Madden NFL 2000

"John Madden is one of three people that people think of when they think of Minnesota, along with Jesse Ventura and Prince. My state has its issues"

OPENING STATEMENT
We Minnesotans rarely want to claim John Madden for one of our own. Especially when we hear dialogue like this:

“Pat, when I was a kid, I sat with friends on my family’s stoop. All of the houses had stoops. There is nothing better than a stoop. To sit on your stoop and drink Lemonade is heaven.”
“Well, John, I think we have a picture of your childhood home right now.”
*Picture of house appears*
“Here, Pat, I’ll circle the stoop.
*John Madden circles the stoop with his telemarker*
“Pat, I think my house was bigger than that.”
“No, John, that’s your house.”
“I could have sworn it was bigger.”
“John, I think that you’ve just gotten bigger.”

That was actual dialogue from a Vikings game that John Madden did commentary on recently, and very close to the commentary you get in Madden NFL 2000. I watched this, and was horrified that he claimed to be from Austin, Minnesota. I just kept thinking “Texas! Texas! Say Austin, Texas!” But alas, to no avail. The only time that we ever want to claim John Madden for our own is when we are playing his spectacular series of games. Otherwise, we claim he is from Canada, just like we always do with Jesse Ventura, and Prince, or whatever the hell he is called these days.

GAMEPLAY--9
The strength of the Madden series has always been the perfect balance of gameplay, and the 2000 edition is no different. While nothing has really changed from previous incarnations of the series (the leap to three dimensions back in 1997 or 1998 remains the biggest change of all from the original days), the gameplay has been slightly refined. The play-calling becomes more important, and you are less likely to get money plays than ever before. Money plays have always been an enormous part of my arsenal. In Madden Football 64 I sometimes only used three plays the entire game, and I would still dominate the computer. Now, calling the same play twice, or heaven forbid, three times in a row is like a death wish.

That was really the only change to the gameplay in Madden NFL 2000. No other changes were really needed. I was kind of disappointed that the Nintendo 64 version of the game did not get the Madden Cards like the PlayStation version did, but you really cannot do anything about it. I would like to see a little more balance between the rush and the pass in the future, as rushing is still many more times difficult than passing. I think part of this discrepancy is because EA Sports realized that passing plays are much more common in use than running plays, but the balance still should have been there.

GRAPHICS--5
EA Sports has still not been able to get the graphical engines for the Nintendo 64 down correctly. Nothing has really changed from Madden NFL ‘99, which was a huge leap up from Madden 64, but is fading fast. The characters are all quite blurry and the textures are not very defined. The anti-aliasing also could have used some desperate work, because the football looks like it has all sorts of little staircases all around it.

EA did do a good job of a few things. First of all, the frame rate stays consistent, at about thirty frames-per-second, a decent rate. The animation is pretty good as well, and the players move quite life-like. The choppiness that plagued the athletes, especially the receivers has been cut down upon a lot. Lastly, the coloring choices are a little better than in Madden NFL ‘99. That may seem trivial to you, but it helps make up for some of the issues in the game when the Detroit Lions logo is the correct color instead of bright blue.

MUSIC--3
SOUND--5
The music is essentially the same music that the Madden series has been using for years. The touch-up that it underwent a few years back has worn off slowly but surely each year, and that is why the rating has decayed into a three. It is not because the music is bad, or the quality is poor, because neither is true. The rating is low because EA Sports has been using the same song for many years now, and something needs to be done about it. That and the fact that there is only one song for the entire game.

Every year Pat Summerall’s commentary gets better and more detailed. Every year John Madden’s commentary gets worse and more random. The Maddenisms, as they are so ‘lovingly’ called have gotten rid of many of their mainstays, and inserted a bunch of new ‘witticisms’ that make far less sense. John’s comments sometimes make so little sense it is amazing. I once got tackled on a HB Weak Toss to the left, Robert Smith as my running back, by Lions end Robert Porcher. Porcher made a shoe-string tackle, and barely brought him down. Smith was not running particularly hard either, and was relying more on finesse. Madden summed up this play by saying “It was like a freight train was coming through!” I am not certain if he was referring to Smith or Porcher, but the comparison was awful either way.

Pat Summerall’s commentary has been expanded, and he actually comments on the game some now, as opposed to the old games where he only said “It’s third down and about three,” in between John Madden spewing out random remarks. They are starting to sound more like FOX’s number one broadcasting team. The rest of the sound effects are solid, but nothing flashy. There are a few noises for tackles, depending on the severity of them, and the siren sounds that the ambulance makes when pulling on a field for an injured player is a highlight of any game day. In real life you hope no injuries occur. In Madden NFL 2000, you are praying that one does.

CONTROL--10
The strength of the Madden series has always been the fantastic control scheme that the boys and girls at EA Sports developed years ago and have been recycling ever since then. Well, here it does not matter that anything (actually everything) has been recycled, because everything is perfectly set up. The audible controls have been refined a bit, but the basic Madden system thankfully stays the same. If you have ever played a Madden game before, you will have no problems just picking up and playing Madden NFL 2000. If you can read, you should still be able to figure out the control system just by looking on the screen. On the off chance that you cannot figure it out, here is the just of it. You press ‘A’ to hike the ball on offense. Pressing ‘A’ again either hands the ball off, or calls up the receiving symbols, depending on whether this is a running or a passing play. Then you press the designated button of the desired receiver. Simple as that. Defense is even easier. Choose a play, wait for the ball to be snapped, and run like Florence Griffith-Joyner after the ball carrier.

FUN--8
The Nintendo 64 version of Madden NFL 2000 is not as fun as its brother on the Sony PlayStation. I prime reason for this is the lack of Madden Cards. The Madden Cards provided more reasons to keep playing through the game over and over again, trying to beat old records. Luckily, there are a wealth of game modes, including the greatest game mode ever: Franchise Mode! In Franchise Mode you can guide your team through multiple seasons, dealing with retirements, players getting better or worse with age, and the ever interesting free agency. The other usual suspects are here as well: Exhibition Mode, Tournament Mode, Season Mode, and the like. I would have enjoyed an expanded customization mode, with many options for creating things, but the great minds at EA Sports apparently did not agree with me on that one. All in all, you will not have more fun playing football on the Nintendo 64.

CHALLENGE--LOW TO MEDIUM
Maybe it is because I have gotten quite good at the series over the years, but even on the hardest difficulty level I found myself decimating the computer controlled opposition. The only time that I ever had a challenge was when playing a friend or family member that had as much experience with the series as myself. The only improvement to the artificial intelligence is taking away the money plays, so you can no longer call the same two or three plays all game and run all over the computer with them. Now, they react better to your plays, and do not let you call the same ones over and over again. Now you just need to have a balanced play book to kill the opposition. (Since we are looking back at Madden NFL 2000 well after Madden NFL 2002 was released, I can safely say that the Madden series addressed these problems in the future.)

REPLAY VALUE--MEDIUM TO HIGH
In the shallow world of sports games on the Nintendo 64, Madden NFL 2000 may be your best friend (unless, of course, you have a more recent version of the series). I actually found myself playing through the very long Franchise Mode not once, not twice, but on three different, separate, and completely unrelated occasions, with three different teams. (Actually, I was the Minnesota Vikings each time, but you get the idea, do you not?) Playing in the Exhibition Mode with other live human beings is also a wonderful way to pass the time. EA Sports made Madden NFL 2000 a game to play for quite a long time.

PROS
*Pat Summerall has expanded commentary.
*No one has ruined the control scheme.
*More replay value than you would think.

CONS
*John Madden does not have contracted commentary.
*Not that hard to run all over your computer controlled opponents; both literally and figuratively.
*The same music has been used for more years than I can remember.

CLOSING STATEMENT
Really, Madden NFL 2000 ended up with no competition on the Nintendo 64. None of the Madden games ever had any at all, so this is why EA Sports implemented changes in the Nintendo 64 versions of games one year after the PlayStation versions. They did not have to do as much on the Nintendo 64 as they did on the PlayStation to remain competitive. Yet, even with this cool approach towards the sixty-four bit gamers, EA Sports delivered yet another must have sports game. It may not be must have anymore, since the rosters are grossly out of date, but it remains one of the best sports games on the console.

OVERALL--8

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 10/23/01, Updated 10/23/01