PlayStation 3
Released in 2006 by EA Sports
Grade: C+
At this point, I don’t think EA was capable of making a bad football game, but it sure seems like they tried. Madden’s PS3 debut is full of changes that make the game objectively worse than its great PS2 editions.
Where it falls in the series
This is the first of 11 Maddens on PS3. Xbox 360 got a Madden game one year ahead of PS3, so this isn’t the first of the generation. The series moved up to PS4 and Xbox One for “Madden NFL 25.” (It should have been called Madden NFL 14, but the 25 is meant to commemorate the 25th anniversary. I hope I live to August 2024 so I can see what they’ll call the actual Madden 25.)
Praises and gripes
Before we get started, in case you didn’t already know, there are some great Madden games on PS2 and Xbox. If you need the history lesson, maybe check out my review of Madden 2005.
From the get-go, this version throws a bunch of unneeded, annoying changes in your face. The old playcall screen is rearranged, ensuring you spend more time finding your play. I’ve never been more compelled to use the “Ask Madden” feature, despite his questionable judgment.
The three-press kick meter is replaced with an analog meter, controlled with the right thumbstick. Between plays, you have to sit through a cutscene, usually the defense standing around or a chunk of the crowd. These show off the impressive new graphics, but they aren’t too impressive after the first hundred times. They slow down the pace of the game, and you can’t turn them off! What?!
Hot routes are harder to call, and those handy defensive “playmaker” controls are gone completely. It’s fairly easy to accidentally pull up “vision lock,” better known as QB Vision, the feature from Madden 06 that everyone hated. And do you recall shuffling back and forth through players before the snap with X and Circle? That convenience is gone; you can only switch players one direction.
Juking (now with the X button instead of L1 and R1) and stiffarms (now triangle instead of L2 and R2) aren’t as effective as before. The running control is looser, so tackles are more of an accomplishment. It’s tougher to judge your position before swatting a pass. There’s a new “jump the snap” control on defense that’s sporadic, and the display that lets you know when it worked is totally distracting. There are more fumbles, especially after your guy catches a pass and falls to the ground, fumbles you often see reversed after replay in real NFL games.
The collisions don’t look or feel as natural. There might be hundreds of new animations, but you’ll also see plenty of awkward moments where the motions weren’t stitched together right. The other team’s running back will sprint into your linebacker and bounce off him, and let me tell you, you won’t like it.
The few things that actually needed a change are still messed up. Receivers casually step out of bounds instead of getting their feet down inside the sidelines. The coach’s challenges are often not available when they should be. The CPU opponent is too predictable at times.
I’d need to go back to Nintendo 64 to find a Madden game I’d recommend less than this one.