"Solid Madden action, but not without flaws"

EA return with another installment of their football franchise, Madden 2003. If you've played any of the series before, you know roughly what to expect, if not, this is a solid football game which does the job, but isn't perfect.

Graphically, the game looks fine. All of the stadia look very impressive, the players are animated smoothly enough and there is plenty of attention to detail. It's not perfect - on many occasions the players appear to ghost in and out of one another, in actual game time as well as on replays, and there are some problems with detection, particularly when it comes to a player being in or out of bounds.

The sounds are decent - it sounds like a football game should, with good effects for tackles and the like. The soundtrack is OK for the most part, and the play by play is OK but grows tiresome after a while. The biggest problem is when the referees are deciding on replay decisions - on occasion you get one voice, then halfway through the decision it switches to another voice! It's just sloppy and could be easily avoided.

Story? It's Madden. You don't buy a sports game for story.

The presentation isn't bad but it's lacking in places. There are numerous "no name" players in the game that are just a number, which in this day and age is pretty unforgivable, and aside from the main game modes, there's a few nice little extras which you might use a couple of times, including a series of drills for various skills, and some play explanations directed by John himself. These are definitely targeted towards the new player, even a newcomer to football, and will let you know the difference between a tight end and a free safety in no time.

So what of the actual gameplay? It's solid enough. There's a large playbook to choose from, and you can create your own if you don't like the ones you have available. The controls are simple enough - when passing, five of the six buttons are allocated to eligible receivers, one switches you from passing to bootlegging, and the C-stick pump fakes. Rushing is somewhat similar, each button will perform a different evasive move (hurdle, spin, juke etc.) to avoid defenders. On defense, your buttons will switch players, allow you to dive, jump, swat balls away and so on. It's fairly intuitive and you'll get the hang of it quickly. The main problem with the game is the computer AI. It's poor, particularly on the defensive side. It's difficult to stop the run in short yardage situations. Receivers are frequently wide open, even in double man coverage. It gets worse when you're on offense - beyond some basic strategy, the computer has no clue tactically. It'll stack the line when you're on it's 1, and switch to nickel/dime in 2nd/3rd and long situations, but that's about it. It'll fail to pick up even a basic gameplan. You don't even need a good team either - in my current franchise mode, my team is numerically rated worst in the league, but I could win every game just by continually using a single rushing play, just by using an audible to switch it from going off one tackle to off the other tackle. Guaranteed 6+ yards every time. Faking is also very effective - a fake FG pass play is a guaranteed two point conversion. The computer has never stopped a direct snap to the fullback in a punt formation. There is little challenge. Although the franchise mode is strangely addictive - I've spent more time on this than most of my other games put together. Beating up on the CPU is always fun.

If you're looking for an inexpensive football game, you could do worse than pick this up cheaply second hand. If you've got more cash to spend, buy one of the newer versions. If you've only got an older Madden, don't bother buying a new one, your copy will do fine.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 07/29/05