Gaming Target - GameCube: Madden NFL 2004

Written by Tony Kennetz on September 08, 2003

Full Review: Wow. That is all.

Dear Electronic Arts and Tiburon: I know that you're a couple of companies that need income just like any other businesses or people in the world. But you do think you could take ONE year off to give my former friend NFL 2K..rather, ESPN NFL Football a chance to catch up. You see, you just never give them a chance, what with your adding new features and gameplay ideas, I feel bad for my people at Sega, you've forced them to try so hard. Now I've had to leave them all together in order to play your criminally addictive franchise, online play, and mini-camps. Please, I've been with Sega since the Dreamcast, let me have a chance with them again.

This is the letter I would write to EA if I really felt that badly about leaving my Sega Sports heritage in favor of Madden 2004, the fresh new football face in my life. Don't get me wrong, when I first bought EA's football outing this year it felt quite awkward. For the first time in five years I was buying an EA made sports games. The doubts stuck with me, would I like the new features, were the playmaker controls worth it, would I just be able to make the adjustment? Of course, all those doubts left me once I put the disc in my console, and I was engrossed in, what may sound a clichщ, the deepest football game I've ever played. So, needless to say, I don't feel that bad anymore.

If you're like me (in this case, meaning a football fan and not able to spend $100 for a decent seat at a game), then you've probably hated team owners for years now. Why are the tickets so expensive? Why does a hotdog cost more than a surgery to re-attach my arm? Why does this program cost $10?! Well, guess what, after you play through Madden's owner mode, you're going to know pretty darn well why everything that seems so outrageous is the way it is, because you won't only be running your team's on-field performance, you'll be managing all the financial angles too.

Everything you ever thought about doing with your favorite football franchise is possible with 2004, and you'll quickly realize that running a successful team is one thing, but running a financial success story is quite another. They're both dependant on each other, but both also demand different mentalities. Since its new this year, I reckon we should start with the money making business.

Things don't start for the owner until after the preseason, but the options are sure robust once you get there. Your first point of action should be to talk to your advisors, who give you the lowdown on what the fans are saying, how your prices stack up compared to the rest of the league, even how the coaches are reacting to their pay. Now, what the advisors have to say isn't nearly the end of the information you're going to have at your fingertips to make your decisions. If you want to make the plans that are going to both keep your fans happy and your checkbook full, you'll need to analyze graphs showing everything from attendance to revenue. From there, the prices for all things associated with sporting events can be altered. Hot dogs, soda, beers, programs, even parking is under your complete control. But be wary, if you start charging a hundred dollars for a ticket in the upper deck as your team stumbles to a Bengal like 2-14 season, the fans aren't going to be coming to your games, and they won't be buying your merchandise or concessions. What does all that mean? The entire operation will suffer due to lack of funds. And don't forget to advertise your latest home contest!

After the season ends, there's even more fun to be had. One of the biggest franchise additions for both the football man and the front office aficionado is new coaching staff feature. Now instead of just being an animated face on the sideline (well, head coach and all will still be that butЕ) your entire staff will play key roles in your franchise. If you're willing to risk it, you might skimp on your coaches and other key personnel, but if you do, things could quickly go awry. Let's say your star quarterback sprains his ankle during a QB sneak into the end zone. If you have a couple of good trainers, he'll make a relatively quick recovery, but if you've been cheap, you'll be missing him for more than a couple games. Little subtleties probably won't get your full respect until you watch your all-pro players drop, but it's a unique touch that one could consider overdue.

Its likely you've seen a football team fight to get a state's government to pay for a new stadium or renovate the current one for a team. The Minnesota Vikings (this reviewer's home team) have been fighting with anyone at arm's length (I.e. St. Paul and Minneapolis's city governments and the state government) to get a new stadium. Now, I am closer to being against using public money to fund a building I'd still have to pay to gain entrance to, having the ability to renovate a current stadium or completely wipe out your current building and create your own monstrosity on your own. Everything is fair game as your creative fantasies are let loose on the stadium. And if the fans aren't treating your team rightЕ

Pick up that stadium editor and start working on a proposal to move your team across the country, even into another country. You'll have to work if you want everything to go down correctly though, with everything from city approval to the NFL's go ahead. Success will certainly bring you money as the fans in your newfound homeland will flock to watch their new team play, but fail and the biggest loser in the situation will probably be you, and the financial woes will only get worse as fans retaliate by attending fewer games and lining your pocket with a smaller amount of green.

There are several other things you can do with you money, but clearly the most important piece would be to reinvest what you have in your team, to help it grow and be an overall success. Signing free agents and making trades are both, as in real NFL life, a key aspect to managing a winning club, and both are done through easy to navigate menus that helpfully present all the relevant stats for that move. If you're signing or releasing a player, the screen will show you the cap penalty you'll take along with how much room under the cap you have to spend on luring new athletes to your team. The trading interface is also streamlined, and placing players on the trading block is now more worthwhile than ever as you can specify what you want in return for a player.

Alright, so business simulation is great (and with Madden, its even better), but Madden is still a football game, and it was one of my biggest fears coming in that with all the attention that was paid to the Owner mode, the gameplay may just be last year's edition re-shrink wrapped and sent out to consumers with no real additions or improvements. So when I picked up the game, I was wary, and braced myself for the worst. Luckily, all the readying for disaster was certainly not necessary, as Madden's already solid gameplay once again returns, with some new and certainly welcomed upgrades to both the field and the other angles of the franchise mode.

One of last year's favorite on the field gameplay modes was the then newly created Mini-camp games that allowed new players craft their skills as veterans honed themselves into highly disciplined football machines. Mini-Camp makes a triumphant return in more than just one way. Not only can you tour all the NFL cities and earn Madden Cards on your quest to attain them all and cheat your friends out of victories, but also in the franchise mode where you can literally go through mini-camp with nine players and improve their stats. Its amazing that the idea never got put in a game before Madden did it, but its here now and it really makes the off-season worth while.

Madden 101 also makes a return here, teaching football fans the basics about any play in any playbook. After giving a detailed speech about the formation, John Madden maps out the play and give it a demo run. From their its your turn to run the play and pick up yards. Players are graded on several factors like yards gained, following the play as its designed, et cetera and then given points and Madden cards. I found this mode to be very helpful as I picked up new packages and formations in the switch to Madden from NFL 2K3, and overall its just an interesting mode for anyone who wants to learn more about the sport they watch on Sundays and play anytime they want on their consoles.

The biggest on field addition to this year's Madden on both sides of the ball has to be Playmaker controls. Allowing gamers with the presence of mind and quick thumbs to hit the right analog stick to do things other football games have only dreamed about. To be honest, Playmaker controls make a lot bigger impact on offense than on defense, with the ability to shift the direction of a run play, take control of blockers as you move down field and pulling your main receiver back on a passing play are all instrumental and can really help those who are able to put them to full use. That isn't to say that the defense has no use for them, as safeties can be shifted and after the snap the player can attempt to read the offense and commit to the run or pass. Make the right call and you can stuff them, screw up and you might just be watching the competition running down the field for six. So, its clear that this new piece of the puzzle can make or break you, but can you get away with not using it at all? Yeah, you can, but the game is based on the idea that you're going to use them, so electing to completely disregard them would lend a bad hand to your campaign.

Once you're finally ready to step under center and run your offensive attack, the first things you're going to have to learn are the passing game and the ground attack. We'll start with the passing game as many gamers prefer it as it lends a more exciting aura to the game. Taking control of the quarterback and be a difficult thing, the desire to just throw downfield on every play is a tough one to ignore, but Madden's defensive AI will quickly teach you a lessons if you want to just air it out down and down. The key to air traffic dominance is to master the short game first, forcing the defense to respect the quick pass and using it to set up the deep ball. Once this is done, however, the opposing secondary becomes rather easy to pick apart, even on some of the higher difficulty settings. That said, the control of the ball is second to none as dropping lob passes and firing bullets have never been easier, not to mention how easily a player can go from a pass ready stance into an all out run and back again. Little things like that really make a sports game, and this one has them figured out.

Going out and taking control of the target receiver on a long ball is imperative to keeping the chains moving and preventing a multitude of interceptions. Being able to keep a receiver in stride and on course just after taking control of him can be difficult at times, which can lead to losing all types of ground on the ball and the defensive players, which then leads to dropped balls and interceptions. Of the three major components of the offensive game, this is easily the most frustrating.

Rushing the ball on the other hand, is a completely different experience. Knowing your running back's strengths and weaknesses makes your breaks your attack, as well all know that rushing a 175 pound speedster up the middle and through the defensive line ten to fifteen times a day just isn't going to get the job done. Having a good grasp of moves like the juke, spin, and stiff arm/switch ball hand will only improve your chances for success. My one complaint is that running backs seem to hack up the ball a lot when they're hit. Take for instance, Michael Bennett of the Minnesota Vikings. He has fumbled no more than five times in his entire NFL career, but if you take a look at his stats in my franchise, he seems to lose a handle on the ball at least once a game. Its possible to go in and manually adjust a player's statistics to better reflect his real life counter part, but running backs in general should have been gifted with better hands, they fumble way too much here.

Madden's offensive playbooks are once again highly in depth and as close to calling plays from a real NFL coach's playbook as one person will get. Despite the large variety of plays, Madden still allows you to get by using just a select number of favorites if you do decide to, as the defense seems to be on the slow side of figuring offenses out. That said, you'll want to vary your play calling offline if only for the fact that players online will catch on to a limited coach's tendencies rather quickly.

Being able to effectively play a defensive lineman or a blitzing linebacker or cornerback is definitely the most important point of playing defense in Madden as it helps limit both the passing game and the running attack. Tiburon did a good job giving users plenty of options in terms of ways to dispatch blockers and get into the backfield, from spin moves and spins to boosts, so you it is possible to get into enemy territory when they are used properly. One thing that has plagued the NFL 2K series has been the inability to make sacks on defense, but Madden has it all figured out. The quarterback might be able to escape once, but it never gets to a point where he's getting out of every hit laid upon him.

Dropping back to protect against the pass is the other big part of a defense that can make or break a game. Being able to do it correctly has always been a difficult for some gamers (myself included), but Madden does its best to make it doable for those of us who do have trouble with it, but still challenging for the veterans. Easy to learn, difficult to master has never been more true. Knowing when to swat the ball and when to go for the interception is important, as I can assure if you get greedy and try to pick off every pass, you're going to blow the coverage all together and wind up giving the opponent a big gain. Split-second decisions are made by all 22 players on a football field in a real game, and that mentality is demanded in pass coverage.

One big gripe about the defensive gameplay is how difficult it is to accurately line up and execute a good tackle. Frequently I found myself missing what should have been easy open field tackles that ended up costing me points. If you get in the backfield, tackling is reasonable, as is gang tackling, but going one-on-one with a wide out or running back is just too difficult, as putting an offensive player in your sights, so to speak, is rather difficult from a third person perspective.

Playing defensive coordinator this year is also quite an entertaining experience, as picking between blitzes, zone and man-to-man coverage will play a big part in your success stopping the other team. Although, I quickly found out that blitz/man-to-man coverage schemes are easily the best for use in most situations, there will be times when you have to break from that mold, and if you don't, get ready to watch the opposition dancing in the end zone.

Graphically, Madden will have some trouble sticking up to the likes of ESPN NFL Football. The player models look better than last year, although the change isn't as drastic as the one that has already been seen from Sega. Some of the player faces still look on the unrealistic side in the pre-game coverage and replays, but in game all the players looks realistic enough to get by. Player animations are ultimately solid here, as nothing looks to robotic or slow in nature. Overall, Madden has the ability in its graphics to impress, the masses will likely be more visually pleased with some other football franchises this year.

Al Michaels and namesake John Madden both return to 2004's commentary both along with Melissa Stark down on the field. Michaels and Stark both manage to capture the essence of a true football telecast, while Madden continues to show why so many people don't like him anymore. His comments range from borderline decent to terrible, with most being closer to the latter. Luckily, his partners generally make up for his lack of intelligent things to say, although I'm sick of hearing how my Super Bowl contending franchise is a Уmirror imageФ of the 2-10 Bangles. This, along with the player animations, is where you'll see ESPN beat Madden pretty decisively.

Other audio components are stronger than the commentary, with solid sound effects and the now EA standard EA Trax coming to the field to play. In the past, Electronic Arts has gone with an almost all hip-hop soundtrack or almost all rock, but this year they seem to have found a balance between the two that really works for a football game. Songs from GOB, Blink-182, Yellowcard and more provide a good feel to the game which is certain to have something for everyone. The sound effects also bring the pain, with bone crushing tackles sounded just like you'd expect, and as you hear the crowd go berserk after a touchdown, you might question if it was recorded at a real, live football game. One curious thing, however, it seems the crowds don't know who they're there to cheer for, I've been given huge applauses from foreign masses when I intercepted one of the home team's passes. I call that sloppy work, but the rest of it is undeniably well done.

Replay value runs wild and free this year, with a franchise mode that will be sure to keep you engaged well into next year, many will still be concentrating on their first team when Madden 2005 is released. Plus with the addition of the EA Bio feature you can gain points in all upcoming EA Sports through other EA Sports games. So if you're an NBA Live fanatic, playing large amounts of Madden will help your career there and in other games down the line. Of course, there is the new online mode which features both USB keyboard and microphone support, which should get PS2 owners excited, as no sports game on the PS2 has attempted this, and I say its about time.