The Game
Madden Football, the longest running football video game
series ever, usually the game means excellence on every
system (well, except the Game Boy of course.) But usually,
EA Sports has a bad record of the first port of its
critically acclaimed football series on new consoles. For
example, the first Playstation game only featured sprites,
not so good competing against the then-great polygons of NFL
Gameday. The first N64 version, Madden Football 64 ('98 game
actually), was the only Madden console game that year to
feature polygonal graphics, but didn't have an NFL team
license, so NFL Quarterback Club '98 easily outsold it. Will
this version manage to overcome the other Madden debuts?
Let's get onto the review and find out.
Graphics
The Good
Those commercials of the game running in up close instant
replays sure look pretty and realistic, and I must say,
that's how the game looks with the zoom and demo cameras,
and after every play shot. The game runs smooth, and there
really isn't much slowdown at all in the game. There are
several camera angles to play your game from, just about all
of them are playable. The menus are the easier than ever to
navigate, and you shouldn't have any problems with it. The
play books are designed in two different ways, the 'go to
guys' where your play formation tiles turn into NFL player
tiles, so you pick a player, and you get plays made
especially for that player, kind of neat, but I prefer the
classic style much more. The animation is a beauty, and
there's way more animation in all the tackles and moves than
in NFL2K1, well except when you press the tackle button,
instead of jumping a few feet, where you try to make a
diving tackle, your player just looks like he stumbles on
the ground, making defense nearly unplayable (I'll move onto
that later.) A good advantage over NFL 2K1, is that all the
players on the field, and even on the sidelines are 3-D
rendered, unlike in the Sega title where all the sideline
players are pixilated. Theirs also lots of celebrations in
the game, and all of those look great too, and add to the
presentation. But for the most part, the arena, the players,
and everything looks pretty realistic, and impressive for a
first generation PS2 game.
The Bad & Ugly
The zoom in close ups are really something to marvel at the
first few times, but after a while, those eyes on all the
players start to stick out, I mean they all look the same,
even though they are animated and you see them looking
along, they do get annoying as hell! I mean, at least there
are different player faces for all the characters in NFL
2K1. The only faces that are different are the ones of the
NFL coaches! There are also many other little nit pickings
at the graphics, like the size proportioning isn't exactly
as up to par like in NFL2K1 and even the Dreamcast version
of NFL Quarterback Club 2001! And when you kick PATs and
Field Goals, the camera doesn't even follow the football
when you kick it. Oh, and since the PS2 has only the same
amount of VRAM as a N64 without an expansion pak (only 4),
there are jaggies galore around the active players (in the
after play zoom ins, the surrounding players are
anti-aliased by slightly blurring them, but the main player
is really noticeably jaggy). Also the instant replays aren't
even as good as the one's in NFL 2K1, but the one's where
you make a touchdown are pretty nice, where it follows the
football close up until it lands in the receivers hands! But
I'm sure most of these little nit picks were here so theirs
something to be noted to be improved in next years version.
Sound
The second the opening FMV started I knew I was going to
hate the music. For the whole menu navigation, and the
opening FMV, it's all rap music! And man does rap music
really get repetitive in a football game. Every time I start
up the game, I have to mute out the sound every time until I
start game play. Madden & Summerall are your usual
commentators, and they do a pretty good job, and even though
they sound really repetitive right away (John Madden says
'Both of these teams look ready to go!' at the beginning
of each and every game!). Summerall does the play-by-play,
where he calls first downs, sacks, touchdowns, and the plays
as they're going. Madden throws in random comments here and
there. And you get periodical updates from Lesley Visser on
the sidelines, giving you coaching opinions. Even they do
start to repeat themselves, I don't get as annoyed as other
people pointed it out to be, but the NFL 2K1 commentating is
definitely way better.
The referees sound really great, and sound like they're
actually coming from a real game. All the usual sound
effects are here, and you even get the usual 'defense'
chants throughout the game.
You won't believe some of the stuff you hear the PA
announcer saying in the background like, 'Ticket number
3452, your car is being towed' or 'Ticker number 29341 you
have one a pizza!'
It actually makes you feel like you're sitting right there
at the game. And another neat, new feature is when you're
selecting your play formation, and press the square button,
you get a little spiel from a coach giving you advice, even
though it's a really useless feature, but I guess it helps
out in the long run.
Game play
Control
The game controls fairly well, the loading screen for the
game tells you the controls so you never have to consult the
manual. For the offense you got all your usual moves like
speed burst, spin, lateral, juke, and stiff arm. And for
defense you can speed burst, jump, and try to strip the ball
away. Everything executes well, except for tackling, where
your players don't make the diving tackles you'd expect them
to do, instead they just do a weird stumble to the ground,
so make sure you're right next to the player when you try to
tackle them, or expect major gains. Offense is really nice
to play, the new 'easy-play' option for novice players has
a simpler play book, easier passing control, and assisting
in running and receiving. I gotta say though, it really is
pretty simple to break through the offensive line though,
and that juke sure does make it even easier.
What's new?
There's always something new in all the Madden games, some
years EA Sports disappoints us with just updated rosters,
but this year they went all out. They got the NFL Coaches
license, so you can now select your 'coach' in the setup
menu. Plus in between shots during the game and after the
game, you see the coaches yelling at the players and shaking
hands with the other coach after the game, a really nice
plus. Also there are new Madden Cards which you can 'buy'
by earning tokens by completing in game challenges, some
being simple like making three tackles by one player, others
a tough challenge to accomplish. By earning these Madden
Cards (designed by sports card manufacturer, Upper Deck) you
can exchange them to unlock more in the game like hidden
teams, for example. Those are the only major new features in
this game, with also the usual updated rosters and teams.
The Game Modes
All the usual modes are here, quick start, where you just
easily hop right into a game with default settings and rules
so you can practice at the game. Next, there's Practice mode
where you go into a practice dome, and try out any plays you
want or work on your game style. Then there's exhibition
where up to eight players can play, where you pick your
teams, and customize the options to your choosing. Then
there's season mode where you lead your team through the 17
week season, and all the way to the Super Bowl, the season
mode has the real NFL 2000 schedule, and lots of stats for
all the team and league leaders, plus even player of the
week awards. And finally, there's Franchise mode, the mode
the Madden series pioneered in it's '99 edition of the game,
where you play season upon season, sign, release, and draft
new players after every season, yes the mode is the ultimate
way to play for the lonely gamer.
Customization
Create your own team of monsters, by trading, signing, and
releasing players until your satisfied with it (and abide by
the salary cap of course). By going into the depth charts
you can change who are the starters and benchers. There are
also user profiles for you to save your own stats and keep
track of your own game records and madden cards. There are a
wide variety of teams to choose and edit from, weather it be
all 33 regular NFL teams, or a variety of classic and
European teams. And you can customize the game options and
set the penalties, game length, rules, weather, etc. to your
choosing and save them onto your memory card. But there are
several different save files for Madden 2001, one for the
settings, one for the created players and rosters, and
another for user profiles, all combined, they take up
approximately 2 meg's of your 8 meg memory card.
Replay Value
For the single player, there's season and Franchise modes to
keep you occupied for a great deal of time, plus with all
the customization features and added Madden Cards, I'm
pretty sure you'll be tinkering around trying to get all
those and be familiar with them for many months to come. The
computer AI, will give you a run for your money, and will be
challenging on all types of game modes. Also with up to
eight players to invite over, you can have a big party at
your house with all your friends. But you do gotta take into
consideration: 'Which major console football game has
online play?' Well, unfortunately, it's only NFL 2K1 on the
Dreamcast, and you can only dream when the console Madden
games go online.
In Brief
+: Stunning player visuals (minus the jaggies), Franchise
mode, all new Madden Cards & NFL Coaches License
-: Slightly slow type of feel playing the game, some really
off size proportioning, Repetitive Commentary
The Final Ratings Rundown
Graphics: 8. 4
Sound: 4. 7
Game play: 9. 2
Replay Value: 8. 3
Overall: 7. 6
Comments
Surprisingly, a good first Madden game on the PS2. The game
play is the area where the game exceeds the most, and the
graphics and sound usually never make or break a game, so if
you're looking for a great NFL experience, then make sure to
get your hands on this game now. Because it's going fast.
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