Wild Card Football Announced as Arcade Madden Alternative With Colin Kaepernick on the Cover - IGN
Saber Interactive is working on a football-themed take on its popular NBA Playground series, with former NFL player and social activist Colin Kaepernick taking center stage on the game's cover.
Like NBA Playgrounds, Wild Card Football will include hundreds of real-life football players, including T.J. Watt, Jalen Hurts, Amon-Ra St. Brown, and more. But while it features real NFL players, it's not an NFL game, meaning you won't be able to play as the Kansas City Chiefs or the Minnesota Vikings.
Instead, you can create your own customized seven-on-seven team with players "reimagined Playgrounds-style." The gameplay is reminiscent of arcade classics like NFL Blitz, with special Wild Cards granting powers like super strength and invisibility. It will include season play, local multiplayer, and online multiplayer with full crossplay.
'It shifts the power dynamic'
Kaepernick, though, is one of the game's surprise inclusions. While he appeared in recent versions of Madden NFL, Kaepernick hasn't played in the NFL since 2016. He made waves when he protested the fatal police shootings of Philando Castile, Freddie Gray, and other Black people and people of color by taking a knee during the playing of the Star-Spangled Banner. He was released by the San Francisco 49ers in the offseason and has not played since, leading to the widespread belief that he had been blacklisted by the league.
“ For me it shifts the power dynamic of how you look at the teams, how you look at football
Today, Kaepernick is a social activist working on legal defense initiatives, COVID-19 relief funds, and other projects. NFL commission Roger Goodell also apologized for the league's actions in 2020, saying "we wished we had listened earlier...to what you were kneeling about and what you were trying to bring attention to."
Speaking with IGN, Kaepernick talked about what it was like to see himself in a football game years after his falling out with the NFL.
"My love for football hasn't changed even if the politics of specific organizations... is complex," Kaepernick said. "It's actually one of the things that I love about [Wild Card Football]. It's player-driven. The teams are the players. For me it shifts the power dynamic of how you look at the teams, how you look at football.
"Even here, you get to see the player's faces, which isn't the norm within football. Normally there's a helmet, everything is blocked up, everything is about the organization. This is an opportunity to make the players the star of it, and for me it's a little taste of being back on the field and getting some of the competition until the door opens for me to be able to do that in reality."
Wild Card Football - Screenshot Gallery 8 Images
Will it have microtransactions?
When it releases, Wild Card Football will attempt to capitalize on the demand for a legitimate competitor to Madden NFL, which has had a monopoly on the space for nearly two decades now. A new NFL 2K has been in the works since 2020, but it has yet to fully materialize. Other unlicensed competitors have proven disappointing.
The NBA Playgrounds games have enjoyed reasonable reviews, which should give fans some hope for this release. However, NBA Playgrounds 2 was criticized for its microtransaction-driven grind, with players being acquired via card packs that could be purchased with real money or (much more slowly) with in-game currency. Wild Card Football representatives have confirmed that it won't have microtransactions, but that DLC is already being planned.
Wild Card Football releases on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC, and Nintendo Switch on October 10.
Kat Bailey is IGN's News Director as well as co-host of Nintendo Voice Chat. Have a tip? Send her a DM at @the_katbot.
Source: IGN
