"A good game for a launch title...."

Well,if you're reading this, then that probally means you're intrested in buying Madden NFL 2005, have it, or just want to know more about it.....

Madden NFL 2005 is the currently OFFICIALLY THE BEST NFL game on the Nintendo DS.....not to mention the only one.

Now I'm not a huge fan of football games, but I have enough to voice an opinion about one.....now on to the Review

Gameplay:The gameplay isn't air-tight, there'll sometimes be mistakes the game makes that will seem unforgiveable such as:
-Your football player tackling and diving straight through the other teams player,causing them to gain more yards than they should have.
-Clipping problems
-Obscene calls on rules which you haven't done anything wrong(but this is what the rule feature is for, you can adjust the strictness to your liking)

Now although, those things may seem bad, they don't fully break the game, they also do not happen often enough to warrant a return of the game, you should be able to live with it......There is no franchise mode, which for me was a LOT of the fun in past Madden games, but it's on a handheld so you can't expect everything to be there, now although it is missing Franchise mode, it does have Season Mode, which can be just as good, I wont go in to detail about Season Mode, because if you are looking at reviews about Madden games, then you probally know what to expect.

-It has a 2 player mode, which at the moment I am unsure if it's 1 or 2 cartridges to play, I think only one though, dont' quote me on it though.

There is a practice mode, which can be used as a fun little game, like trying to find new ways to get past the defense...which is basically what practice mode it....

Controls: I would give the controls a 7/10 they aren't as good as I think they could be, but they aren't atrocious...you have your basic juke, spin, shuffle, and sprint buttons, all neatly layed out for you. You can also use the touch screen to choose plays,as well as snap the ball,and choose who to pass the ball to, but it is much easier to just use the buttons, the touch screen has a top-down perspective in which you see your players, and opposing team players, your players are represented by O's,and opposition is represented by X's.

Graphics:8/10 It's very nice to see graphics like these on a hand held,and know that all you can expect in the future is that they will get better. For a launch game they are very good, presuming you're not a graphics whore lol.

Difficulty:well the game can be difficult at times, but shouldn't be too hard for anyone to handle, the AI seems like an average AI you would expect.

Gripe(s):There is 1 HUGE probelm in my opinion with the gameplay that slows it down A LOT, the fact that after a play is over, you have to WAIT for all the players to get back into position, this may not be a problem for most people, but to me it is very boring to wait for the game to proceed,waiting for the players to get back to their positions.

Overall:I give this game a 7/10,everything is good, except for the very slow before/after play time it takes.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 01/18/05