EA has dictated the football game market for the last decade with many alternative football games just not having the resources to legitimately compete against the NFL licensed juggernaut in Madden NFL. EA's Madden franchise hasn't seen true competition since the PS2 era when 2K still had the NFL license in ESPN Football 2K5. When 2K lost the NFL license they had one more football game in All-Pro Football 2K8, but due to it missing a franchise mode and no NFL license, it wasn't successful enough to warrant 2K continuing. Fast forward back to the present, we finally have a legitimate alternative. Here are 5 things that make Maximum Football a true alternative to EA's Madden.
1. Customization
This is the biggest thing that 2K didn't have at the time with 2K8, the ability to fully customize a team, the ability to upload and download images for your custom teams, and finally the ability to upload those teams for others to download. It's all there in Maximum Football. The NFL license matters a whole lot less when you can just create the whole league through its creation suite. Not only can you create and upload any team you can think of, but you can also create and upload jerseys, logos and even individual pieces of Equipment. Not even Madden has anything close to this.
2. Dynasty Mode & Franchise Mode
Mobius Games has already confirmed that not only will Dynasty (college franchise) mode be in the game, but a Pro Season (pro league) franchise mode will also be in the game. Development Director, Micah Brown, also said you can transfer players from Dynasty mode to the pro league franchise mode. You can also expect the modes to be updated over its life span.
3. Unreal Engine 5 & Early Gameplay Details
To put it as nicely as possible, most other football game alternatives in the market don't have good graphics. While graphics aren't the biggest deal breaker when it comes to games, it's hard to give a new sports game a try that looks worse than PS2 era football games. Maximum Football made the right choice going with Unreal Engine 5. It already looks a lot better than the previous Doug Flutie's Maximum Football games and others in the football game market. Now regarding gameplay, one big early detail that has been confirmed is it's physics-based, meaning when you run into a guy at full speed, you won't be pulled into a random animation, you're going to hit that guy with real force and momentum. Also, regarding gameplay, the Development Director, Micah Brown, said that they've taken inspiration from some great games in the past, such as Tecmo Bowl, NFL 2K4, NFL 2K5, Madden 04 through Madden 08, and Backbreaker.
4. Online & Crossplay Details
Online at launch will allow you to play against other players, with team-based modes and co-op for two players said to be coming later. They've confirmed their plans to have cross platform matchmaking in the game. So, Xbox Series S/X players, PlayStation 5 Players, and PC players will be able to play online matches against each other. Not even EA's multi-million dollar Madden franchise has crossplay yet, let that sink in.
5. Cost & Release Date
Arguably the best thing about Maximum Football is it will be free-to-play, so if it turns out bad, it'll cost you nothing to try it out! Also like other free-to-play games, you can expect updates throughout its lifespan. Now regarding the release date, we know Maximum Football comes out sometime in the Spring for PC and comes out sometime later in the Fall for consoles.
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