Now that EA Sports has released NFL 2010, the Gameloft app released in August.
My take: NFL 2010 is a football game limited by the iPhone while Madden NFL 10 uses iPhone-exclusive features to enhance its gameplay.
Madden offers controls such as a slow-motion button, the ability to ‘draw’ your own hot routes and the option to shake your iPhone to go into a no-huddle offense. NFL 2010 doesn’t have these features, or even anything that replaces them. Control-wise, it comes off as Madden-lite.
Another advantage for Madden is the game plays more realistically and is, frankly, more fun. The offensive interface in NFL 2010 is atrocious, and coupled with difficult controls can lead to plenty of 3-0 snooze fests.
On the other hand, Madden does not offer difficulty levels, which worries me a little about long-time play. But as far as gameplay, Madden is once again miles ahead.
The games share many of the same faults. The announcing is terrible on both (it’s normally terrible on the console versions as well) and there are graphic and memory limitations that will irk those spoiled by Xbox and PlayStation.
The graphics between the two apps are a wash, with both comparable to what was offered on the mid-to-late 90’s football console games.
Both also have quick play modes and season modes, but no franchise or mini-game options. The franchise mode exclusion I completely understand, but not having mini-games really bugs me. In recent years that has become one of the better parts of the Madden franchise, and it’s a bummer not to see that here.
Also, both games have real teams and players, but the ratings are much more in-depth in Madden. In NFL 2010 players are simply assigned an overall rating.
The only thing better about NFL 2010 is that it includes a playoff mode if you don’t want to bother playing a full 16-game season.
To it’s credit, Gameloft released NFL 2010 almost a month before EA’s Madden NFL 10, and the price is more appealing at $4.99. Unfortunately, NFL 2010 is a very basic game that could have used another month in development while Madden is well thought out and goes out of its way to use iPhone-exclusive features.
Don’t shy away because of the $9.99 price tag, the extra money will be well spent.
