Madden NFL 13 Social goes for a touchdown on Facebook, iOS
After the disappointing showing of Madden NFL Superstars on Facebook, EA decided to place development of its next social Madden game in the hands of EA Tiburon, rather than Playfish, and gamers can finally see the fruits of that labor with the launch of Madden NFL 13 Social on Facebook and iOS.
Offering truly cross-platform play, Madden NFL 13 Social will allow Facebook players to start a game with a friend or stranger and then pick up that game later on, on iPhone or iPad (or vice versa). On Facebook, players watch simulated gameplay while choosing from a short list of possible offensive and defensive plays, unlocking more as they level up. A single possession is a "turn," and at the end, the game's progress falls into the hands of the opponent, allowing for games to stall entirely if the other person doesn't come back and play. Thankfully, you can have multiple games going at once while you wait.
On iPhone or iPad, Madden NFL 13 Social becomes more like a true "game," offering more interactivity, as players can tap and flick their finger on the screen for the field goal attempt to control the power of the kick, as one example. Complete simulation is available here too, turning the game into nothing more than a text-based experience, as the game handles the actual "gameplay" and gamers simply choose from their list of offensive and defensive options.
Unfortunately, both versions of the game suffer from some launch bugs as of this writing. On Facebook, this sees players being thrown into a never-ending refresh loop while playing on Google Chrome. In addition, since the game is so new, and the player base so small, it can be hard to find a random opponent to take on as the game must search from the small pool of available players to start a match. Hopefully, this "waiting game" will disappear if and when the game takes off in terms of popularity. Over on iOS, the game often crashes and if a player hasn't connected to Facebook before the crash, it takes all of his or her saved gameplay data with it.
We'll have more on Madden NFL 13 Social in the coming days, but for now, feel free to check out the game for yourself on either Facebook or iOS for free.
Click here to play Madden NFL 13 Social on Facebook >
Click here to download Madden NFL 13 Social on iTunes >
Have you tried this newest social version of Madden? How do you think it compares to Madden NFL Superstars? Sound off in the comments!
