Madden NFL 2004

"Madden Remains the King!"

Intro: Madden NFL 2004 is probably the best football game of the year (thought ESPN NFL Football comes pretty damn close). From the addition of playmaker to owner mode, this games owns all. Read on to find more about this video game masterpiece!

Graphics: Only ESPN NFL Football's graphics rival these amazing visuals. Attention to detail is this game's middle name. You'll find everything from great textures on the field, to tattoos on the player's arm. Probably my favorite enhancement is that the game speed is WAY faster. That was probably my biggest complaint about last year's game: everybody ran too slow. Another detail that catches my eye is the new gang tackle engine. Last year, if you want to tackle with two people at once, they had to hit almost at the exact same time. It was so annoying see in a guy walk straight into a HB or WR without tackling him just because another guy was trying to bring him down. And then the new play-action cam is so cool. At first it was so annoying, because I thought that I accidentally chose a run, but when the camera flipped back to the QB, I got confused and was sacked. But it is great to fool a friend in 2 player. My only wish is that they could have made there be more bump-mapping on the players' jerseys, like ESPN NFL Football.

Graphics Score: 9/10

Sound: Probably one of the few weak points of the game, but let's start out positive. When you start a game, the intro music is much better, and more ABC like. Michaels and Madden both have more lines; I like Al's commentary way better than Madden's. Madden is still the rambling old man who says a handful of pretty dumb comments like, ''It almost looked like he was trying to throw to somebody else,'' on an incomplete pass, when no other WR is in the area. Still, that does happen less often than last year. Over to the music, it isn't as good as last year. A lot of them give me a headache. Maybe they will grow on me eventually, but right now, I keep the soundtrack on mute.

Sound Score: 7/10

Gameplay: This is what makes Madden king. I don't know where to begin, but I'll start off with probably the coolest feature of the game: Playmaker. It is not a gimmick; I use it all the time, when I need a block, need to cover a dangerous WR, etc. I played this with a friend (and he only had 2003 for PS2 so he didn't know what playmaker was) and I kept using playmaker over and over again. When I saw he was going to pass, I made everyone block the pass; when he tried to run, I made everyone block the run. The final score was 51-3. Boy, was he fuming at the end! There are even more enhancements like the the play-action cam and more gang tackle animations, which I mentioned before. Now for the most creative mode in any football video game: Owner mode. It turns football into a business, instead of a sport. You can decide how much you want to spend on ads, how much tickets cost, parking prices, etc. It is so fun. But I am jumping ahead of myself. That is the regular season; before even preseason, you can take your players to training camp (which is basically mini-camp) to acutally boost their ratings. They even included an extra level in training camp, which is called catch ball. It isn't much; it's like DB swat ball, but without the tackle dummies. But it is still pretty cool. The only draw back is that it takes up 185 blocks on your memory card (sorry 59 block memory card owners). The gameplays only major flaw is that the screen passing system is messed up. If you through within about 5 seconds after the snap, your QB overthrows, or you HB drops it. But all in all, this game has the best football gameplay ever.

Gameplay Score: 10/10

Replay: Trust me you'll just keep comin' back for more. Even if you are bored of the owner mode and mini-camp, (which would be almost impossible), you'll still have the Madden cards, which keeps the game fresh. The GameCube version of Madden has this special feature for Madden cards. You link the GBA to your GC via the link cable, and if you have Madden for GBA, you unlock the mutant teams: The Marshals (cowboys), the Mummies, the Monsters (Frankenstein look-a-likes), and the Sugar Buzz team (a team of players who have eaten just a bit too much sugar...). This was why I bought the GC version over the PS2 and Xbox version (online play is not my thing, and I figured that I would rather have secret teams, than customizable soundtracks). So anyway, back to replay value, the game has a great mode for people who are newbies to madden: Football 101. This mode lets you run certain plays, with the guidence of Madden. Trust me, you'll never get bored of this game.

Replay Score: 10/10

Control: The worst part of the game. There is no major problem, but in comparison to the PS2 and Xbox versions, the control scheme sucks. The reason for this is obviously the GC's sports unfriendly controller. Here is an example. To call a timeout, you press Z+A; to show your play, you press Z+R. Because of the sensitive buttons, it is easy to call your last timeout accidentally.

Score: 6/10

Comments: Despite the harsh competition, Madden remains the king. The inclusion of owner mode and playmaker was all it took to beat ESPN NFL Football. The only people I wouldn't recommend this to are SEGA fanboys. Bottom line: if you like football, do yourself a favor and buy this game!

Overall Score: 9.6/10

WHICH VERSION TO BUY?? (Head-to-Head): Most gamers only own one system, but to those who have the luxury of choice between which version you buy, I made this section. Here are the pluses and minuses of each version:

GameCube

Pluses:
Best texturing of the grass/turf.
GBA to GCN link cable (which unlocks the mutant teams, as I mentioned before)

Minuses:
Bad control
No online play

Xbox

Pluses:
Best graphics
Customizable soundtracks

Minuses:
No mutant teams
No online play

PlayStation 2

Pluses:
Online play
Great control

Minuses:
No mutant teams
Worst graphics

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All versions are good, but the PS2 version takes the crown just because of online play. The Xbox version beats the GC version because of customizable soundtracks and better controls. The only real special feature that the GC version has worth mentioning is the mutant teams, which are definitely not as good as customizable soundtracks and online play.

Overall winner: PS2 (runner-up: Xbox)

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 09/28/03, Updated 10/27/03