- Title: Madden NFL 09
- Platform: Xbox 360
- Publisher: EA
- Developer: EA Tiburon
- ESRB Rating: “E” for Everyone
- Genre: Football
- Pros: Nice graphics; solid gameplay; commentary
- Cons: Madden IQ; no A.I. sliders; futurobotic presentation; supersim funkiness
Rather than breaking down all of the features and the gameplay and all of that jazz, we’re just going to cut to the chase and give you the good and the bad and leave it at that.
The Good
The graphics are also easily the best we have seen so far with the weather and lighting effects in particular looking very good. The game looks remarkably different when playing in the rain or snow or at night or in a dome versus a sunny day. That is something that was present in previous games, but not nearly to this extent.
The sound is also greatly improved. John Madden makes his return to do a little pregame, halftime, and post game analysis. The “radio guy” commentary is (thankfully) long gone and has been replaced with Tom Hammond and Cris Collinsworth, which means that for the first time on the next-gen systems, Madden has real commentary.
The Bad
It isn’t all good for Madden 09, however. But like I said, it is mostly little problems rather than big things. When you start the game, you can play through the Madden IQ test that will then alter the A.I. to match your skill level. The only problem is that it doesn’t work. The tests have you running plays on a holographic field, and they are incredibly easy to pass. When you have a high Madden IQ, however, it makes the A.I. brutally difficult to the point where it isn’t even fair. You can’t run the ball and you only have a split second to make a pass. Not fun. Thankfully, you can ignore the Madden IQ and just set the difficulty yourself. It also should be noted that there are a handful of sliders, but they only affect you and not the A.I. For gamers that like to tweak the game to their liking, it is disappointing.Another issue comes in the super sim mode. Unlike in NCAA 09 which had a logo of the team with the ball pop up, there is no indication of who actually has the ball during supersim. Which means you can sim too far and not stop where you wanted. Another issue comes with the achievements. You can’t switch between playing and simming. You either have to sim a whole game or play a whole game or the achievements won’t count.
My final issue is more of a personal complaint, but the menus have been all Fox Sports’d out and given a futuristic, robotic, metallic, cold look. Also, not a complaint but a comment, Brett Favre looks very surprised on the start screen. Like a “Holy crap, why did I retire”-type of surprise. We all know how that story ends.
Bottom Line
