Madden NFL 2002

"The king of football.... for now."

I just recently bought this game and liked it so much I decided to review it. So far, this one is definitely my favorite Madden of the series. I was never really into the Madden series because I didn't really like the earlier maddens, like 97's, but for some reason, I decided to give this one a try, and I was not disappointed to say the least! Let's see why:

GRAPHICS: 10/10
Smooth as can be. I don't know about other systems, but the Gamecube's graphics are superb. They're excellent. Everything looks good, especially replays where you can see the detail. The only thing that sucks is that the faces aren't real, they basically all look the same to me. The only people that really look like themselves are the coaches.. Oh, and the player introductions before the game are great too!

GAMEPLAY: 8/10
Playing this game is awesome.. Some of my only complaints though are the times when the computer seems to CHEAT! Like when I pick one of the best teams in the game, and I play one of the crappiest teams in the game, they seem to slaughter me sometimes, which is ridiculous. Other than that though, it's awesome! Also, sometimes my controls screw me up, like it does the opposite, but that rarely happens.

SOUND: 8/10
Well... the sound is pretty good, but as far as background music at the title screen and options screen and stuff... crap.. total crap.. not the sound, but the music they play... I can't stand rap. The in-game sounds however, are great, except the crowd noise seems to overpower everything else, even the commentators sometimes, and that sucks. One time it was so loud that everytime the crowd cheered my TV made this crappy noise like the noise you hear when you blow your speakers.

OVERALL: 10/10
I really liked the Madden Cards thing, that's a great idea. It's fun collecting them all, you get secret teams, retired players, cheats, hidden stadiums, etc... It just makes the game more challenging.. and it makes the replay value even better. I don't have all the cards yet, but I'm getting there, I wanna stop writing this and go play and collect more and more cards! There's just so much to do in this game, it's great!

BUY OR RENT?
Well this is a no-brainer really.... BUY IT! But if you're still not sure, then rent it, but after you rent it you'll love it, so I strongly suggest that you buy it. You won't be disappointed!

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 02/16/02, Updated 02/16/02