Taking the Show on the Road

Published January 18, 2008

OK, so you're an NFL football fan, and maybe you want a game that provides a different experience than Madden. Or maybe you're new to football games and the complex control schemes that are common to most games are a bit off-putting. Perhaps you're simply looking for a pick-up-and-play experience for you and a buddy.

NFL Tour has the energy of a rock concert.

If that's the case, you may have already discovered NFL Tour, the latest professional football title from EA SPORTS. Picking up where the NFL Street series left off, Tour takes football from the back alleys and places it front and center, with hard hits, big plays, and a wide-open game that makes arena football look positively methodical in comparison.

Improving your Game

The simple control scheme makes playing the game a breeze, but winning at it with any consistency? Well, that can be a little more difficult. To help you with your game, we enlisted Will "RAC" Kinsler, NFL Tour's resident expert at developer EA Tiburon, to help.

Will pointed out that under NFL Tour's simple control scheme lies a more complex set of interactions. Understanding how they work—and how to make them work for you—is the key to becoming one of the best players around.

Here are five simple steps to help you claw your way to the top, straight from the folks who made the game:

Conserve your speed burst: "Holding down the right trigger to use your speed burst can be useful, but don't be so quick to rely on it. Save the burst for when you have an opportunity to break away in the open field or make a wall jump. If you jump off the wall with no burst, you'll end up being tackled immediately."

Use high-flying moves to outwit your opponent.

Make the first move: "The best way to perform a solid reversal in NFL Tour is to make the first contact with your opponent. If you're on offense, you want to press the A button to make a move before your opponent has an opportunity to press the X button and tackle you. On defense, you'll want to press the X button to tackle the ball-carrier before your opponent presses A. Whoever makes first contact will have the final chance to reverse the play, so be sure to make the first move every time."

Build your Smash Meter: "Your Smash Meter builds up throughout the course of the game whenever you make big hits and perform successful reversals. Performing a string of reversals during a single play can help you build up your Meter very quickly. When the Smash Meter is full, press the X button before the start of a play on defense and increase your chances of creating a turnover."

Strip the ball: "NFL Tour matchups are often decided on a couple of key plays. You need to create turnovers in order to win. Use the Y button on defense when engaged with an offensive player to try and strip the ball. This will give you more chances to make the big defensive plays that win games."

Manage the clock: "The default setting for NFL Tour has its games being played with timed halves.  When you are on offense, be careful not to score too quickly and leave your opponent the last chance to score before the half. If you are the last person to score in both the first and second half, you've greatly increased your chances of winning the game."

NFL Tour's fast and furious pace ensures that big plays will decide the outcome of nearly every game, so you'll want to be as aggressive as possible and try to create those big plays every time the ball is snapped. The game isn't for the timid, but that's OK—neither are you, right?

Article by Shawn Drotar, Executive Editor, 5WG (5w-g.com)