There are plenty of game studios and publishers that have earned my trust over the years. For instance, anything coming from the big three Sony Studios: Insomniac (Spider-Man and Ratchet and Clank), Santa Monica (God of War) and Naughty Dog (Uncharted and The Last of Us) I’m usually playing on day one. I also have multiple indie studios and publishers that I’m always paying attention to — Devolver Digital, Thunderful, Chucklefish, and TinyBuild are a few that come to mind.
On the other side of things, there are some studios that I’m a bit skeptical of — THQ Nordic and Saber Interactive. I’m not saying that these companies are always releasing bad games. It’s more that these are two that have burned me in the past — multiple times. I’m going to focus more on my relationship with Saber for this post and their latest release, Wild Card Football.
*Side Pizza Quest:
Saber Interactive reminds me of what I used to think of Pizza Hut. Pizza Hut has always come up with some great crust-related ideas, but I always wished they would sell their great ideas to the better pizza chains — Papa Johns or Dominos. In the past few years, I have come around on Pizza Hut (mostly due to my girlfriend’s love for Pizza Hut). I’ve also realized that the main chains are all of equal quality, but with slight differences in taste and presentation — no matter what pizza chain you eat, you are going to feel the same way the next day. So, that’s not to say that these video game publishers cannot turn it around for themselves, right?
Recent Saber Burns
Wild Card Football is the latest entry from Saber Interactive. I’ve been playing this game for a couple of weeks now. I’m not completely disappointed, but I was expecting a lot more.
Let’s go back a few years, I was first bamboozled by Saber with the game NBA Playgrounds. I was hoping for the NBA Jam of today, and I’m pretty sure everyone else was too. It was not that at all. The game felt way off in so many ways. Saber even publicly apologized for the state of the game.
Everyone who pre-ordered the game ended up getting a free copy of their next game, Shaq Fu: A Legend Reborn. I grew up playing the original Shaq Fu on my Super Nintendo, and I loved it because I love Shaq. I later learned that it was considered a horrible game. This new Shaq Fu: A Legend Reborn came out and was another flop. It was completely different from the original in so many ways. I’m not sure if the release of Shaq Fu: A Legend Reborn was rushed due to what happened with NBA Playgrounds.
In between then and now, Saber has had the chance to work with some big licensed games, Evil Dead: The Game, World War Z, Ghostbusters, Snowrunner. These were some of the “good” games in the pack, and I’m hoping to see more.
Wild Card Football
The problem with Wild Card Football is that I was again expecting a new version of something from my past, NFL Blitz. There are some good things about this game, but the gameplay mostly falls flat. I came into Wild Card Football looking for that fast-paced, hard-hitting, arcade experience I got from NFL Blitz on my Nintendo 64.
I originally thought this game would feature Colin Kaepernick as the only real person in the game and a bunch of made up players — sort of like Ken Griffey Baseball back in the day. I was surprised at how many real-life NFL players are on the roster. I’m guessing Saber made some sort of deal with the NFL Players Association (NFL PA), but not the NFL themselves (since official team names are not included). I had no idea that was even possible.
I like the idea of including “Wild Cards” as a twist on the classic football game. Some cards allow players to power up their own team, while others mess with the dynamic of the opposing team. I found many of the cards to not be very useful, but I still have many cards left to unlock (like the UFO and Hot Potato). If the game is going to lean into the wacky use of Wild Cards, the on-field gameplay needs to take itself a little less seriously and once again go the route of an arcade-style game (aka NFL Blitz).
Dream Squad is Wild Card Football’s “Ultimate Team/My Team” build-your-own-fantasy-squad-using-trading-cards mode, that we see in every big money making sports game franchise today (NBA 2K, Madden, EA FC –formerly FIFA). I love that I was able to create my “Dream Team” from my hometown, the Miami Sharks (from the 1999 film, Any Given Sunday) in all-black uniforms. When it came to building my decks, customizing playbooks, and playing the actual game with my team, I didn’t really care for it. I was just excited about the cosmetic customization (uniforms and logo).
The most fun I see myself having with Wild Card Football is booting it up against an actual opponent in real life for a game or two. I did not have the chance to do so, but the online functionality ran pretty smoothly.
Once again, the team behind NBA Playgrounds has dangled nostalgic gameplay in my face, only to give me something that falls short of that. I believe they are working on a few updates to this game, including trading cards with other players. I hope to see some gameplay changes that may make the game more fun to play.
MAYBE IT’S MY FAULT…
What I’m now realizing is that maybe I’m the problem. I’m always hoping for some new take on a classic game that I loved. Maybe this isn’t what the Saber team is going for — but I feel like it’s exactly what they set out to do. Maybe I’ve become the old grumpy grandpa gamer who says, “Remember when games used to be this or that?”
The one thing Wild Card Football did do for me was make me want to play the newest Madden game after taking the past few years off. I believe the last Madden I purchased was Madden NFL 20. Will I pick up Madden NFL 24 this weekend? Who knows, probably not, but I will most likely play some more games of Wild Card Football. I’m hoping to see some changes with the next update.
When NBA Playgrounds was released, it fell under the unplayable/broken game category to me, but maybe that game got me back into the NBA 2K games. Wild Card Football is definitely not unplayable or broken. It is a fun gaming experience for a short amount of time — one or two games at a time.
I’m still looking forward to whatever Saber is currently working on, and I will continue to give their games a chance.
*myVGBC.com received a review code for Wild Card Football from Saber.
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