Madden 06
Genre: Action Adventure
Platform: XBox
Rating: E (Everybody)
Publisher: EA Games
Developer: Tiburon
Release Date: 08/09/2005

So EA, the Big Bad Wolf, secured exclusive rights to the NFL and fanboys across the nation got up in arms. It’s so easy to hate EA. They’re everything wrong with the gaming industry. And yet, what people got upset about was a business decision that any company that had the means would have done. There would not have been nearly the same level of furor had Midway or Take Two secured exclusive rights. But, these are the things you deal with when you’re the biggest on the block. Now, the question is how good of a product will EA put out when there’s no real competition? With Madden 2006, we’re about to find out.

1. Game Modes

Madden 2006 comes with the usual game modes as in previous iterations. You have the Play Now option, where you pick teams and just play. You also have Practice, which will allow you to take a team and practice their plays until you get comfortable; Franchise, where you take control of a team in all aspects, both on and off the field; Tournament, where you can pick up to 16 teams to play tournament-style; Mini-camp, where you can play all the different mini-camp minigames available; and Play Online, where you can play other people via XBox Live. The new addition to the game is NFL Superstar, where you take control of a player and guide him from draft to retirement, trying to make him into the biggest player in the NFL.

Overall, there is a nice selection of Modes to choose from, although the only real new addition is the NFL Superstar mode, which I will cover in more detail later.

Score: 6/10

2. Graphics

Graphically, the game looks gorgeous. Each year the players on the field look more and more realistic, and this year’s version is no exception. Each figure has been rendered down to the last detail, making it feel like you’re watching an actual game. The physics engine for the game is also spot-on, as collisions and tackles look just like they would in a real game. The stadiums are gorgeous and have been reproduced perfectly. The only negative here is the crowds, as they still are nothing more than cardboard cutouts. Other than that, this is easily the best-looking sports game on the market.

Score: 9.5/10

3. Sound

The sound aspect of this game is a massive letdown from previous efforts. Let’s begin with what works. The in-game sounds are excellent. Every crack, every groan, every pop is perfectly captured and really puts you in the middle of the game. The sound design team did a bang-up job here.

Now for the not so good. Once again, the play-by-play from Al Michaels and John Madden quickly becomes a beatdown, as the comments turn repetitive and inane before you even finish your first game. You’ll quickly learn to turn down or even off their commentating. And the soundtrack, normally EA’s pride and joy, is flat-out bad this year. The only saving grace are the NFL Films remixes, which are great at putting you into the proper mood to play some football. The rest of the music, however, from artists like Memphis Bleek, Cold, Disturbed, Slim Thug, Finch, and others, seems like a bunch of tunes that were cut with good reason from these artists’ latest albums. There are also less songs than usual here, which means you hear the same bad tunes over and over and over and over and over. It’s a brutal beatdown, and a massive disappointment form a company that prides itself on their soundtracks.

Score: 6/10

4.Control/Gameplay

The control scheme is pretty much the same as it’s been in the past. Press A to hike the ball. If you’re running, A will give you a sped burst, B will spin, X will hurdle, and Y will dive. The triggers will juke, and the black and white buttons will stiff-arm. A new addition is the Truck Stick, which is the offensive compliment to last year’s Hit stick for defense. Using the right thumbstick will cause your player to break tackles and run over defenders. When passing, hitting the assigned button will pass the ball to the correct receiver, while pulling the right trigger will cause your QB to pump fake, and the left trigger will cause him to throw the ball out of bounds. On defense, A and B cycle through players before the snap, and after the snap A is speed burst, B cycles to the nearest player to the ball, X dives, and Y jumps. The triggers will rip or swim if you’re a lineman, and try to strip the ball the rest of the time. And the right thumbstick, or Hit Stick, will deliver big blows when properly timed.

The big innovation this year when it comes to in-game play is QB Vision. QB Vision gives your QB a conical line-of-sight (Vision Cone) on the field of play as he is passing. When a receiver is in that Vision Cone, passes thrown to him will be more accurate, and you can employ Precision Passing, where you can direct the ball to the receiver high, left, right, or to the shoestrings depending on the direction pushed on the thumbstick or D-Pad. To shift receivers, either pull the right trigger while hitting the button for the new receiver you wish to throw to, or use the right thumbstick to cycle through receivers. Attempting to throw to a receiver outside of your Vision Cone will cause you to throw an incredibly inaccurate ball. The size of your Vision Cone is contingent upon your QB’s Awareness rating; the higher the rating, the larger the cone, the more receivers you can throw to without shifting your Vision Cone.

In theory, this feature should have been an exciting addition to the game. In practice, however, the feature is incredibly unwieldy to use. DB’s will lock onto the zone that your QB is looking, and you will usually not have enough time to shift to other receivers to utilize the feature. For Madden pros who light up the game on All-Madden 80-0, this feature will probably not be an issue. But for the rest of us mere mortals, you’re probably better off turning QB Vision off.

The other new addition comes with the new mode, NFL Superstar. Here, you will be able to guide your own player throughout an entire career, from draft to retirement. Your first option will be selecting your parents. That’s right, your parents will define your DNA, determining the difference between success and failure. You’ll then define your name, physical stats, position, and college. You’ll then move in your apartment, with a cell phone, computer, calendar, mirror, playbook, and city map. The most important thing in your apartment will be your calendar, which will have all the activities for your career mapped out day to day. Your mentor, former NFL great Terrell Davis, will help guide you as you begin by selecting an agent to represent you. You’ll take an IQ test, the equivalent of the Wonderlic test administered to all potential draftees. It’s a combination IQ/personality test. From there, you’ll get drafted, usually somewhere in the 2nd-4th rounds. After that, your calendar will be consumed with practice and gameplay, and there will be other opportunities for you, such as movie deals and interviews.

NFL Superstar could have been a great addition to the franchise. In reality, it is a colossal failure. Let’s break this down. First off, you r parents. They’re supposed to define your DNA, right? Then why do you get to pick your size and weight? Wouldn’t it have been better for you to have picked your folks and from there have your physical attributes defined? Also, your parents help define your IQ. Yet, you are the one who takes the IQ test. So, let’s say you cycled through a bunch of parental pairs until you find two geniuses. But you’re dumb as a box of rocks. Your Superstar is going to fail the hell out of his IQ test. So what’s the point? Selecting parents should have a much greater impact on the game than it does.

Next, 90% of your Calendar is made up of practice (as AI said, “Practice?”). Now, no one is going to want to practice day after day after day. So, most people will sim through those days. Big mistake, because unless you go through each and every day, you’ll miss interview and movie opportunities. Also, there’s no sense of earning anything because, at any time, you can go in and adjust where your Superstar falls on the depth chart. You’ll start out at the bottom of the depth chart. Don’t want to stay there and don’t feel like waiting? Move him up! Not to mention that, in the practices, unless your Superstar is a starter, you won’t be practicing with him, as you use the first-string. It all adds up to a long, boring process with little playable value.

This could be easily improved for the next iteration. First, make the parents mean something. They should define your physical and mental attributes. Next, add a combine feature to make the draft less of a crapshoot. Third, change the calendar so it isn’t dominated with day after day of practice. There are so many ways this could have been made a kick-ass feature, but right now it’s just there, and most people won’t play it more than once.

The rest of the game is basically the same as before. Franchise will be the main mode people play, and it’s still as deep and engrossing as in previous versions. I can’t speak too much about online play as I don’t have XBox Live, but all reports I’ve heard have been issue-free. Overall, the gameplay is solid, but with the failure of the NFL Superstar Mode, I can’t give this section that high a score.

Score: 6/10

5. Replayability

As far as individual play goes, Franchise allows you to run a team for up to 30 years. There’s an unlimited amount of replay value there. And as long as there is Madden there will be buddies showing up to test their dominance against you. The addition of XBox Live and online play increases the number of opponents you can humiliate or be humiliated against. The biggest drawback to replayability is NFL Superstar, which will most likely only be played once.

Score: 7/10

6. Balance

Overall, Madden 2006 is a decently balanced game. You have four levels of difficulty to choose from: Rookie; Pro; All-Pro; and All-Madden. The leaps between difficulty levels are steep, but not as bad as in previous versions, where just going from Pro to All-Pro could give a person ulcers. The game AI still has a tendency to make miraculous plays and comebacks, but not as frequently or as blatantly as years past. Overall, the game’s balance is well done.

Score: 7/10

7. Originality

It’s Madden. Other than the occasional tweak, it’s basically the same game from last year and the year before and so on. The NFL Superstar mode is new, but it’s not good, so it doesn’t add anything to the overall package.

Score: 5/10

8. Addictiveness

I’ve spent a solid week with my franchise, wheeling and dealing. I took my beloved Cowboys from 6-10 also-rans to three Super Bowl victories in a row. I spend my spare time while at work thinking about what trades I can make to keep my dynasty going. Yeah, I’m an addict.

Score: 10/10

9. Appeal Factor

Madden Release Day might as well be a national holiday. It gets major coverage in all aspects of the media. It’s a gaming institution. It’s also the only game in town, as EA holds exclusive rights with the NFL. There are a few anti-EA folks out there who will boycott the game, but they won’t make much of a dent in overall sales.

Score: 9.5/10

10. Miscellaneous

Madden is the gold standard when it comes to video game sports franchises. I know a lot of people don’t like to accept that, but it’s true. And while they made a few attempts with the NFL Superstar and QB Vision to keep their game on the cutting edge, ultimately the level of innovation Madden 2006 provides is limited. EA is good at making little tweaks to the game, but in the end, other than roster changes, it’s the same game as Madden 2005.

Score: 5/10

Modes: 6/10
Graphics: 9.5/10
Sound: 6/10
Control/Gameplay: 6/10
Replayability: 7/10
Balance: 7/10
Originality: 5/10
Addictiveness: 10/10
Appeal Factor: 9.5/10
Miscellaneous: 5/10
Total: 71/10

Final Score: 7 (GOOD!)