Rob Gronkowski was revealed as the cover athlete for Madden 17 on Thursday. It got me to thinking about how long the legendary football game has been around. While I think the sports gaming culture is well beyond its peak, it’s fun to look back at the series that helped shape my sports fandom. Seriously, I’ve been along for the Madden ride going back to the Sega Genesis, moving through the Super Nintendo, then N-64, to the PS-2 plus Gamecube, and finally the XBox 360. Even though I don’t own a PS-3, I still am able to rock with the newest Madden on my roommate’s if I ever get the itch.
Now, I consider myself in semi-retirement from Madden. Back in my prime, there were few things in life that I was better at than the football game. Late PS-2, early XBox 360 days are when I was the absolute truth, often nationally ranked in the online top 500. My peak was Madden 2005 to Madden 2008. From the gameplay, to the soundtrack, I rolled with the Madden Franchise.
With all that in mind, let’s take a look at what my favorite all-time Madden features.
1. Playmaker Control, Madden ’04 – This has to be the clear number 1 choice if you’ve been playing this game for a while. The playmaker control was the definition of a game-changer. This feature was basically developed for Michael Vick, and it made the Falcons the ultimate unfair team. Vick was on the cover of the game, and had a speed rating of 94. That was insane for a quarterback. Therefore, when folks scrambled for ages with Vick, the playmaker control allowed the WRs to break off their route to vacate the open area of the defense. Vick’s 97 throw power rating would zip a pass to the open target.
2. Hit Stick, Madden ’05 – The feature that made it fun to play defense. Before the hit stick, forcing fumbles had a high element of randomness to it. The hit stick got rid of a lot of randomness, and instead made it about timing. All of the new big hit animations were striking. Keep in mind, this was before we got suddenly smart with concussions and started frowning upon big hits.
3. Vision Cone, Madden ’06 – This was one of the most unpopular Madden features. I actually loved this one. The QB Vision cone was a feature that reflected the awareness that a quarterback had. The better the quarterback was at reading defenses, the bigger his vision cone was. Passes outside the vision cone would lack precision while passes inside would be accurate. It also made playing defense more fun, because you could read the quarterback’s eyes and get a better break on the ball. However, the feature proved too difficult for newcomers, so it only lasted a year.
4. Owner Mode, Madden ’04 – Owner mode was the upgrade of all upgrades to franchise mode. Owner mode allowed you to get your mogul on. You could upgrade the stadium, come up with prices for hot dogs, and even move the team if you wanted.
5. The Tony Bruno Show, Madden ’05 – This is a blog for a radio station. So, I have to give love to the fact that Madden added the Tony Bruno Show to Franchise Mode in Madden 2005. It really did have opinions, and interviews through the menus of the franchise mode while you made depth chart and roster changes. A clever idea at the time.
Hit me up @ChrisLewisTweet and let me know what you think.
