Return Man 2

American football video games almost always hand you the whole team. Return Man 2 gives you one player, one job, and about eight seconds to do it: catch the ball, find a lane, and get as far up the field as you can before eleven people converge on you. Stripping the sport down to the return game turns out to be a much better fit for a browser than trying to simulate the rest of it.

One Play, Repeated

Every down starts the same way. The ball goes up, a marker shows you roughly where it is coming down, and you move under it. Field it cleanly and you are running; misjudge it and the play is dead before it starts.

What happens next is pure open-field running. Coverage players close from downfield on angles rather than chasing you directly, which means the obvious gap in front of you is frequently a trap — the defender is not running at where you are, he is running at where you will be. Reading those angles is the entire skill of the game, and it is a genuinely different mental exercise from most sports titles.

You get blockers, and they are worth using. Falling in behind one for a second or two buys you a lane, though the AI will not hold a block forever.

Controls

The three special-move keys cover the returner's evasive repertoire — a burst of pace, a sidestep and a spin. Each of them is situational rather than a general-purpose escape, and none of them can be spammed, so the game becomes a question of which one this particular defender's angle calls for.

Mini Monster Media and the ESPN Arcade

The game was built by Mini Monster Media for ESPN's browser games portal, which ran a stable of quick sports titles alongside the network's main site. Return Man was the flagship of that lineup and the one that people actually remembered, spawning further installments and seasonal variants. It is a good example of a genre that barely exists any more: a licensed, professionally produced Flash game made as promotional content for a broadcaster.

Advice for Longer Returns

• Catch first, plan second. Get under the marker early and stand still. Drifting into the catch is how returns end before they begin.
• Run at angles, not straight lines. A defender converging on you can be beaten by cutting across his path; running directly away from him just gives him a better angle.
• Save the burst. The speed move is most valuable once you are already past the first wave and have clean grass ahead, not while you are still surrounded.
• Follow a blocker for two seconds, then leave. Blocks break. The moment your blocker engages, look for where you are going next rather than waiting to see how it resolves.
• Treat the sideline as a wall you own. Hugging the touchline removes half the angles defenders can take, at the cost of having nowhere to go if someone gets outside you.
• Accept short returns. Trying to reverse field for extra yards after your lane closes usually loses more ground than it gains.

A Difficulty Curve and Nothing Else

Return Man 2's appeal is that it is a difficulty curve and nothing else. Each stage tightens the coverage, shrinks the gaps and speeds up the pursuit, and the only thing that improves is your reading of it. There is no team management, no playbook and no season mode to dilute the loop, so a session is a series of clean, self-contained attempts at the same problem at increasing difficulty.

It also translates well to people who do not follow the sport. You do not need to know a formation from a snap count to understand "run that way, avoid those people", and the football knowledge is a bonus rather than a prerequisite.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the A, S and D keys for? They trigger the returner's special moves — an acceleration burst, an evasive step and a spin. Which one works depends on the angle the nearest defender is taking.

Why do I keep getting caught immediately after the catch? Usually because you started running before securing the ball, or because you ran straight upfield into the first wave. Field the ball standing still, then pick a lane to one side.

Do the blockers actually help? Yes, but briefly. They engage defenders long enough to open a lane, and you need to be moving through that lane before the block breaks.

Does the game get harder as it goes? Each stage adds faster and better-organised coverage, so the same running lines stop working and you have to commit to cuts earlier.

Who made Return Man 2? Mini Monster Media, for ESPN's browser arcade, as part of a run of licensed sports games hosted on the network's site.