PlayStation 2
Released in 2004 by EA Sports
Grade: A+
This football sim is well balanced, easy to pick up but hard to master, and tactically deep. It’s got tight controls, effective graphics, and excellent AI. It stands out from the Madden bunch by adding more defensive controls and strategies.
Where it falls in the series
It’s the fifth on PS2, and the last before EA was also making Madden on the next gen. Madden 06 is the first for Xbox 360, and Madden 07 is the first for PS3. The PS2 versions lasted all the way to Madden 12. (Boy, I have a lot of work to do before I can confidently claim that this the best Madden of the PS2/Xbox generation … but until further notice, it’s the best of the generation.)
This is also the last Madden that had a direct competitor, the great ESPN NFL 2K5. The success of 2K that year prompted EA to pay for exclusive NFL rights, which pissed off a lot of gamers who still complain about it today.
Praises and gripes
In some ways this is the quintessential Madden game, incredibly deep but not marred by dumb gimmicks.
The series already had solid football on its hands: responsive controls, strong AI, realistic speed, big playbooks, logical coaching adjustments, lots of options, good sound, and good graphics.
The big enhancement this year is the focus on defense, which comes with the “hit stick,” an extra aggressive tackle done by flicking the right thumbstick toward the ballcarrier. This has a good risk/reward trade-off. Do it right and you can force a fumble, but you could also whiff altogether.
The less-talked-about-but-more-important change is that it’s simply easier to tackle than in earlier versions. If you can track the guy down, you’ll take him down. Defensive players are also smarter all around, cluttering running lanes and staying with receivers better than ever.
AND, there are more defensive adjustments to make before the snap. You could almost redraw the entire play if you’re fast enough.
This makes offense much more difficult, but determined gamers can figure it out. You need to read defenses, make adjustments, and exploit match-ups. Quarterbacks need to “hold for a bullet, tap for a rainbow,” and running backs need to use their blockers wisely.
There are counters for every play. If the defense is blitzing too much, you can use “max protect” blocking to buy more time. If the offense is running sweeps too easily, you can have your linebackers set up wide. These adjustments are readily available to you and they actually work how they should. It’s a genuine chess match out there.
If you want gripes, or “nitpicks” rather, certain routes lead receivers out of bounds before the ball gets to them, certain plays never seem to work, and coach’s challenges can be frustrating when you see the replay clearly but the refs still get it wrong. Actually, that’s pretty realistic. 😉 The CPU is tough to beat on its highest difficulty, but it can be predictable and makes boneheaded decisions in crunch time.
The more general criticism is that the action may seem mechanical, while ESPN NFL 2K5 arguably has more flowy, lifelike action. I love both games, and I’m not sure I agree that 2K is objectively better. Madden rewards smart strategy more fairly.
There’s a deep franchise mode, complete with training camp mini games to help you develop your players between seasons.
The create-a-team and create-a-player features are decent. You can create a playbook and even create your own plays. It’s fun for football nerds, but allowing users to draw custom routes can result in cheap plays that are too reliable.