some much more mundane moves. Namely, you gain the ability to vault off the walls of the enclosed arena to sidestep tackles, as well as the ability to break tackles by simply pressing a particular button at the right second. While this option doesn’t sound that great to begin with, it’s even less so in practice. It turns the running game into a button mash-a-thon, one that the offensive player will almost always win. Plus, the AI is tipped so heavily in favor of the passing game, running the ball is something you’ll almost never want to do.

The game’s balance is completely out of whack, especially when playing the single player game. Defense is a joke, both when you’re on the other side of the ball and when your AI opponent tries to stop your advance. Matches in NFL Tour are entirely about possessing the ball with almost every one of your drives resulting in a touchdown. Then it becomes a clock management exercise. Since stopping your opponent depends more on the odd interception or fumble than anything, you actually have control over.

Unnecessary Lameness

Another problem with NFL Tour is a severe lack of features. Outside of the standard exhibition play, you get a mini-game where you go one-on-one for the most possession time, another exercise in breaking tackles. You also get a game where you go round for round with a single opponent and try to score a touchdown on every possession.

Besides those slim selections, you have the Tour Mode, where you create a character using a pitiful amount of visual setup options, and then join any team you like. The mode forces you to play the same teams over and over again under various rulesets – score the most points; come back from a point deficit; only use running plays; etc. All you really get out of it is the satisfaction of having done it. Not good.

Repeat First Down

NFL Tour has its fun moments, but the gameplay is just so damn shallow. Once you’ve played one or two games, you’ve experienced all the game has to offer. Even in multiplayer, the matches become point-fests. Speaking of which, one thing NFL Tour is great for is padding your Xbox gamerscore. Otherwise, don’t bother with this one.

Review by: Greg Stewart
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