Back in November of last year, Run Games released Football Heroes (Free), an over-the-top, arcadey American football game that felt like the love child of NFL Blitz and Tecmo Bowl. We really loved it in our original review, and it’s only gotten better with updates since then, including a massive one in August that added Gold player cards and tons more tweaks and fixes as well as rebranding the game Football Heroes 2015. Then in mid-November, Run Games released Football Heroes: Pro Edition (Free). On first blush, it may look like Pro Edition is just Football Heroes with a bunch of licensed NFL players thrown in there, but that’s actually not the case.
In Pro Edition, some of the more over-the-top stuff has been toned down, and although the changes are subtle, they make a big impact. I love the original Football Heroes a ton, but at the same time it felt like it would often devolve into a game that relied on these huge, over-the-top type plays and lost a lot of the actual strategy of football because of it. Pro Edition brings things back down to Earth, and as much as I love arcade-style sports games, I actually find myself preferring Pro Edition to the regular Football Heroes. In fact, the two games are different enough from each other that I’m happy to keep them both installed on my iPhone, and just play whatever one I’m in the mood for.
Anyway, with all that off my chest, let’s talk about Football Heroes: Pro Edition and the huge update it just got. This isn’t really the kind of update that has any major new features, rather it’s an update that makes A TON of much-needed tweaks and fixes, making Pro Edition that much better of an experience. If you were having a problem where you field was black, your draft picks weren’t refreshing when they should, or you were losing control of the ball after halftime, those have all been fixed. There’s also been a 50-player cap put on your bench as some people were amassing so many bench players it was causing the game to freeze and crash. The process of selling players from your bench has also been improved, allowing you to sell multiple players at once or even sell off your entire bench if you want.
In addition to the fixes, there’s also a holiday promotion going on right now where everyone will receive double the number of Hero Coins from a pack in the shop, and the Hero Coin payout for winning games has been increased as well. Hero Coins for all! Also when buying players from a card pack, the odds have been increased so you’re more likely to get Star Players, and you get a better chance of getting Offensive players which is something that was a bit of a problem initially. Finally, there’s a new feature that will remember which defender you had selected during lineup.
Whether you like the slightly more grounded football in Football Heroes: Pro Edition, or the totally over-the-top style of Football Heroes 2015, both are great games that fans of the gridiron should check out.
