Madden Ultimate Team Alternate Take

Feature Article

Submitted on: 01/21/2010 by Jayson Young

Like many of the features added to current-gen Madden, Ultimate Team is a mode that performs much better in press clippings than it does on the playing field.

While the idea of building a fantasy team of your favorite NFL players is sound, Ultimate Team's execution is poor enough to make even JaMarcus "Mr. Indifferent" Russell blush.

Missing Modes

Before the shiny wrapper on that first pack of player cards comes off, Ultimate Team has already set itself up for failure with an oversight that (for many) could be considered game-breaking: no friend vs. friend games.

Going all the way back to NFL 2K1 on the Sega Dreamcast, virtually all online sports games released in the past 10 years have given players some way to meet up with friends and challenge them to an online game.

Ultimate Team, inexplicably, does not.

The continued absence of Madden's "fair play" feature makes wading through the cesspool of random lobby players a hazardous task -- unable to venture safely online, users are left with no option but to beat up on helpless computer opponents if they want to get a realistic game of football out of Ultimate Team.

Granted, the CPU has never posed a serious challenge in Madden, but it is a fact that is made even more obvious in Ultimate Team since your starting pack of third- and fourth-string rejects can still go out there and stomp legit playoff teams like Green Bay and Minnesota.

With all those scrubs on the field, playing your first couple of games in Ultimate Team is about as exciting as watching preseason football.
Source: zimbio.com

Missing Customization

Of course, the fact that full NFL teams even exist at all in Ultimate Team is a bit puzzling.

Would it not have made a lot more sense if the CPU opponents were fantasy teams just like your own?

And why are the options for creating a team limited solely to existing NFL uniforms, stadiums and playbooks?

Was Tiburon that ashamed of Madden's sub-par create-a-team feature that the developers felt the need to leave it out of the one game mode where it made the most sense?

And if Ultimate Team was truly designed so that players could build their "ultimate fantasy team," why is team customization burdened with the flexibility of a Mr. Potato Head doll?

At least Mr. Potato Head lets you mix and match individual uniform parts.
Source: collectible-supplies.com

Instead, why not allow complete customization and let users build their team into something other than the New York Panthers of Kansas City?

Surely, anyone who has played the Forza series can attest to the fact that user-generated content is what makes an auction-based, online marketplace exciting -- not getting into a bidding war over Dan Orlovsky or the Cleveland Browns’ home uniforms.

Missing Competitive Balance

As disappointing as team customization is in Ultimate Team, it is nothing compared to the game's overall lack of competitive balance, specifically, how the users with the deepest pockets and the most time on their hands are rewarded for grinding (or buying) their way to the top.

In real life, the NFL has a salary cap that promotes team parity and rewards skilled management, but neither of these principles are accurately reflected in Ultimate Team’s laissez-faire approach to team management.

Instead of limiting the number of higher-tier players on a roster, Ultimate Team users can -- with a little marketplace savvy -- wheel and deal their way to a lineup that includes 99-rated legends at every position.

This makes Ultimate Team a game that favors the buying and selling of cards much more than it rewards realistic team management or actual football strategy.

Missing the Cut

Ultimate Team could have been Madden's answer to the exciting online marketplace of Forza 3 or the customization and team-building strategies of All-Pro Football 2K8. Instead, it just comes across as a poorly executed add-on with no real purpose other than to bleed money out of the Madden faithful. (Yes, the download is free, but it will take a ton of games to get the needed coins to buy a top-tier pack of cards -- unless you spend your own money to simply buy those packs.)

While the addition of friend vs. friend games could have made Ultimate Team a nice diversion from the Madden formula, its absence makes Ultimate Team impossible to recommend.

Even if Tiburon manages to patch friend games into Ultimate Team, the lack of team customization will not make it any easier to get excited about a matchup between the Cleveland Raiders of Detroit and the Jacksonville Broncos of New Orleans.

+s
It's free
Online marketplace adds spice
Fun using retired legends

-s
No friend vs. friend games
Limited team customization
Lacks competitive balance

Recommendation: Avoid

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Member Comments

# 1 jsquigg @ 01/21/10 01:54 PM

Wow. This article seems to contradict the review on the same website.

# 2 taqiyya @ 01/21/10 04:25 PM

I know right. Bottom line though there is much truth to the article. I thought it was a great Idea until I put a few hours into it and was like ok now what? I remember day 2 people had these killer teams already. Great idea but to many holes. I will not fork over my hard earned cash to rent out football players.

Nice try EA but Hells to the no on this . :-)

# 3 JMD @ 01/21/10 05:05 PM

I like Ultimate team. Yes I bought a few card packs to build a fairly decent team. I had was given a 1600 MS point card as a gift and I had 400 MS Points left over from buying cars for Forza 3, so I figured what the heck, let's take some of these points and buy some card packs. Also my business is slow this time of year so I can literally spend all day playing games against the CPU, laying a beat down on it and cashing in on 670 points a game. After spending a few days playing the CPU, I took my pot of coins and headed for the Auction block. I have built a solid team rated a 92 over all with a chemistry of 57.

I am finding online to be ok. Yes I've had a few games against cheese ballers but for the most part my opponents have been good players and played like they do in the NFL.

Could this game mode be improved? Most definitely, but it can also be fun as is if you have the time to spend or a few extra MS point laying around.

# 4 CreatineKasey @ 01/21/10 06:22 PM

Atta boy Jayson! You and I want very similar features and characteristics out of our football games. The first thing I looked for when I downloaded this feature was to play my friends. There's an option to buy coins at every single screen, but no options to simply play a friend... yet they can compile a friends only leaderboard? Why friends only? What if my friends hate the mode too because of it's ridiculous pitfalls?

This mode was made for spoiled 12 year olds to suck money from the pockets of their parents. Sad thing is, those legend cards burn out after around games....

Enjoy..... NOT!

# 5 boxboy99 @ 01/22/10 01:28 AM

Wurd! Good article. I would have some value out of this if I could play friends. Instead I am stuck to facing a 12 year old brat that plays like a donkey. This would of been a great mode for APF. Leagues where cards are divided between users with contracts would be brilliant fun.

# 6 jyoung @ 01/22/10 01:47 AM

If they had just added the ability to play friends and put limits on how many high-tier players you can have (like All Pro Football does) then this game would have been pretty fun.

Instead it's just something you download once and delete after a game or two.

I just don't feel like much thought went into the design of this thing other than "How can we get more money out of the Madden fanbase?"

# 7 boxboy99 @ 01/22/10 02:21 AM

I think I am just facing the facts the gaming and sports gaming is a big business now. Corporate America has become too worried about cost-benefits. What software can I provide at the lowest cost to make the most money. The bottom line is at the end of the day the only thing the machine is worried about is meeting the bottom line and making shareholders happy. Too bad for the developers and programmers who are out there working their butt off everyday are probably undermanned but still trying to make the best games they can with the resources given under corporate guildlines. Gaming is Hollywood now, the good old days where a couple of geeks could slap together a great game on a shoe string budget for the fun of it are gone forever.

# 8 Valdarez @ 01/22/10 06:12 AM

I played one game of it, but when I realized that you could use any settings to play game (effectively making coins / points unimportant) and I couldn't use my own created team uniforms, I never played it again (think I had Oakland by default...).

# 9 LingeringRegime @ 01/22/10 11:38 AM

I think it was a decent first effort. Online is very fun, if, and this is a big IF....

You find decent people to play. If not, it makes you want to throw the game in the backyard. I am honestly shocked at how many people online don't play realistic football. Disgraceful, really.

A franchise style mode with Ultimate would have been awesome. Oh well, maybe that will be a new feature new year.

# 10 jyoung @ 01/22/10 04:27 PM

Yeah you're right on, Box.

Games have just become more difficult and more expensive to develop this generation, and the result is companies trying to maximize their profits while minimizing the costs and resources they have to put into their products.

We've seen this already with the purchasable equipment boosts EA added to NHL 10, the dynasty accelerators you can find in this year's Madden/NCAA, as well as the sub-par "arcade" games that EA's put out for the Madden and NHL series.

Quality and innovation are definitely lacking this generation in sports games across the board, and the challenges of developing for the 360/PS3 seem to be a big reason why.

I miss the days where a 10-man development team could sit down and create a game like Tecmo Bowl and not have their company's entire livelihood put into the development of that one game.

# 11 KingV2k3 @ 01/22/10 05:41 PM

I wish there was a franchise mode, where you could progress your players and have stats.

I guess that's just pretty much running a fantasy draft, but...

# 12 pointNumberOne @ 01/22/10 06:11 PM

I'm having a lot of fun with Ultimate Team, but don't believe any final judgments can be made until after people realize you are not meant to have large #'s of legendary players on your team. Too many people threw money at this game mode (at least on xbox) and are now getting burned because they didn't think it through. Once the game economy settles down, and these flash-in-the-pan spenders get frustrated and leave, I believe this can have some serious long-term success.

# 13 oneamongthefence @ 01/22/10 06:20 PM

Well with all the money they make hopefully they'll add more developers and a better game next year.

# 14 HiTEqMETHOD @ 01/22/10 06:47 PM

"Gaming is Hollywood now, the good old days where a couple of geeks could slap together a great game on a shoe string budget for the fun of it are gone forever."

Definitely the sad truth. It seems like the people who try and push the envelope are gone too. Everyone has been playing it very safe the past few years. When the next gen consoles first came out devs were so optimistic and enthusiastic about what they could do with the technology, but once a few decent games came out everyone started sticking to set formulas of what worked. Everything has become so linear since then. The passion in the gaming industry is gone.

# 15 ennepetal @ 01/27/10 01:41 AM

So your review is based on all the things the game mode is not as opposed to what it actually is. That's ridiculous.

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