Madden NFL 2002

"The first for the Cube, how did it fair?"

Madden has become one of the best, if not the best football games ever. They capture what football is. smash mouth football. This game has it all. Has many features to keep its players going. there is a Franchise mode that lets you take a team through 30 seasons. During the 30 years, players come in from college, and old players retire, leaving you to build up your team again. A cool feature about this years Madden's franchise mode is that in the 2nd year. You have the ability to do the expansion draft with the Texans, building your team from scratch. Madden also has just a 1 season mode, the Exhibition mode, Tournament mode, Two minute drill, and much more. The madden cards are back, there are 330 of them, have fun collecting them all! This game isn't just about its fancy features, a true football game lies with-in its gameplay. On to the Review.

GAMEPLAY: 10/10

Madden 2002 has the best gameplay a football game can have. You run your offense the way you want to, and the defense reacts to your play calling. If you call a play to many times, the defense can actually recognize this and stop you cold, not allowing you to get away with bonehead plays. You need to mix up your plays to be successful.
The game can be fully customized. You can play 1-15 minute quarters, you can pick the stadium, the weather, and the time of day. If football has it, this game has it.

GRAPHICS: 9/10

The game looks great. The players are amazing, when it zooms in for a close up on the players, you can tell that they actually blink. All the players look fairly accurate compared to their real life personalities. The graphics really add to this game, making it even better than what it already was, great. The only reason it gets a 9 out of 10 is because the crowd isn't the best it could be and the side-lines are a little weak.

CONTROLS: 10/10

This game is easy to jump into. the controls are not hard at all. A sister that I have who doesn't play games at all, actually sat down with me and played and she got it very quickly, beating me one game. Yes, I'll admit it, I got beat, it takes a real man to admit this, Haha. Anyway, the controls are done perfectly. Don't change a thing.

STORY-LINE: ?/10

Yea, football, go play. You want history go look it up on nfl.com. Ok, next.

RE-PLAYABILITY: 9/10

The game has a lot to do, and will have you occupied for a long time. If you have friends that like football games, this game will last even longer. Unfortunately, my friends hate sport games in general, so this is why I gave it a 9. But, between all the options here, it will keep you busy.
Try the franchise, it is the best and is a lot of fun.

Buy or Rent

Buy this game. Not enough, rent it. Whatever you do, find a way to play this game, it is awesome.

FINAL WORDS

There is something wrong with franchise, and that is that it takes up 59 blocks (one whole memory card, unless you have the one with like 241 blocks) to save. But, try it anyway. This game is football at its best. Thought I should say it one more time.

OVERALL: 9/10

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 09/01/02, Updated 09/01/02