Madden NFL 2002

"Why Madden? Why?"

Madden is back on the Playstation for what is surely to be his last appearance. Madden fans will not be disappointed while playing the 2002 version of the game, but most would rather pass on it and get the Playstation 2 port of the game. Coming back from a bit of an off year with the 2001 game, Madden and his crew over at EA Sports had to come up with one last hurrah for this dying system.

With most of their focus on getting the PS2 game the best that it could possibly be, much of the attention that was needed to create Madden 2002, the Playstation port, was not there. This was, quite frankly, evident in much of the gameplay and graphics.

The best feature in all of the Madden games has come back, the entertainment. If Madden 2002 is your first game in the series, then you will be able to play this game for weeks on end, but for most who have already played a game, this game came out to be mediocre in comparison to his peers, and just plane horrible compared to the Playstation 2 port.

Oddly enough, the graphics that were in the 2001 Madden game were much better than those of this version. The only real reasoning behind the sudden decline in quality amongst Playstation One games is the immense incline in quality amongst the Playstation 2 games. You characters are not designed bad, nor are they good. Every thing about Madden 2002 has just come out to be mediocre.

I have never been a fan of the controls of the Madden series, and Madden 2002 was not able to change my mind. Suddenly I am realizing that EA does not like putting their name on the line and making radical changes to the games that they make, which, in my opinion, could have made Madden 2002 the best Playstation Madden ever. Yet instead they managed to stay how they were, complicated and not very responsive.

Looking back on this game, I am starting to question why I even began. I guess it was because I was hopping for that one last game that everybody would remember it by, but instead I got an old, beat down, injury stricken, veteran with bad knees that is barely able to run without breaking his hip, and I am not talking about Deon Sanders.

STORY LINE: 5/10
GRAPHICS: 6/10
CONTROLS: 5/10
SOUND: 7/10
GAMEPLAY: 7/10
REPLAY VALUE: 7/10
CHALLENGE: 6/10
MULTIPLAYER: 8/10
ORIGINALITY: 4/10
ENTERTAINMENT: 8/10
BUY RENT?: If you want a good football game, look for the PS2 version.

OVERALL: 6/10

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 12/28/01, Updated 12/28/01