In addition to their collaboration with Fortnite, the sports network is presenting a unique Monday Night Football presentation in the world of The Simpsons.
Fortnite has unveiled their new collaboration with ESPN in the new creative mode map ESPN Football Islands. Available by search or the Island Code 4481-0077-4190, players can join the multiplayer experience. Today, we are gonna check it out!
Entering the map brings you into the game’s lobby where you are immediately welcomed with a video from SportsCenter’s Randy Scott and Gary Striewski. The pair will explain all the fun that can be had during your time in the game, with several different mini games and the main event, Touchdown Rush. You can also talk to the ESPN robot at the desk for an in depth explanation of the experience.
The ESPN Football Islands event has its own unique ranking system with ESPN-XP. As players continue to experience all the activities scattered throughout the stadium, your individual rank will go up. This will allow players to choose different weapon loadouts in Touchdown Rush and customize your character with different cosmetic accessories while in-game.
Kicking off my experience, I decided to check out a few of the mini-games before jumping into their “Payload Push” style main event. First up, I decided to try my luck at scoring a field goal in a quad bike. Starting at a platform straight from the entrance, players will have to launch themselves across the field through the field goal to collect the medallion. It was difficult to secure the quad bike with players actively standing by the spawn point, however, the challenge was a lot of fun. With the field goal moving side to side, players will have to time their jump carefully.
Next up, I headed to the Quarterback Challenge. In this mini-game, players will have to throw objects at the correct flags as they appear to advance across the field-inspired score board. Hitting the red flags will result in a loss of points, pushing the players marker back. Up to four players can go head-to-head in this carnival game-esque challenge.
Afterwards, I headed upstairs to the next medallion challenge. The rail race will require players to grind on rails around the stadium and collect 100 ESPN coins in a minute and twenty seconds. This challenge was surprisingly difficult, asking players to navigate several different levels of the stadium to successfully collect all the coins.
Heading through a green hallway on the far side of the stadium brings players out to a series of floating platforms overlooking the field. Players will be challenged to survive the obstacle course as they head their way towards the jumbotron. Don’t worry, there are checkpoints. This is a classic obby-style mini-game with footballs scattered throughout that award players ESPN-XP to up their rank. Once reaching the top of the jumbotron, another medallion can be collected. You’ll also get a great view of Touchdown Rush from the platforms.
Unfortunately, their fourth medallion challenge, The Boxtagon, was broken in both games I joined. This also means I was unable to find out what happens if you collect all four medallions.
Finally, let’s take a look at Touchdown Rush, the main event of the ESPN Football Islands. Hosting up to 24 players, two teams of 12 will take turns rushing the football across the field as the other team attempts to stop them from moving the ball forward. The large football contains a ring around it, and when players on the offensive team are standing in it unopposed, the ball will move forward. This is not a straight shot across a normal field, with large rock formations and caves forcing the ball through a predetermined path around the obstacles. Each quarter, players will choose a weapon loadout to take on the opposing team. The higher your ESPN rank, the more weapon sets you have to choose from. With their chosen loadout, players on both teams will attempt to eliminate each other, forcing them to respawn at their respective end of the field, as they attempt to move or stop the football. For each fieldline passed, the offensive team will gain a point. Each team gets two turns on the offensive and defensive sides.
The more points you score, the more XP players receive. My team and I shutout the opposing team, scoring 30 points to 0.
There was a surprising amount to explore in ESPN Football Islands, however, the map was incredibly glitchy making some of the challenges difficult to complete. Even in the picture above, you can see a player's feet glitched into the victory screen. Hopefully, the game will sort out some of the technical issues as the map was, genuinely, a lot of fun. I say this as someone who knows very little about football. Developed in collaboration with ESPN, Disney Games, Epic Games, and Meta 4 Interactive, this map is another step in Disney’s partnership with Fortnite. As Disney continues to build virtual worlds within the game, I’ll look forward to seeing all of the unique gameplay they come up with. In regards to ESPN Football Islands, I recommend checking it out. Do I think it will be your next go-to creative map? No, but it was definitely worth a play. I, also, recommend bringing some friends along with you, as there weren’t a ton of players in Touchdown Rush, which was easily the highlight of the experience.
Fortnite, created by Epic Games, is a free-to-play, online, multiplayer Battle Royale-style game available on all major gaming consoles and PC.
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