I have been playing Madden football since ‘92 in the Sega Genesis
days. Madden has always been one of the best if not, the best place for
gamers to ball on the gridiron. Yes, there have been some stumbling
blocks along the way, but Madden has always recovered and gotten back
to glory. That is until now. Since the jump to the now current gen
systems, Madden has done just enough to get by. Riding the coat tails
of its former greatness like Freddie Prinze Jr. does with his father,
Madden has skated by on past glory and the deep pockets in which it
helped create at EA. As many of you know, EA has the rights to all NFL
properties, including player names, likeness and stadiums until at
least 2013. With the lack of competition, Madden has become a shell of
its former self only improving enough to silence casual critics with
their smoke and mirrors.
The gameplay of Madden, while functional as of recent, is still half
of what it used to be. The graphics are also substandard. It is a sad
day when the biggest sport in America has arguably the worst graphics
in sports gaming at this point in time. As a matter of fact, Madden 09
had the worst graphics of any game that came out last year that got a
rating of 75 or higher in Metacritic excluding RPGs and downloadables,
which would make Madden the ugliest non RPG, disc based game to be in
the Metacritic green zone. Casuals have no idea or don’t care how the
game has lost its former greatness and some hardcore fans have adjusted
to its mediocrity. I fall in to the category of neither, and this is my
reason why.
Ever since Madden and NCAA 98, you could transfer players leaving to
the pros with your memory stick on the PS1. It has never been perfect,
some players would be black in college and end up white in the pros and
vice versa, but it was pretty much a working system. However, since the
jump to the current gen, Madden has not been able to get it right.
Since Madden on the new current systems has been out, graduating
players have vanished into thin air, players have their speed ratings
dropped 15 points, and worst of all, players are not editable in season
mode. I understand not being able to modify every Florida Gator
graduate to be unstoppable, but to not even let the user modify name
and jersey numbers is ridiculous. Instead of playing with Michael
Crabtree #80 for the San Francisco 49ers, I’m stuck with first name
“BLANK,” last name “ WR #5,” wearing #5 instead of the normal numbers
for wide receivers in the NFL. I know that this is a tiny part of a
game, but it is a vital part to gamers like me and these are the
attentions to detail that are missing from the game.
Madden sells like gangbusters for a reason. It has built a pedigree
for many years and has overcome stiff competition from Sega Sport
Football, Gameday, and the 2K series. Ever since EA’s monopoly over
football, however, the quality has dipped significantly. It’s funny
that EA in collaboration with the NFL has taken away what fans enjoy
most about the sport; competition. Without a worthy competitor, Madden
can overlook intricacies like player transfers, spotty online
tournaments, frame rate issues, graphical progress, etc. Fans of
virtual football are being repeatedly kicked in the shins by EA because
their love and loyalty to the game of football. It’s like being a fan
of 3rd person shooters and only having Army of Two to choose from.
Decent game, but given the option I’d rather play Uncharted or Gears.
EA and the NFL have left us no option, so gamers have Madden or
nothing. I know that if the NFL had nothing but the Detroit Lions to
offer, the league would not be such an entertaining way to spend a
Sunday. So I ask, why would EA and the NFL do the same from it’s
virtual counterpart?
