Return Man 6 – WideOut

Feeling this growing nostalgia for a good old-fashioned flash game? Are you an NFL junkie? “Wide Out” will satisfy your gamer needs for a traditional and addictive football game. This is a great game for fans of ESPN Arcade games, like Return Man 6 and Linebacker.

Game objective
The premise is simple: You control a Receiver and you need to get though 3 certain highlighted spots while making your way to a round yellow position, in order to make the catch and touchdown. However, only with speed and strategic maneuvers will you succeed to run the pattern that is indicated on time and get through the defenders, who get faster and angrier as you score more points.

You start with four possessions. Don’t make the catch soon enough and you lose one possession. Lose all four and it’s game over. As you score points, you can unlock new abilities that are valuable as the game gets harder and you have to a run longer route and more complex patterns to get to the catch zone while the clock is ticking faster and quite determined defenders from the opposite team get in your way, tackle you and pull you down. Such abilities include running faster or having the ability to try different moves like a jump catch or a diving catch, thus enabling the player to score additional points by making more demanding catches.

In addition, while running the pattern, small lightning bolt signs appear that provide you with greater speed and hand you bonus points.

Gameplay
The controls in “Wide Out” are also pretty standard and easy to get used to. Use [I] to run forward, [J] to go left and [L] to go right, [K] to run back and [Space bar] to catch the ball. You should make the move for a catch not necessarily when you get to the yellow zone but as soon as you see the ball coming or else you might not catch the pass and lose a possession. Apart from that, the game lets you know as soon as you gain a new move and informs you about their respective controls. For example, by pressing [S] you have increased speed, with [A] you can make a jump catch and with [D] you can dive to get the ball. Although attention: Each of these special abilities can be used only once in a game so use them wisely!

The levels are short and the difficulty increases quickly. It’s a game that will get you hooked, it’s a lot of fun to play and more importantly it is completely free! So check out the ESPN Arcade website to play “Wide Out” and discover many more entertaining games!