Review: Madden NFL 09 (360)

Indeed, so successful and long-lived has the franchise been that Madden has become totally dominant and is the only option for American Football fans wanting to play the game at home. Almost every iteration is hailed as the greatest American Football game to arrive on the current crop of consoles, only to inevitably and predictably fall by the wayside when the following year’s offering arrives.

The big addition to this year’s game is the Madden IQ. This is EA’s answer to the criticism levelled at the difficulty of previous Madden games and despite the fancy name, is actually an adaptive difficulty feature. The first time you play the game, you’ll be asked to take your Madden IQ test, which will measure your competency in both rushing and passing offence and defence, measured by a series of short tests in each of the four disciplines. Depending on how well you perform in each discipline, the difficulty varies when you start the game proper. Gamestyle found that our rushing game was excellent, but that our passing defence in particular was poor. Thusly, when we began playing matches rushing for yards was pretty tough, but shutting down our opponent’s passing game was at an easier level of difficulty. 

But all the Madden IQ did was make us wonder whether it was us that wasn’t very good, or if it was the game. Even with the inclusion of Madden IQ, Madden NFL 09 presumes a certain degree of familiarity with both previous games and American Football as a whole. Even if you’re a rookie at every discipline, the game doesn’t give you any tutorials on the basics. Those coming to American Football or a Madden game for the first time will probably find the whole experience impenetrable and very time-consuming to familiarise themselves with. That said, after 20 years worth of games, you probably know by now whether you’re a fan of the Madden series or not.   

But Madden IQ isn’t a one off test, it’s a pervasive feature. You can retake the entire test again, anytime you like and your performance is measured during every game and the difficulty is amended at the end of each match. As you progress and your skills improve you’ll find the game toughening up. It’s a noticeable change and a welcome one. Gamestyle certainly felt that as our skills sharpened up, so did the game’s difficulty which was rewarding. However, we’re certain that this is a feature that EA will be revisiting in next year’s game. It’s very easy to get a good result in the rushing tests as they aren’t very difficult, but the passing tests require you to understand concepts like coverage and hot routes.

However, even new features designed to measure the player’s competence can’s stop the AI from being very stupid on occasion. More than once, we’ve seen players reach the opposing team’s quarterback and instead of sacking him, they stand there, doing nothing. Inevitably, by the time you select the offending player to do the job yourself, the moment has passed. Fortunately, problems such as this seem to be very limited and generally Madden plays a pretty mean game of gridiron. The playbooks are incredibly comprehensive, and this time more team specific, team rosters are incredibly in-depth and there’s a full range of audible to call.

As we’ve come to expect there are plenty of different game types to sink your teeth into and if you were to play through them all you would almost be certainly kept busy until the release of next year’s game. The online mode is solid if uninspired, featuring the upload replay feature that seems to have become de rigueur in EA’s sport games. Sadly, in Gamestyle’s experience Xbox live seems to be populated with the usual trashtalkers and serial disconnecters, but EA can’t be held responsible for this, and this is perhaps a title best played with friends as online games can be fairly lengthy affairs. 

Visually this is an impressive title. The character models are top-notch with players of all different shapes and sizes populating the playing field. The weather effects are very well implemented, particularly the snow. When it rains the players get so coated in mud, it can be difficult to tell who’s who, yet strangely the pitch never seems to get spoilt. The TV style presentation, both in terms of replays and snippets of information that get thrown up are top notch and even the commentary is pretty solid, without too much repetition. No doubt, this is partly thanks to new commentating duo Cris Collinsworth and Tom Hammond bringing some fresh blood to this aspect of the game. Yet at odds with this opulence are the somewhat disappointing pitch side visuals. EA claim that these have been beefed up, yet both the players and staff waiting on the sidelines and the crowd are second rate compared to the on pitch action. The half-time ‘show’ is still disappointing, and the new player celebrations are so limited that to describe this as a feature feels like a case of false advertising.

An improvement on last year’s game no doubt, Madden NFL 09 is as impenetrable for novices as ever, yet is still the best and most comprehensive American Football game we’ve played. Until Madden NFL 10 arrives next year, anyway.

Rating: 8 / 10

Words by Andy Lucas