ic-games Review - Madden NFL 09 - Reviews, Previews and Interviews for PC, Xbox 360, PS2, PS3 and Wii

ic-games Review - Madden NFL 09 - Reviews, Previews and Interviews for PC, Xbox 360, PS2, PS3 and Wii ic-games Review - Home - Review, Preview and Interview for PC, Xbox,Xbox 360, PS2, PS3 and Wii

Madden NFL 09

Information
Reviewer: Andrew St.Denis
Developer: EA Tiburon
Publisher: EA Sports
Reviewed: DS, PC, PS2, PS3, PSP, Wii, X360
Genre: Sports Simulation
UK Release: 15th Aug 2008
Article Date: 07th Sep 2008
Difficulty: N/A
Retail Price: £49.99
Price Comparison:
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Score Breakdown

Experience:
Gameplay:
Graphics:
Sound:
Overall Score: 88%

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Pros
Great Graphics
Great Gameplay

Cons
Still Some AI Problems
Camera Angles Could Be Better

Screenshots

5 of 5

It's been the end of so many eras in US sports this year; Barry Bonds retired, Brett Favre retired, the New York Yankees look like losing out on the post season for the first time in years and Brett Favre changed his mind and ended up as a New York Jet. It's kind of ironic that on the 20th Anniversary of Madden becoming the most famous sports franchise, it chose Brett in his old colours of the Green Bay Packers to be the front man.

Now Madden recently has quite simply poor, the in-game video struggled and other aspects of the game just didn't stack up, so how has EA done in the last year? Well, it's ironed out a fair few problems, brought in some new ideas and the game is back to its best. Now the very first thing you get on playing the game is the man himself, John Madden (or at least, a holographic version) who will start explaining about the newest feature of the franchise, the Madden Test.

The test is fairly repetitive, but if you persevere (and I recommend you do) you end up with a final Madden IQ score for individual skills like Rush Offence, Rush Defence, Pass Offence and Pass Defence. This is then taken into the game giving you a personally adapted skill level to play against the AI teams. This will make the games a whole lot more fun and whole lot tougher then just staying with the standard difficulty levels.

A few things have returned as well, the main one being the Superstar Mode, giving you the ability to sculpt your own rookie and take him through the draft and into the big leagues, hopefully far enough to make the NFL's Hall of Fame. This has had a few tweaks made too, now after the player has been created you get to take him out on the field to train, depending on how you do there, gives your player the skill sets, to take into your career.

There are options in the offline gaming portion to use a 'rewind' ability. You get to pick how many (none, 1, 3, 5 or unlimited) each team gets throughout the game, this lets you undo any play, now for games versus the AI that can help even up some of those plays where outrageous plays will occur. But you can bet on some controller shaped bruises when you match up with your friends on the couch and pull one of their touchdowns back!

Play calling in the NFL is a complicated business, for both Offensive and Defensive coaches, the same goes for the gamer; choices are made a little easier by grouping the plays into different sections i.e. by formation, play type or player type. That some people new to the game of American Football will have no idea about the difference between “Offset I” and “Shotgun” formations or when to choose 3-4 or 4-3 defence will surely cause some problems, but the return of the 'Ask Madden' choice, to narrow down a few different plays to pick from will certainly help out .

Now one more of the tv moments that have been implemented is “Backtrack” where Collinsworth and Hammond try to pick apart where your play went pear-shaped. Which on the whole they do fairly well, however some of the holes picked do seem pretty harsh.

Now one of the mainstays of EA sports games has always been graphics, sometimes at the expense of the games playability. In Madden NFL 09 however you will soon see the balance has been returned to near perfection; character animation for the players is very well done, jinking past the defensive line with your running back has never been so satisfying. Another thing that will impress is the weather, get your game going on in a downpour will soon see your team playing in a mud bowl, uniforms get progressively dirty and spotting the substitutes in the clean uniforms is real easy.

Sound effects and music are again of the quality expected now of an EA title, although you will notice some problems with tying the graphics engine in with the sound effects, especially in the training sessions in the Superstar Mode, with it taking a couple of plays sometimes to catch up. Another thing most noticeable is that John Madden and Al Michaels are no longer doing the commentary or the post/between play colour commentary; instead you have Chris Collinsworth and Tom Hammond, which has to be said isn't what you expect. For the most part they handle things well, but you just expect the dulcet tones of the former Head Coach in a game that carries his name.

Some problems do however still rear their ugly head in the game: AI is still prone to making some very odd choices, such as players making catches near the line of scrimmage or just shy of the first down marker will for no apparent reason step out of bounds and camera angles can be a real pain too. Sometimes views can be too narrow, so you can't see the whole field and others it can be too wide, so you can't get a good view of the passing routes or the depth perception. Another point is that passing choices are no longer easy to pick, instead of the left to right, 'X' left side 'B' right etc. you can end up picking out the wrong person simply by mistake.

Those that have turned their back after the relatively poor showing of the previous titles can safely return and for those NFL fans that have yet to try this franchise, then you could not have hoped for a better introduction. Although for those that have no idea about NFL and haven't seen a game before, then either start watching (Five and Sky Sports cover the televised games in the UK) or try before you buy. One thing that can hardly be denied though is that Madden NFL 09, is the best American Football game out and the best in the franchises 20 year history.

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