Tony Martin 

John Madden football. The name itself conjures up hours upon hours of wasted time on a couch, achy trigger fingers, and countless empty soda cans and half-smoked cigarettes. “Madden” is not only an annual rite of passage, but a cult of gamers both hardcore and casual. Its universal appeal has led to a sort of checks and balances system, where gamers whine and whine until the game itself changes.

As a (shameful) Playstation 2 owner, I will admit that I have been driven crazy over the years about a lack of changed gameplay, as EA Sports has shifted its focus to its more profitable next generation consoles. Countless times I have been absolutely smoked by consistent 80-yard touchdown passes and laughed mindlessly as Matt Forte ran in place behind a non-moving blocker. In the 10 years I have been playing, I never returned a punt for a touchdown.

Yet, in spite of my trail of broken controllers and angry re-sets when the Lions put up 56 points on me, I can’t shy away. “Madden,” never change. I have come to love it, for all its flaws and frustrations. Unlike all the other games that don’t cater to broke chumps like me who can’t afford a PS3, “Madden” hasn’t left me yet.

I will gladly watch Jay Cutler overthrow two-yard-out routes (in that sense it is as real as ever), and watch Nate Burleson put up Hall-of-Fame numbers against me every week, simply because it is the only football game that has NFL Players Association licensing, and it hasn’t abandoned me. I feel like a jilted lover, crawling, pleading for them to take me back. Even though I complained all week about how nothing has changed between this year’s game and last year’s game (for PS2), I still found myself playing it between classes.

This is not only a love letter to the greatest sports franchise of all time, but a lesson to all you people with next generation systems. You don’t know how lucky you have it, because “Madden” makes things just a little bit better every year, just for you. I wish I was in your position, investigating Johnny Knox’s “Swagger” rating, and basking in the warm glow of the new, updated, beautiful character models.

When all the chips are down, I guess I’m asking if anybody has a Playstation 3 and maybe wants to invite me over to play. To play “Madden” on the PS3 would be like taking your spouse on a first date all over again.

 

Joshua Michaelson

Madden is a series that has plagued the gaming world for a long time.

At one point the games may have been something, but for at least the last seven years they’ve been nothing more than an annual money grab.

Madden never changes.

Sure, there are additions like “realistic injuries,” tweaked rosters and modified AI, but that’s it. It’s essentially the same deal repackaged every year.

The equivalent to Madden releases would be to re-release chess every year with differently shaped and colored pieces.

What’s even more of a kicker to me is that the games aren’t even that complicated.

There have been times where I’ll randomly pick a play without even examining it and manage to pull off whatever I wanted to do by just running in.

Now, I’m sure there are many hardcore football fans that look into Madden as a deep, strategic game and that may be in there somewhere; but at the same time you can have someone completely oblivious like me jump in and completely school a veteran player without even trying.

That shows how broken the game can be.

It frustrates me even more that this is a game that millions of people go wild for every year.

It’s become an event akin to Christmas for some people.

I suppose this is because it’s the country’s sport of choice, but what about the other football games that offer something different?

“Backbreaker” is a good example of this. While the game was far from perfect, its heart was in the right place, offering a more personal approach to each player.

With smaller companies trying to push football games beyond what they are, it makes it baffling that Madden games haven’t tried to change or improve.