Any Time, Any Place
NFL Street, EA Big’s new arcade-style, back-to-basics football hit, has got everything a football junkie could want and then some. Whether you’re a hardcore football fanatic or someone who doesn’t know Walter Payton from Peyton Manning, NFL Street will hook you. This is the football that every kid in America has played in a vacant lot or open playground, but with a full roster of current NFL superstars and fan-favorite legends forming seven-man teams and going at it in “stadiums” that safety regulations and common sense would never allow in real life. To learn about all of the fields, including a few we didn’t have room for, check out NFL Street. You’re not actually watching the halftime show, are you?
EA Field is based on the one outside EA’s headquarters.
EA Field
One of two stadiums unlocked from the start, EA Field is perfect for beginners or for sports veterans looking to sharpen their skills. Of all the stadiums in the game, EA Field is the most like an actual football stadium, which means lots of wide-open space, a surface that plays how one might expect grass and dirt to behave, and very few obstacles. This leaves lots of free space for showboating, and ample opportunities for missing the receiver entirely. Use this field to hook unsuspecting friends—maybe impress them by knocking their players into a wall or a trash can. Then introduce them to the rest.
West Coast
The second available-out-of-the-box stadium nicely showcases how different types of turf (and in this case, surf) can affect your players and therefore your game. The West Coast is on a stretch of California beach flanked by cliffs on one side and ocean on the other. Obstacles are few in the main playing field, just a few beach balls that know to get out of the way. It’s a mercifully wide beach, but the dry sand on the cliff side of the field will slow down the fastest running back, while the wet sand and incoming tide on the other side almost guarantee a mishap if you even think about stylin’. The center is nice and smooth, but odds are the other seven guys think so too.
Hit the West Coast beach for variable playing surfaces.
The Warehouse
The ground isn’t the problem in Miami’s Warehouse stadium—it’s the ceiling that gets in the way. The beams and supports holding up the roof inside this concrete-floored field make long passes an exercise in frequent turnovers. You’ll need to work the running game inside the Warehouse, and your opponent’s going to know it, so don’t stay predictable. Keep the passes quick and try to run the ball down either side (the concrete probably hurts when you hit it, but it offers no speed resistance).
City Limits
Presumably the name “Junkyard” was already taken by another game with giant robots or something because that’s what this is. The ground is variable dirt, but most of it’s solid. Moving the ball down the sidelines on a straight shot will be almost impossible here, thanks to many large sharp obstructions that will no doubt require a tetanus shot. But it also means more fumbled balls and turnovers when players overestimate their juking skills.
Many fields reward brains over brawn.
Da Roof
It ain’t on fire, but it sure is a roof—a big, long, narrow skyscraper roof that’s been converted into a football field. This is the exact opposite of the Warehouse—certainly no obstructions in the open sky—but the sidelines can be just as dangerous as those in the City Limits. Beware of the wooden planks; they can be dangerous to your footing.
The Pit
If you’ve ever heard Bill Cosby’s old “Street Football” routine, then this stadium should be familiar to you. The Pit is a good old-fashioned vacant lot that’s open on one side and flanked by brick buildings on the other. It’s a narrow field, so you run the risk of overshooting in one direction, but in the other the ball is just as likely to hit a building and come back into play. Defenders can tie up the ball near the buildings, but keep the offense away from the open area on the other side.
By Ben Barker
