XBox Xtravaganza: EA Sports Madden 2005

By Jonathan Berohn

When EA Sports first came out with Madden Football way back in the days of Nintendo and Sega dominance of console gaming, it immediately raised the bar on sports video games. The latest version in the franchise EA Sports Madden 2005 continues the solid tradition of Madden Football.  As they like to say, "it's in the game."  Want bone-rattling hits? It's in there.  Player faces? In there.  Play calling, audibles, design your own players and teams, commentary from Al Michaels and John Madden?  Check, check, check, check.  You name it, they've got it-and it all adds up to a great game.

Playability

Despite all the bells and whistles, Madden 2005 is remarkably easy to play.  If you just want the basic gaming experience, you can ask for help calling the right play for the given game situation, press one button to snap the ball, and either run or press another button to throw a pass.  The computer can do all the rest. Of course, you find you get much better results the more you actually take over and start having your running back stiff arm and spin, your receivers jump at the optimum time, and your defensive backs close on the open man, but the beauty of the game is that it lets you learn-and do more-as you play.  My 6 year-old son was playing tight out of the box-and holding his own.  Now that he's picked up a few more tricks, he can give me a very good game and beat me as often as I beat him.

First and Long

Despite its great game play and innovative features like the ability to play one franchise through 30 years of football (and no-I haven't done that yet.yet), there are still some improvements EA could make. My main complaint is time.  It takes about an hour to play a game.  A large part of the problem is time between plays.  EA likes to dazzle with cool video clips and replays after plays, but the clock stops every time they show one of these-even after running plays.  The clock also doesn't run nearly long enough when you call plays.  After any NFL play it takes a good 10 seconds to get everyone back to the huddle and another few seconds to get and call the play.  In Madden 2005, this is instantaneous.  If you take the suggested play call, you can be in and out of the huddle in about 2 seconds.  That obviously makes for some very long games, and makes trying to run out the clock excruciating (you basically have to just sit there while the clock runs).

All in all, though, Madden 2005 is another in the long lines of great games from EA Sports. I heartily recommend it all football fans out there, just make sure you set aside enough time.