Madden NFL and EA Sports were back in Saturday Night Live’s crosshairs for a Super Bowl-timely skit featuring J.J. Watt, the amped-up defensive lineman for the Houston Texans.
Much like Eli Manning’s motion capture eight years ago, the EA Tiburon designers here (Mikey Day and Ego Nwodim) are just trying to cover all contingencies when they bring Watt (last night’s host) into the booth.
Watt has been a longtime friend of the game in real life, cutting promos and other appearances and such, so it makes sense that the studio would want to shake things up a bit and give Watt a heel turn. But did he have to go so hard at the kid in the wheelchair? Also, there’s a least one line in here that would get the game’s ESRB rating bumped up to a T-for-Teen.
In May 2012, Eli Manning (the New York Giants quarterback who just retired) lampooned Madden’s motion capture with a series of ridiculous reactions and celebrations. EA Sports responded a couple of weeks later by showing the make-a-sandwich/drop-it-on-the-floor/eat-it-anyway celebration in development.
So I’d say chances are good Tiburon does some acknowledgement of this at some point — how about a 65-rated Watt with his gut hanging out and a belly-button piercing in Ultimate Team? Stranger things have happened.
