Madden 17: How to Kick

Once again, for reasons unknown, Madden 17 has changed the way you kick. Maybe EA Tiburon just wants to keep kicking challenging by going through a rotation of different kick meters each year as it inevitably gets easy as you do it a bunch of times.

However, Madden 17’s version of kicking actually might be the most difficult to date (or at least the most difficult to get used to). It requires three button presses and two of them require good accuracy and nerves to not screw up. Considering how important plays like field goals can be to the outcome of a game, it’s something you will need to get adjusted to real fast.

To start, aim your kick in the direction of the field gold and press X/A to start the meter. Remember, you need to consider how wind and distance will factor into the aiming of your kick. If you’re really far away for example, you’ll want to sacrifice some accuracy for power by kicking the ball low and in a line drive by aiming the arrow down. If there’s a lot of wind, you’ll need to adjust your arrow to take into account the movement of the ball.

After you press X/A the first time. It will start to climb towards the top. That’s determining your power. As with most years, you want to time it so you’re towards the top, but not so far that you climb back down and lose power. To lock in the power of your kick, hit X/A again before it reaches the tippy top.

The third, and final button press is the hardest. You need to lock in the accuracy of your kick. For a number of different factors the section of the meter that determines an accurate kick can be smaller or larger. Skill, difficulty, and distance of the kick for example could make the kick easier, or harder to make accurate. Unlike previous years, this window to make sure your kick is accurate can be really small and hard to nail.

As the meter climbs back down from the power, you will need to hit X/A as close to the accuracy section of the bar as possible. It doesn’t need to be perfect unless you’re going for a very difficult kick. It can be a little off for things like PATs or short field goals. However don’t sleep walk through it otherwise you could end up missing your kick. It’s a lot more difficult than the analog based ones used in older iterations.

That does it for how to kick in Madden 17! If you’re still having trouble leave us a comment and we’ll try to help out.