The holy grail of football video games is undoubtedly the Madden franchise. It is always the highest-selling and often the best-reviewed football game on the market. And that was before EA Sports scored the official NFL license to become the only game out there featuring teams and players from the real league. It made them the only true game in town.
The vast majority of football video games fall into the category of being worse than Madden throughout history. However, there are also some that we feel are superior. To help sort everything out, we're ranking 5 football games that were better than Madden and 5 that are worse.
10 Worse: Arena Football
`
Considering this was made by EA Sports, the team behind Madden, you'd think they would be similar. In more than a few ways, they were. And that was the problem. Arena Football is fun because it is a wilder, ramped-up version of the NFL. From the shorter field to the field goal rebounds, it is unique and a blast.
The Arena Football video game was a bit too much like Madden and the NFL. Some reviews claimed it didn't know if it wanted to be an arcade-style game or a realistic simulation. It was also panned for not having much depth. Season Mode was considered shallow and there wasn't much else to offer.
9 Better: NFL Blitz
Unlike the previous entry, NFL Blitz was a series that knew exactly what it wanted to be. Created by Midway, a developer known for the over the top madness of Mortal Kombat, this game took that concept and applied it to the NFL. It encouraged huge hits and bent the rules on things like roughing the quarterback and pass interference.
Reviewers praised this series for being an adrenaline rush. It is widely considered to be one of, if not the most fun football game ever released. To this day, NFL Blitz is a hit at retro arcades. The Nintendo 64 version that was released in 1998 was called "the best football game ever made" by GameSpot.
8 Worse: NFL Gameday
Before 2K Sports came around, it was 989 Sports that ranked as the biggest rival to EA Sports. They had NFL Gameday and it was a PlayStation exclusive. The series ran from 1995 until 1999, ending as new consoles like the PlayStation 2 arrived. To be honest, this wasn't at all a bad set of games.
Every edition of NFL Gameday was positively reviewed. In fact, it beat Madden in a few years of its run. While the gameplay was solid and realistic, it lacked the special features and modes that ultimately made the EA Sports game a juggernaut. It also didn't move on with the times, which hurt it.
7 Better: NFL Street
You aren't going to beat Madden at what they do best. Their simulation style of sports games was only matched by the NFL 2K franchise for a few years. EA Sports still wanted to do more with their NFL license, which is where NFL Street came into play. Based on the popular NBA Street series, it took the NFL game to the playground.
The wide-open seven on seven games allowed players an added level of freedom. Not wearing traditional jerseys or helmets helped differentiate this from other football games available. There was also the fun aspect of style points, given out for pulling off flashy moves.
6 Worse: All-Pro Football 2K8
The biggest rival to the Madden franchise was the series of football games crafted by 2K Sports. To help win the war, EA Sports struck a deal with the NFL for the exclusive rights to use their players and teams. That left 2K Sports to scramble and they came up with a pretty good idea.
All-Pro Football 2K8 saw 2K Sports sign over 240 retired NFL players. John Elway, Jerry Rice, and Barry Sanders were among the rosters in this fictional league. While responses to the game were mostly positive, it wasn't up to par with Madden 2008 or the previous games made by this company.
5 Better: NFL 2K
When the NFL 2K franchise got started, it didn't seem like it had a chance at standing out. Madden dominated the genre for a reason. But around the release of NFL 2K2, things turned around. Suddenly, this series wasn't just competition for Madden. A lot of reviewers believed it was better.
NFL 2K3 continued the good run, with ESPN NFL Football and ESPN NFL 2K5 solidifying it as the best. It was lauded for the ESPN led presentation and the strong gameplay elements. This series also tied impressive new things like the innovative first-person mode. The only reason this didn't continue to put pressure on Madden was the deal between EA Sports and the NFL.
4 Worse: NFL Fever
Microsoft came out with the Xbox at the tail end of 2001. As part of their launch, they released a slew of sports games like NBA Inside Drive and NFL Fever. This series ran for three installments and always featured Peyton Manning as the cover athlete. Unfortunately, it didn't perform as well as Peyton.
NFL Fever was another football series that never did anything to separate itself from the pack. The only unique bit about it was that it was exclusive to the Xbox console. Everything else was stuff you could find in other NFL titles and reviews usually capped out at just above average.
3 Better: Tecmo Super Bowl
Alright, we understand that playing Tecmo Super Bowl next to any edition of Madden from the past decade would make it look obsolete. But 1991's Tecmo Super Bowl will always be one of the greatest football games to ever exist. The original 1989 release was the first console game to include real NFL players.
Nearly three decades later and Tecmo Super Bowl is still considered to arguably be the best of the best. It also became a wildly popular game that shined on the Super Nintendo system. Several publications and websites have ranked this among the best games in history, regardless of genre.
2 Worse: NFL Quarterback Club
The NFL Quarterback Club series lasted a lot longer than you might remember. Made by Acclaim, it debuted in 1996 and ran through annually until 2002. Cover athletes included the likes of Dan Marino, Brett Favre, and Steve Young. For most of the installments, reviews were positive.
However, they weren't overwhelmingly good the way that Madden often received. It was the kind of game that never seemed willing to branch out to do or try anything new. It featured the most basic modes and gameplay features, never fully shining in any of those aspects.
1 Better: NCAA Football
Another EA Sports game, you would think that NCAA Football was just Madden with college teams. And on the surface, that was true. Except that most years, NCAA Football was a much more polished version of Madden. The freedom to pull off plays that typically only work in college like the read option was a blast.
But it went beyond the gameplay. This was also a series that tried interesting things. The Road to Glory mode was a hit, allowing gamers to create a player and take them through a collegiate career before porting over into an NFL career in Madden. Fans post their desire for a new installment in this series almost every day on social media.