When it comes to American football games, the Madden franchise has long been the cream of the crop. But now it has some competition—not just from EA Sports’ own College Football game, but also in the form of mobile game NFL Rivals, which incorporates NFTs.

While NFL Rivals isn’t trying to top Madden when it comes to presenting a lifelike simulation on your game console, it’s a free-to-play, arcade-style mobile football game that has the same official licenses from the league and players, offering bursts of entertainment on your smartphone or tablet.

It also features player-based NFTs which, should you get lucky, you can list on the secondary market to try and earn some actual cash. Or, if you want to gain a competitive advantage, you can drop some dollars to buy the NFT player cards you need to improve your lineup.

Here’s a look at NFL Rivals and how the optional NFT functionality works.

What is NFL Rivals?

NFL Rivals is a mobile game available on iOS and Android that challenges you to build a team of NFL players from digital cards that you get from packs on the store. If you’ve ever played the Ultimate Team mode in any EA Sports title, like Madden or FIFA, then you’ll instantly get the idea.

Once you have your team, you can play offense-only matches against the AI, or take on challenges that put you in a scenario—usually one in which you are losing in the fourth quarter and have to win to earn some rewards. There’s also limited-time events, leagues to progress through, and of course thousands of NFL players to unlock as you progress through the game.

Upcoming updates promise to add live player-versus-player (PvP) matches, instead of just playing against the AI team someone has built. However, the lack of defensive play, at least for now, could limit the excitement of PvP play.

Screenshot from NFL Rivals. Image: Decrypt

How to play NFL Rivals

Once you’ve downloaded NFL Rivals onto your iOS or Android device, it’s very easy to learn and has a strong tutorial to teach you the basics.

When you get on the field, you’ll only be playing offense—and every snap, you will be given a choice of three plays to run, none of which are particularly complicated. If you select a running play, then you’ll tap the screen to snap the ball, which is automatically handed off to the running back. From there, you’ll use the virtual joystick and buttons to run as fast as you can away from the defenders, even incorporating jukes and dives along the way.

Screenshot from NFL Rivals. Image: Decrypt

If you choose a passing play, then your QB will take the snap and the receivers will start their routes. When you spot an open receiver and want to throw, you’ll pull down on the screen to set the power and angle the ball in their direction. When you let go, the ball will fly in that direction—and if in range, they’ll automatically catch the ball. You then control their run down the field, just like with the running back.

There are also kicks to deal with, where you’ll need to stop a fast-moving bar within the green zone twice in order to make the kick.

How do the NFTs work?

The Web3 aspect of NFL Rivals comes in the form of NFT cards, which can represent the players on your team. As you unlock or buy mystery packs of players to improve your team’s abilities, some are LE cards that are NFTs, while others are base cards that aren’t NFTs and thus aren’t tradable via the marketplace. The NFTs are minted on the Mythos Chain, a gaming-centric blockchain built on Polkadot tech.

Screenshot from NFL Rivals. Image: Decrypt

If you get lucky, or drop some cash to buy more expensive player packs, then you have a chance to unlock rare players, higher quality versions of them, or limited time event cards, all of which can then be sold on the external secondary marketplace.

To do that, you’ll need to get some Mythos (MYTH) tokens, which you can then use to make the actual transactions to buy cards or cash out your earnings. You can also buy these cards through premium in-game currency that is not on the blockchain, directly through the app, which is a way of circumventing the crypto restrictions that the App Store and Play Store have in place.

With the game’s Year 2 update launching alongside the new NFL season, there has actually been quite a lot of trades happening on the external market—so while there’s no guarantee that you’ll find someone eager to buy up your NFT, it’s a pretty active market. A lot of players appear to be willing to drop some cash to upgrade their team.

Edited by Andrew Hayward