Madden NFL 2004

"Could've easily gotten a 10."

This game came very close to getting a 10/10 from me, but there are just too many things wrong with it. All of these things are minor, but there are not so minor as to not affect the overall rating.

One of the things wrong with this game is the announcing, almost always John Madden's comments. Much of the time, his comments are either partially irrelevant or flat out stupid. Nothing against Madden himself, but, still.

Another problem I had with this game was the Football 101 mode. This is, by far, the dumbest mode in the game. You select a play, then Madden runs it. Then you get six or seven chances to run it and earn tokens. You can run it more times then this, but you don't get any tokens for it. What tokens are and do will come later.

The problem with this mode is that it is designed for people who basically know nothing about the game of football. On passes, there are one or two primary receivers that you HAVE to throw the ball to, no matter how open the other receivers are. If you throw it to a different receiver, Madden says you didn't run the play right. And it doesn't matter if you scored a touchdown. You have to throw the ball to the primary receiver. That's not how to the play the game of football.

Another thing is that rarely, in games, one team plays wonderfully and the other team plays horribly. For example, I was playing someone once. I don't remember who their team was, but I was the Chiefs. In the second half of the fourth quarter, I started getting interception after interception. With about one minute left, I got an interception with Eric Warfield. The score was currently 77-35, me, of course. We quit. It was just flat out ridiculous.

And that, my friends, is enough to detract one point off of this otherwise fantastic game. When you don't get one of those rare games, the game play is very fun and challenging. The newest one I had played before this was 2001, and that game is VERY EASY compared to this one. Interceptions are gotten much more often, which is realistic. The tokens are used to buy Madden Cards, which you can then use to boost player's performances, activate fun cheats or unlock new teams and stadiums!

I also especially like the Franchise mode and the new Owner Mode option, in which you can basically control everything about your franchise, down to concession prices. There's also a fun mode called Mini-Camp, in which you have to do your best in seven different drills on the four different difficulties, all with different teams. After completing the drill, you can then do a game situation with the same team that further practices what you were doing in the drill.

All in all, a very fun game. I highly recommend buying this game. It is a must-have for football fans.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 10/21/03