Madden 07 Review
EA Sports, Xbox, 2006
Madden 07 Review by Murphyn03, August 22nd, 2006

The Madden series finally hit Sports Sim Heaven back in 2005, in my opinion. That was a game without glitches, controller smashingly bad receivers, or referees that had loaded up on bias-pills before the game. Then came Madden 06, with that fairly pointless Quarterback Vision mode, which almost everyone I know disabling. Madden 07 is cast rather in the same mould.

This years new feature, after those clever gents at EA Towers decided to keep the ball on the ground this time, is that instead of controlling your Running Back to run through a wall of incompetent CPU blockers, you can instead become the lead blocker, so said incompetent CPU becomes the HB/FB. It actually works surprisingly well, and it gives you a surge of power pancaking the DT as Willis McGahee scores yet again, but it can from time to time be confusing to keep track of where the people you are supposed to be blocking for actually are, but that doesn’t really hurt the gameplay too much, its just a slight annoyance.



One feature I loved from last years Madden was the Superstar mode, where you take a fresh-faced rookie from rags to NFL riches, demanding trades and firing agents along the way, but I find this years to be almost unplayable, if more realistic. For a start, you have no play calling power, and at best your quarterback can call an audible, which doesn’t give the same freedom as being able to go for it on 4th and 3, resulting in a heroic hard fought touchdown, or a turnover, whatever turns you on. Then we move on to the fact that, when your SuperStar is on the pitch, you can control ONLY said SuperStar. Acceptable if you are a quarterback maybe, because at least then you know where the heck the ball IS, but when you are a halfback, like my young Chet Rockwell, there is for one, no guarantee that you will be passed to, but if you are, you have about a seconds notice at most to be able to get into catching position. If you are a control freak like yours truly, it is a frustrating experience.

The Franchise mode, I am delighted to add, is almost exactly the same as it was last year, but that is actually quite a good thing, because it has the open ended freedom that SuperStar mode lacks. You want hot dogs selling for $20 apiece? Couldn’t agree more, sir. Want to move your team 1800 miles and rename the stadium after a mass murderer? You can do that too, I know I did. I ended up simming most of the season, cos it’s a long way to the Superbowl, and it can get a little repetitive, but it is solidly put together and well worth going through, even just to play the College All-Star game to see who you REALLY want this year out of all the identical freaks.

In conclusion, this game is a worthy update and worth adding to your videogame collection, but I wouldn’t say it is too much of an improvement upon the last one, which you can pick up for quite cheap.


Rating:
Presentation - 8.0
Graphics - 9.2
Sound - 8.8
Gameplay - 9.2

Overall - 8.8 (Great)

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