"Madden 21" wants to bring back the fun of football. That's been the mainstream direction of this venerable gridiron series ever since the new Superstar KO mode was announced for last year's game. It felt like a declaration. Gone were the heavy simulations of America's many mega-stadiums and the dull, professorial tone of the play-by-play commentary. Instead, the players drafted an elite all-pro team and went for the jugular in a veritable thunderdome. No punts, no field goals, no reason to call anything but the deepest throw of the ball in the playbook. After a win, you earned the right to take players off your opponent's roster like looting corpses in an MMO. The game seemed intended to warp the football game back to the late 90s. With "Madden" and "NFL Blitz," things were finally starting to settle down.

And in 2020, EA upped the ante. The first of the new game modes in "Madden 2020" was called "The Yard," and as a lifelong football fan, it immediately reminded me of the heyday of "NFL Street". According to lore, NFL millionaires grew tired of playing for a paycheck in front of a crowd of fans and instead took their frustrations out on the vacant lot next door.

The Yard is played in a 6-on-6 format and follows backyard rules. The same players play both offense and defense, each team is given three offensive drives, and potential blitzers must make the classic "One Mississippi Two Mississippi" count before breaking through the line of scrimmage.

The yards are also probably more fun than Madden's other work; in the second game, I learned that I could flip the ball to anyone not running downfield. The pigskin goes to the running back, then to the receiver, then back to the quarterback. After scoring, he would choose between a one-point conversion, a two-point conversion, or a three-point conversion. 40 years later, EA has learned a strange lesson: Madden is most beloved when he sets his sights higher than the football.

Like many other annual franchises, "Madden" has otherwise fallen into a cozy pattern. While "Madden 21" rarely disappoints significantly, the aura fades as one realizes that much of the focus remains unchanged each year it returns.

Franchise Mode returns as an almost perfect replica of its past productions. The idea is to take control of ailing franchises like the New York Jets or the Detroit Lions and turn them into respectable players with cornerback drills and intensive scouting reports. I've never been the type to pursue Madden's sim-like qualities in depth, but it's good to know that this option is left open for armchair GMs around the world; there are ways to provide a less rigid sports management experience than deep in the mire of EA spreadsheets. Sometimes I wonder if contract negotiations with a veteran linebacker should be a bit tedious.

The same could be said for Madden Ultimate Team. In a hellish card-collecting closed economy, players are expected to assemble a top-class team through either massive microtransactions or a tremendous amount of grinding. When I activated this mode and completed the first challenge, I was immediately rewarded with a Blake Bortles card. I traded him for a small bounty that would eventually allow me to increase my wide receiver speed by a percentage. The barriers to entry are far too wide to actually compete on the Ultimate team. Why would I want to play running back with an overall rating of 75 when I could switch to another mode and run around the field as Saquon Barkley? Every time I see another video of a teenager opening a pack worth $1,000, my eyes roll to the back of my head.

The only real tragedy of "Madden 21" is the "Face of the Franchise" mode, which represents the end of EA's tireless attempts to bring a story mode to football games. This tradition began with "Longshot" in "Madden 18," a story that successfully depicted trauma and the resilience of the sport as we watched Devin Wade's gradual rehabilitation as a leader and star player. (The whole drama was anchored by Mahershala Ali, who lends prestige to everything he touches.) The second chapter of 2018's Longshot, in which Wade continues his journey as quarterback of the Dallas Cowboys, was a bit more interesting. But the cracks are already starting to show, and this year's edition is a complete mess.

Create a fresh quarterback and you soon find yourself immersed in absurd and bland high school football drama. You are the rising star on the block who used to play hockey and is now on the verge of becoming a starter's golden boy. The golden boy has a congenital heart condition, and the two are bound together through hardships at the state championship level, the college football national championship, and beyond, without a moment of meaningful character development or resonant moral complexity.

The story never goes off the rails it sets for itself. I threw five touchdowns in the semifinals, and my coach still said I'd be lucky to be a third-round pick; it's amazing that EA has gotten so bad at telling football stories in such a short time. The long shot should have been the catalyst for a leap forward, but instead it has gone completely by the wayside. There is no interiority, no nuance, no theme that really connects. At one point, we came across a digital Snoop Dogg with a gold EA medal around his neck. We had lost our way.

But football is still fun. That's been the saving grace of "Madden" these past few years. Spin, juke, hurdle. Sprinting while pressing the trigger, tapping a button on the receiver to release a lob. You can even run plays with the keyboard, but no one recommends doing that. In fact, the new feature I appreciate more is the tooltip on the HUD that informs you of some of Madden's more esoteric steps. For example, I can now better understand how to execute an RPO or how to audible out of a traditional return scheme when my opponent comes out with an onside kick format. Thank you, Madden, for assuming that I will always be an idiot.

Of course, everything in Madden 21 is covered in a conspicuous game-as-a-service makeup. Even "The Yard," which is positioned as a casual mecca, comes with vanity customization, a web of different builds and classes, and an endless stat grind to the stars. You can ignore all that stuff - I've been playing this franchise that way for years - but predation is still everywhere. If you have to spend your hard-earned paycheck on a golden football uniform for your avatar, you've come to the right place.

The game is also currently in the midst of a Steam review bombardment by players complaining about various technical shenanigans. I myself have played a round of Superstar KO where I forgot to load the astroturf, although I haven't had much of that, other than the screen tearing and the matchmaking queue not finishing. It was just me, my opponent, and a dull green spread. Postmodern and hilarious, sure, but a little out of character for a game that adheres to such a rigid formula.

2020 will be the third year since Madden returned to the PC platform in 2018. For me, the novelty hasn't worn off yet. Playing such a console-targeted franchise on the desktop is inherently weird and exciting. But that won't keep many players for long; Madden is eager for new ideas, so let's hope that some of 21's more exotic ventures foreshadow a more substantial restructuring in the future.