Maximum Football 2019 Review

American Football games other than Madden are rare on consoles these days, for a long time it was a two-horse race back in the days when Sega and Nintendo ruled the waves as the two major console players. Those games in the two-horse race, John Madden and Joe Montana.

Of course, there where other different takes on the sport of American football, Brutal football springs to mind, but there were only ever two contenders that captured the sport to the fullest. Both the John Madden series by EA Sports and Joe Montana Football also by EA Sports recreated the realism and excitement of the sport, especially in their presentation, with both choosing to go down the arcade, all action route, whilst closely implementing simulation elements with there franchise modes.

Although American Football hadn’t really caught on in the UK as a well-received sport during that time, there was still coverage on the silver screen, but our options for keeping tabs with the sport were very limited. Over time that coverage has grown substantially and the popularity of the sport in the UK is at it’s highest in terms of support, especially when you consider that NFL teams now play a few matches in the season in the United Kingdom and there always major sell outs.

As we all know in sport there are different levels of standard and with the NFL, the young stars in their rookie seasons start out somewhere and that is usually through college football in the US & Canada.

Throughout this generation of gaming there haven’t been many American football games outside EA Sport’s Legendary Madden series and certainly none to my knowledge of College Football on Xbox One, so it’s nice and refreshing when someone else breaks the mould and comes to the party.

Doug Flutie’s Maximum Football 2019 changes the dynamics and puts college football at the forefront. Maximum Football 2019 is brought to you by Canuck Play.

Canuck Play certainly has some background in sports titles having been founded by David Winter, a 20-year veteran in the video game industry who boasts production and design credits in EA’s Madden, NHL and Fifa series, as well as Batman, Harry Potter, and The sims, so he know’s his games, and makes the prospect of Maximum Football even more intriguing knowing his background.

Maximum Football 2019 welcomes back Dynasty Mode to college football and you’re in complete control. Choose your league structure from 130 US teams & 27 Canadian teams and form your own unique college football universe by customising every aspect. Teams, players, uniforms, kit’s and even logos are all there to be tinkered with, with over 200 stock logo’s and even the chance to create your own.

Why not recruit the next college superstar, ascend to the top of the of the rankings and fight your way into a Bowl or playoff game, or recreate a bit of magic from the past?

This college football game gives you a chance to play as a hall of famer, legendary quarterback Doug Flute in either play now or season mode. Maximum Football 2019 promises a new gameplay experience, with brand new animations and player models for its latest attempt (yes there have been other versions, just not on Xbox). The game boasts a hit that you will truly feel with a physics based tackling system that emphasis raw passion and meaty tackles.

Maximum Football is all about opening up the play, and what better way than to allow the controller full control with rule sets, field sizes and even ball types. Play the type of football you want – select between US Pro, College and Canadian Football options.

The game also feature the Spring League! A chance to hit the practice field and perfect those all import plays and tactics, in order to gain the advantage and reach that 1^st down.

Maximum Football’s selling point is College football, it’s layout in terms of menu’s are fairly simplistic and offer a quick set up in the way you want to play the game which is a massive positive, sometimes there can be too many screens to get through and things can end up being complicated, but Maximum Football’s approach to this is a real plus. As are the game’s options, I personally think it’s fantastic when a game opens its rules and game settings to be played with. It allows the player to set up and change the style and play of the matches. These customisable options within Maximum football are a lovely touch, and the ability to create in the game with editors keeps the positives coming.

However, that’s where the positives stop, I’m afraid…. It’s all well having nice menus and an abundance of options to customise, but it’s under the hood where it matter’s so to speak, and for me the game fails with the actual main process of matches and gameplay.

The actual football offers no atmosphere what’s so ever, and the crowd itself are pretty much static in their actions and sound. The graphics are below par and the actual action, a little depressing if I’m honest. There’s no fluidity in the actions and the control’s themselves are clunky at best, unresponsive at it’s worse. The control as a whole are very unclear in their actions and not very user friendly.

It’s a shame, as the game gets all the play options correct and obviously tries to create something special. For all its promise and accessibility options it fails and never gets going due to the game mechanics, and if you can’t get that right, well, your going to be struggling.