Madden NFL 2005

"The years best football game."

You can get it either in the regular case, or the classic case. Madden NFL 2005 is a great football game for single player playing and multiplayer playing. As it's loaded with lots of cool features and options, the thing I find most important about the game, which is the Gameplay, is still perfect. You can purchase the regular game or the collectors game, which has a few more features then the regular game.

The gameplay in Madden 2005, is superb. Almost anything is possible and you won't find yourself getting mad at the game because of some stupid feature they put in to try and make it better. Like in ESPN NFL 2K5, there was almost no offensive attack what so ever. It was all defense, and I don't think I've ever broke 35 points in that game. Not the case in Madden. Madden balances out teams abilities, and nothing is impossible. You can see high scoring games between teams with bad offenses. You can see low scoring games between teams with bad defenses. The gameplay is perfectly made so that you don't get bored and you will always be kept guessing.

My favorite part about Madden 2005, is the Franchise mode. You pick a team and begin your franchise. You can build up your players in the off-season by doing training camp drills with them. Another reason I like Franchise mode, is because even though you may have a great team, you should never expect to win. I've gone in to games with the best team in the league against a team with a 3-10 record, and come out loosing. This is because of the balanced and challenging gameplay.

The graphics and sound in Madden are what you would expect from a game like this. The players are good, the announcers are decent. It's nothing out of the ordinary. Of course, however, I have yet to see those real fancy graphics that you will see on the commercials or in screenshots on websites like Gamespot.com. But, whatever, the graphics are clear cut, and get the job done, so I have no complaints. I would like to see the weather get more enhanced though.

One problem with the game, is that if you play it like a freak and play it a lot. Eventually there will be no challenge for you, and the competition will decrease. No matter how good you are, you will most likely get bored after you around three seasons of play. Sometimes to combat this, I will play as a really bad team, so instead of winning the Superbowl that season, I will have to wait a couple and advance my team a little more before I could go on. The game is great, but after winning 11-12+ games three to four seasons in a row, the challenge disappears. You can take your game to online play, and play against other people, but I have yet to experiment with that in any way so I can't really help you here.

Overall, Madden NFL 2005 is definitely a buyer. Unless you plan on mastering the game within the first week or two you have it, this is definitely a purchasable title. Many people buy ESPN NFL 2K5 because it is only like $19.95, but I really don't think that game is worth that amount. Talk about MLB 2K5, and that's another story. But right now I think Madden is better and more entertaining then NFL 2K5 any day. To me there is no real comparison.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 05/16/05