Madden 09

Microsoft XBOX 360

Click HERE for screenshots.

Madden 09 begins with an effort to address the main problem I have had with the last couple of Madden games on the XBOX 360 – the default difficulty is too damned easy.  The game starts with a holographic image of John Madden asking that you take a “madden test” to determine your “Madden IQ” which will then determine the game’s difficulty. 

It was great to see John Madden back in the game – he has been largely absent since Madden 2005 – so I was happy to take his little quiz.  After accepting his offer, I was transported into a “virtual reality” in which all of the players were holograms.  This is pretty weird, but I didn’t question it and took all four phases of the test – rush offense, pass offense, rush defense, pass defense. 

The results for these tests were all over the board for me.  I was rated as “All Pro” at rushing offense (nearly “All-Madden”) and “All-Madden” passing offense.  The latter rating had to do with a glitch where I could always hit an open TE short over the middle of the field and get 100% completions. 

In complete contrast, both my rushing and passing defensive tests went horribly.  I got a 0% against the run and something like a 15% against the pass.  This set my ratings on D to “Rookie”.  My initial Madden IQ was rated as 438. 

My first game was in the divisional round and featured the Chargers coming to town.  Would my “Madden IQ” impact the game play?  I’m pretty sure it did.  My very high offense ratings ramped up the CPU’s abilities on defense and made moving the ball downfield extremely difficult.  Conversely, my pitiful defensive rating bolstered my defense to the point where the Chargers never stood a chance to get things going. 

Subsequently, this playoff game was a very low scoring affair.  The presentation was pretty good – while I missed the cinematic player intros from Madden 08, I was thrilled to hear that there were once again commentators in the series and the generic “radio announcer” had been canned.  Unfortunately, the commentators are John Hammond and Chris Collinsworth, who are less than thrilling to listen too. 

This game was in a torrential rainstorm, and the graphical effects were damned impressive.  I felt like I was playing in the “Mudbowl” as player uniforms were covered in chunks of grass and mud and the field was chewed to shit.  This effect got more and more dramatic as the game wore on – well done EA. 

I’m not certain if this was due to the rain effects being so intense, but the animations ran a little slower than they did in Madden 08 (but not as bad as 07).  The biggest gripe I had was due to the frequency of dropped passes that I encountered.  Several times I had Moss open deep, Brady threw a perfect pass, and it inexplicably went through his hands.  Perhaps it was the rainy weather, but I think it had more to do with my “All-Madden” passing rating and the CPU trying to even the score. 

The hit animations also seem to have been tweaked for maximum violence, but this isn’t so over the top as to make it seem fake.  There were a couple of times where I ended up wincing at the intensity of these cyber blows, but sacking the QB could very gratifying. 

There are a number of other changes – there are now photographs for the starting lineups, presented in-game, just like on TV.  There is also something called “Backtrack” in which Chris Collinsworth breaks down plays where you screwed something up (generally interceptions).  There is even an option to “redo” the play – but I couldn’t view this as anything other than cheating and avoided it in my games. 

As the first half wore on, my lack of offensive productivity started to really wear on me and my frustration started to boil over.  After watching Randy Moss – who had incidentally shattered the TD receiving record in real life the year before – drop yet another wide open pass, I began to draw some comparisons to the dreadful Madden 2002, a game ruined for me by excessive dropped passes. 

At halftime, I was losing 6-0.  I was annoyed by the low camera angles on the field goals because I could not tell if the kick was good or not as the play happened on the field.  I had to wait until Collinsworth made the call.  This is a very simple thing that is inexcusable to get wrong at this stage in the franchise. 

At the end of the 3^rd quarter, I finally got on the board with a FG of my own, cutting the score to 6-3.  I hoped to win the game late in the 4^th, but was once again held to another FG and forced OT with the score 6-6. 

I got the ball back at the start of the extra period, and after having dropped the last 5 passes, Randy Moss inexplicably got the one that mattered most while double covered.  He elevated over the two DBs who had him blanketed and brought the ball down.  I was relieved to then kick the game winning FG and end this frustrating game, but there was definitely some irony that the one pass Moss caught all game was the one where he was actually well covered. 

Following the game, a screen popped up and my “Madden IQ” was adjusted.  While my total score went up to 455, my passing skills went down while my defensive ratings improved. 

Going into the AFC Championship game against Cleveland, I was curious as to how my adjusted Madden IQ would impact game play.  In short, it changed things dramatically.

In this game against the Browns, everything was clicking for me on offense, defense, and special teams.  I blasted the Browns for a 24-0 halftime lead.  I thought the game was in hand and prepared to coast to victory in the second half, but was mistaken.

The Browns opened the second half with a 1 play 80 yard TD drive.  Just seconds into the 3^rd, the score was 24-7.  I proceeded to milk the clock, taking 3 minutes off en route to a FG, putting me up a convincing 27-7.  I kicked the ball off to Cleveland and once again – in spite of my deep zone defense – they scored a 1 play 80 yard TD.  This seemed a bit wonky and kind of cheap, but the score was suddenly 27-14.  I got the ball back and tried to milk some more time off the clock, but my drive stalled and they got the ball back.  They ran the ball to the right side and their RB broke 4 tackles en route to the endzone.  1 play, 65 yards.  With 2 minutes to go, the score was 27-21. 

All of this was highly suspect to me- it seemed as if the game was rigged to keep the CPU competitive.  When I got the ball back, I was stuffed for a loss on 1^st and 2^nd down.  On a huge 3^rd and long, Randy Moss came up with the play of the game, breaking free to score a 60 yard TD.  This put the score at 34-21 with 1:47 to go and the game was effectively over.  Although the CPU managed to nearly score one more time, I held them to 4 and out at the goalline and preserved the 34-21 win. 

This was a wild game, but ultimately a fun one for me.  It got my heart rate up, but never made me furious (like Madden 2002 did constantly).  At the end of my second game, my Madden IQ was rescaled once again, and this time fell to 447.  This scaling was interesting to me, but I wasn’t sure how well it was working. 

The Super Bowl featured the Patriots vs. Cowboys.  I really did not know what to expect going in – a defensive struggle like my first game?  A shootout like the second?  What I got ended up being a blowout. 

Mike Vrabel picked off Tony Romo on the opening play and nearly took it back for the TD.  On 1^st and Goal, Maroney finished things off and rumbled into the endzone.  On the ensuing Cowboys drive, Romo was once again picked off and moments later Sammy Morris rumbled in for the score.  Less than a minute in, I was up 14-0 and Brady hadn’t thrown a single pass. 

After a couple of Cowboy first downs (thanks to Terrell Owens), they were forced to punt.  I opened the second quarter with a deep TD to Randy Moss.  On my next offensive drive, I ran the same play and had the same result.  TD Moss.  With 3 minutes left in the 1^st, the score was 28-0.

Dallas then more or less went into panic mode and gave up on the running game.  In spite of a number of nice plays by Owens, they were unable to get any points before the half and the score remained 28-0. 

My main complaint about the game to this point was that the commentators did very little to acknowledge that this game was the Super Bowl (in fact, I don’t think they mentioned it at all).  Some of the canned comments just didn’t make any sense as a result (“He is going to have a lot to study in the film room before next week’s game!”). 

I hoped to avoid any frantic comeback attempt by the Cowboys, so I did all I could to grind out the clock in the second half.  I was able to basically impose my will on the Dallas defense and ran out the entire 3^rd quarter in one drive (before punting). 

Not much happened in the forth quarter (other than some more great catches from T.O. that led to nowhere).  Late in the 4^th, Dallas put together a great drive that stalled out with consecutive sacks of Romo to end the game and preserve the 28-0 Patriots win.

The Super Bowl celebration was weak, just a few frames basically repeating the animations from the end of Madden 08.  This one was a bit shorter and lamer though.  I was also annoyed (and this happened in Madden 06 and 07 as well) by the fact that when you win the Super Bowl, the in-game monitors flash with the text “COWBOYS LOSE!  COWBOYS LOSE!!!!”  This is just weird and even a bit cruel.  Shouldn’t they be celebrating the new champion rather than taunting the loser? 

Eh- whatever.

In wrapping up, this particular game was never competitive, but boy were the graphics pretty.  On the whole, Madden 09 improves upon the already very impressive graphics from Madden 08.  I get the impression once again that this is a pretty good game, but I never really got to play it.  Following the game, my Madden IQ shot up to 500.  I suspect that if I played a bunch more games, my IQ would have evened out to the point where the difficulty level hit a sweet spot and all the games were appropriately competitive (win some/lose some).  But, alas, there are still two Madden games to be played, so that experiment will have to wait until another day.