Madden 20's X-Factors Created Haves and Have Nots

Madden NFL often walks a fine line between being an arcade and a simulation football game. Most football games do. One slight tweak to a quarterback can take him from being an accurate representation of Patrick Mahomes to a being that breaks the league's single-season passing record by Week 8. Releasing August 2, 2019, Madden 20 definitely leaned arcade, marking the game's elite players with giant red Xs and abilities that could make them unstoppable once certain stat thresholds were met. It was only a matter of time before one of them completely broke the game.

X-Factors and their sometimes less powerful counterpart, superstar abilities, evolved from Madden 08's weapons, which gave players abilities such as Smart QB and Possession Receiver. The idea went away in following years, leading us to think it had just gone the way of Madden 06's vision cone. But the idea of dividing the best players in the league into even more exclusive clubs never truly left the designers. X-Factors were the result and for the past five years, they have been one of the game's most divisive features.

The most overpowered of these abilities can often win the game by themselves. The Double Me X-Factor allows wide receivers to make aggressive catches when in 1-on-1 situations. It got a significant nerf in Madden 24, as far too many receivers were mossing their defenders. Freight Train, which gives runners an extremely high chance to break the first tackle, helped create one of the most broken Madden athletes ever.

All X-Factors, however, are not created equal. While Freight Train and Double Me have been must haves for the past five seasons, I don't think I've seen Satellite, which increases a running back's catching ability, used five times total.

Some of the superstar abilities are as important as the good X-Factors, and far more useful than the bad ones. Set Feet Lead, which increases a QB's throw power on bullet passes, has become a mainstay.

X-Factors and Superstar abilities help drive up the value of cards in Madden Ultimate Team, so they are likely not going anywhere. For better or worse, they have changed Madden NFL forever.

Some of Madden 20's other additions didn't fare as well. The QB1 career mode sent the player's created quarterback to one of ten licensed college squads, notable for their inclusion in an EA game for the first time since the Ed O' Bannon lawsuit. Five years later, the Madden series is still struggling to create a compelling career mode narrative.

Another area Madden has floundered in is the efforts to create an arcade-style football experience. In 2019, it offered up Superstar KO mode. Players drafted a playbook and a group of athletes and played other teams, winners earning the right to steal one of the opposing squad's stars. After a couple of years, it was no more.

The Madden franchise is still building on the foundation laid in 2019, particularly in its profitable Ultimate Team mode. It tried some ambitious new features and gave us perhaps the most powerful player since Michael Vick in Madden 04.