Madden NFL 08

"EA's laziness has screwed the hardcore football gamers out of a potentially great title"

I picked this game up on August 14 hoping for an improvement over last year's game, and I was rather disappointed. Madden 07 on Wii did a surprisingly amazing job at balancing features for the gamers and easy controls for casual players. The only thing holding 07 back was online play and downloadable rosters, as well as some strange AI. However, this is a review of 08, so allow me to continue...

Gameplay: 7/10

This area of the game is pretty solid. You still have franchise and superstar mode, which are sort of fun sometimes. In superstar you can now use a rookie from the 07 class or your own created monster. Kicking is a lot better, but still not totally perfect. Pass defense against the CPU is much better, so you'll see less of the WTF long passes. One frustrating aspect for 07 owners will be that the buttons for Dive, Strafe/Cover Ball, and Sprint have been rotated. It took some getting used to, and in the first couple of days I can't remember how many times I pressed C thinking I was about to strafe only to find my linebacker tripping over himself and lying on the ground for the entire play. Also, there are several annoying glitches such as the blurry screen. This only happens if you skip the 3rd down cut scene, but most people do that instictively for some reason. Another thing I really hate is the reorganization of the perfect playcalling screen from 07. Before, it would start on your last formation used, you could scroll sideways to find variations of a formation, and both the formations and the plays themselves scrolled over. Now, it always starts from the beginning, each individual formation takes up a slot, and there is a defined start and finish. In a high-pressure game, that is amazingly frustrating to sort through in only 30 seconds. Even worse than all of this is the conspicuous absence of pointer technology. No longer can you bring all linebackers on a Blitz by clicking one and pressing down, now you must remember a button combination I have yet to learn. The only time in the game you ever use the pointer is when you need to type something, and instead of the old keyboard from 07 that matched the game, it now brings up that annoying keyboard from the internet channel, but the "mouse" icon is different and it just...won't...stay...still! It WOBBLES!

Graphics: 5/10

As a Wii owner, I generally tend to favor gameplay over graphics. Also, I grade graphics against what is expected of the Wii rather than what the PS3 looks like. The Wii is much more powerful than EA seems to think, because these look like they were made for a PS2. While they aren't horrible and you'll be able to tell what the players are doing, it could have been a lot better. This is average at best. Also, no matter what height a player really is, every single player in this game is the same height. Garrett Wolfe is supposed to be 5'7", so why is he as tall as 6'6" Greg Olsen?!?! That is a completely unacceptable step backwards. When you challenge a play, it changes the angle and zoom to a point where you have no clue what is going on, and it will still favor the CPU team so heavily it is not remotely funny. While you are playing, you CAN NOT SEE your receivers. It stays zoomed in on the quarterback. You just have to pray that your right side wideout has eluded the corner with his hitch route. The Blur glitch should be mentioned here as well. Looking back, maybe 5 is too high...

Sound: 9/10

I actually have very few complaints about the sound. There is a good mix of rap, punk, and rock songs on the soundtrack and you can choose which ones you will hear. Don't like rap? Go through the list and turn them all off. It'd be nice if they were listed by genre (I saw this on Tony Hawk's American Wasteland), but thankfully you should only have to go through the list once. The football noises are pretty good. They are very similar to 07 or I would have noticed a difference. The crowd is also a bit more intelligent than they used to be. Sometimes you will hear them yell "DEFENSE" in a chant. I think I once heard them say "GO TEAM" though...yes "TEAM" literally. Not the home team's real name, but "TEAM." Way to go, EA!

Features: 2/10

We finally have online Madden for Wii! Unfortunately, it was a tradeoff. There is NO Create-a-player/fan/play/team in this game, and cool little features from 07 like game equipment (gloves, black under-the-eye paint, sleeves, CHOOSE YOUR NUMBER, etc.) are gone. Also, advertised new features such as create-a-championship-ring and smart QB/LB/S/CB weapons aren't even there. The weapons that aren't missing don't even seem to do anything at all anyway. Online play is okay, but if you don't have a fast connection, don't bother.

Replay value: 8/10

Despite all the problems, this game is addictingly fun, but that might just be because it is football and we junkies need a fix before the regular season starts. With online play, you will be able to come back and find a new challenge every time. After online is disabled (supposedly within 30 days after the Super Bowl or something), you will still be able to have some fun in superstar mode.

Buy or rent: RENT!

What a no-brainer! Take a week to decide for yourself whether or not the good things about this game are worth another $50. If not, you're only out the rental fee. Technically, you should borrow if at all possible. It's that disappointing.

Final score: 5/10

Not an average, unlike this game. It's the lack of expected modes and general laziness that really brings it down.

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 08/19/07