Fans can be a crazy group of people. If you doubt that, pop over to anyplace within a 5 mile radius of Stamford Bridge Stadium in West London, and yell “Manchester U Rules” at the top of your lungs, and see if you can make it out of West London not getting carried out on a gurney. The same fanaticism can be found among the fan ranks of NASCAR, Hockey, Rugby and of course, good old American Football. Those “fanatical” fans have desires and expectations, and EA just keeps on meeting and exceeding. In some areas…..
So let’s get this out of the way for all those people out there that complain about the Annual Edition system that EA has setup for their sports titles. You can complain about lack of innovation, creatively stifled production, and simple roster updates, but the sales numbers do NOT lie. Even the complaining fans are still buying these games year after year. With a running average of 1.6 Million copies sold the First Week post release, this is definitely a strong franchise that demands respect.
But many if not most of those initial week adopters are the Madden Devotees. The consummate perfectionists that aim to top all competition with each new release. These are the players that know football better than their own mother. You know them, don’t deny it. They are the guys that can tell you off the top of their head the most common or preferred passing routes and defensive lineups of their favorite team, but if you asked them what their Mother’s birthday is, they scramble for their PDA to check their calendar or their cell phone to ask their girlfriend or wife. These are the guys that always want you to come over and play, but just end up wiping the field with you and throwing your bloodied carcass away. And the Madden franchise has always understood their fanaticism, and played to it. With THOUSANDS of plays, options, and customizations features that include the ability to make complete custom playbooks, Complexity has always been where my problem lay with Madden. It always catered to specifically the hardcore fans who know the game in and out, and as such, the AI was either brutal, or it simply let you win like a Big-Brother letting a special needs kid run past him to build his confidence. I am NOT a football fanatic. I LIKE it, I watch it, but I am not an expert, I don’t want to punch stuff when I see my team perform poorly, and I don’t know what the ideal play is to call against a Nickel Defense. And Madden 09 respects that, and says “No Problem. Let’s design an AI to match YOUR skills and weknesses”. In comes the newest feature: My Skill.
The first thing you will see upon booting up Madden 09 is a chance to take the Madden Test, which measure your competency and proficiency via four drills in the areas of Passing & Rushing in both Offensive and Defensive positions. But it gets better. this little “Test” is also a mini (and for the 1st time ever EFFECTIVE) TRAINING tool, because as you run through the plays, the test actually TELLS you the best moves to use in certain situations. So You can not only evaluate your skill level, but also learn to be a better player in the process. This new and intriguing tool executed extremely well, as it then tallies your results and fine tunes an AI program to match your game. I happen to be awesome at running the ball, but Horrible at completing passes or not getting sacked on passing plays. As a result, once the test is completed, in the game, I will face fairly tough Rushing defense to match my skill their, but more lax Passing defense, until I get better at completions. What this means for gamers is that now, more than EVER before, Madden is truly accessible to toal n00bs just as much as experienced veterans.
There is a bit of a caveat though, as it is not all paradise with the new AI system. For Veteran and expert players, this new mode can virtually CRIPPLE your chances of making a true MVP player, as the game will simply beef up the AI difficulty the better you get. Do you have an amazing passing game? Watch out. You are going to get sacked and cherry picked more than ever before as the game tries to level the playing field. So all in all, the new mode is a godsend for newbies and football neophytes, but a bit of a crutch for true masters, as it cannot be disabled completely. Fortunately, that is where Maddens OTHER star quality comes into play: Customization.
Are you an pigskin professional? Then Madden has a serious Ace in the hole waiting for you: More customization options than you can shake a stick at. From AI tweaks to Customer playbooks, you can almost BUILD your own version of Madden 09 to suit your own play style.
However, another new feature may NOT be so well received. Taking a que from the recently released Racing Amazement GRID, Madden has employed the Rewind function. think of it as the football version of a Mulligan. Make a mistake on a play? rewind to just before you made it and redo it it differently. While it can be an intersting teaching tool, it really suck to lose a touchdown because a buddy opts to Rewind and play a different defense. This feature is ONLY avaialable OFFLINE and is completely optinal, but I still question it’s place. I don’t see this feature sticking around next year.
Aside from the core gameplay though, I know some of you want to know about the rest. Graphically, the animations are smoother and more efficient than ever, meaning way better collision detection and more precise ball handling than ever before. Amazing looking grass, detailed stdium renders, and unbelievably lifelike character renders, this is the most beautiful Madden has ever been. It is certainly not perfect, as evidenced by occaisional framerate issues, but they are forgiveable. I am the kind of person though that would rather see a lower framerate and consistency, than an high framerate that is all over the map.
Probably the best feature though is not having to listen to John Madden. I got so tired over the years of hearing this babbling idiot state the obvious. I am not even a fully versed fan who knows all of the rules, and I would always cringe at hearing Madden say stupid stuff like “You see here, this is a guy who, when he runs, moves faster.” No Crap Sherlock. Thanks for pointing that out. Moron. Instead, we get Cris Collinsworth and Tom Hammond, who do a great job of providing failry insightful commentry.
Overall, the best Madden Yet, no doubt. Beautiful, Detailed, Fluid, easy Access for All, and just plain damn fun.
9.0/10
Popularity: 35% [?]
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