- Strong graphical presentation
- Loaded with tons of extra features including the fun Two
Minute Drill
- Realistic CPU AI
- Impossible to exploit running
ability of agile quarterbacks
- Tackling adequacy of defenders leaves much to be desired
- Hard learning curve for defense and field goal kicking
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Madden
2002
Score: 8.6 / 10
It's an annual rite of passage in the world
of sports video gaming. Another NFL season starts, and another rendition
of the long-running Madden football series hits the store shelves. In
its heyday of the Sega Genesis, not only was Madden the best football
title around, it was the best video game of any sport, bar none. Riding
the wave that has carried it since those Genesis days, every year like
clockwork, the game quickly becomes a top seller, supported in large
part by the fanatical Maddenites. This despite the fact that the game
has had less-than-stellar years during The 32- and 64-bit gaming era,
which weren't very pleasant undergoings for the Madden franchise,
particularly when we're talking about the graphic and control elements.
Don't give me any talk about the grandeur of the franchise's entire 2002
line. Madden 2002 on the N64 is uglier than Quasimoto's hump, with a
difficult control scheme to boot.
But it's been the 128-bit era that has seen the moribund Madden
resurrect itself to its once-lofty perch atop the sporting video game
realm. With the release of
Madden 2001 on the PS2 last year, Madden
again had a right to claim superiority over its direct counterparts. Was
the 2001 rebound a fluke? Or does Madden 2002 continue the franchise's
resurgence? The overall goodness of Madden 2002 on the XBox verifies
that the 2001 version indeed has given rise to the return of Madden to
top-flight gridiron video gaming greatness.
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That's not to say that there aren't some deficits in Madden 2002 either.
But let's start with what makes this year's game a title worth buying.
This is of course the initial season debut of Madden on the newly
released XBox. Tiburon Entertainment has successfully taken advantage of
the power of the XBox to create the best Madden yet, even though it is
just slightly better over the PS2 version than one suspected it could
have been.
Madden 2002's graphics are one of the title's biggest assets. This is
one great-looking game, from the players and their uniforms to the
stadiums and crowds. Out of the three XBox football games, Madden 2002
wins the aesthetic award for its eye-pleasing visuals. Player animations
look awesome, particularly running backs scampering in open pasture. The
motion-captured animations of all players are extremely well done. The
cyber-players in Madden 2002 are the most realistic looking seen in any
football game.
One minor glitch in the running back animation is when a back hits a
defender-filled line and doesn't attempt to squeeze through any
miniscule opening similar to NFL2K2. Instead, they look like a hamster
on an exercise wheel, legs a-churning but not going anywhere fast, just
waiting to be tackled.
During the opening coin toss is the only place in the entire game where
the graphics are below par when you consider the stellar visuals
everywhere else in Madden 2002. The players gather at the 50-yard line
for the toss with their helmets off, which is a mistake, because the
heads are so grossly ballooned compared to their respective torsos you
almost get the feeling you just have engaged some type of big head cheat
in the game. But that is a minor complaint considering the whole coin
toss aspect takes less than 30 seconds of Madden 2002's gaming
experience.
Sound elements are solid, at least in respect to the loud crashing
together of large male bodies on the cyber-gridiron. This is evident in
the great replays that show you not one, not two, but three different
angles of bone-crunching impacts. The crowd noise is serviceable, and
increases in volume if the home team happens to be enjoying a good
streak of plays. But the crowd cheering can start sounding a little bit
unrealistic compared to NFL Fever's better and more genuine audience
audible exploits.
Player chatter on the field is basically non-existent. Does it detract
from the game not hearing the banter of defensive players talking smack?
No, not really. It's just noticeably missing after playing a few games
of NFL2K2.
And of course, the signature of Madden 2002 is the inclusion of the one
and only John Madden and his esteemed sidekick, Pat Summerall.
Unbelievably, while not as bad as the NFL Fever tandem of Dick Stockton
and Ron Pitts, Madden and Summerall provide only average at best
commentary to this year's rendition. Summerall retains his overall
steady play-by-play calling, but Madden's comments are a stock variety
of generic voicings, and repeat too often. The usually flamboyant
real-life observations of Madden are mostly held in check in the video
game dominion. The Madden remarks are at their best when the are
specifically referring to a Madden 2002 individual virtual player. Most
are right on the money, describing the player or his situation in close
synchronicity to what has happened on the Madden 2002 playing field.
What makes Madden 2002 a good football game is the CPU's artificial
intelligence. In single-player action, you can't expect to roll over the
CPU-controlled opponent with large chunks of yardage on offense or shut
it down with an impossibly tough defense. You have to work to get the
hang of beating Madden 2002's AI. Nothing's easy, and that's a good
thing. The biggest fault with NFL Fever is that its way too simple to
defeat the CPU. You won't encounter the same situation with Madden 2002.
When playing with other human competition, the AI helps you both on
offense and defense. The AI reacts to the play on the field. You're
going to wind up with realistic final scores, not
60-points-for-each-side shootouts.
This game's learning curve is steep. It's no wonder that this series has
such a devoted following, because the amount of time it takes to master
this franchise doesn't allow for even any casual acquaintance with
another football title good or bad for each respective system.
Also, the AI referees are a little too quick to toss a yellow hankie,
especially if you stick to the same play a few too many times or running
or passing every single down. The penalties, especially holding, can
promptly ruin a good scoring drive, and it seems like the CPU's AI is
forcing you to develop a more balanced approach to playing offense, so
get used to seeing more flags flying than appear in other football
titles.
Madden 2002's game speed is nice on the offensive side of the ball.
Select a fast-moving fleet of offensive personnel with a team like the
St. Louis Rams and you will be flying around the field at what seems
like warp speed. On defense, the players move with swiftness of foot,
just not as evident as on offense. Amazingly the nice game-speed aspect
of Madden 2002 holds true despite the fact that the speed burst function
provides little velocity increase to your cause. This is probably the
result of Madden 2002 trying to deem itself as the most realistic
football simulation available. Oh, you do move a little faster than
usual both on offense and defense, but it pales tremendously in
comparison to the speed burst in NFL2K2 or the "lightning" burst in NFL
Fever. In those games, increased speed is obvious in that Wile E. Coyote
on Acme rocketskates way.
You want extra features? Madden 2002's got them at an insane level. This
is one area that neither NFL Fever nor NFL2K2 can come close to matching
Madden 2002. My favorite feature is the two-minute drill. Playing on
offense starting from your own 20-yard line, you have to try and score
as many points as possible within the supplied two minutes. The more you
score, the more tokens you earn, which in turn are used to buy the
Madden cards which are the player, hidden bonuses and cheat cards you
can use in the game. Your best bet to collect tons of tokens is to pick
the Rams as your offensive team and select a bad defense like the
Houston Texans or a NFL Europe team. This practically guarantees you
scoring at least four or five touchdowns.
All the NFL teams including the new Texans, NFL Europe, NFL Alumni teams
and Madden teams are included to select from. If are a Daniel Snyder
wannabe and somehow don't find a team you like out of the multitude
Madden 2002 gives you, you can create your own. Everything from the team
logos and colors to the nickname are left up to you. And the franchise
mode gives you complete control over a team that you can run as its
general manager. Trade and replace players as you see fit to fine-tune
what you hope will lead to the ultimate NFL prize, the Super Bowl
championship. One feature that is more of an Xbox goodie than a Madden
2002 one is the ability to save games directly onto the built-in Xbox
hard drive instead of the traditional memory card.
The biggest complaint I can fire at Madden 2002 is the utter lack of the
efficient ability of using quarterback scrambling to produce a
high-octane offense, especially when considered against NFL2K2 and to a
lesser extent NFL Fever. The only way to get your QB to use his feet to
gain yardage is to pass the line of scrimmage. There isn't a way to
immediately allow your signal caller to hit the turf at high speed, a la
NFL2K2. Instead, your field general, still in a passing stance, shuffles
up to the line. But by the time you get any chance of crossing the point
of no return, when no passing option is left, the defense has usually
smashed your QB into the ground for a sack. It makes the using of a
skilled running quarterback, especially Donovan McNabb of my hometown
Eagles, useless as a running threat. Essentially, Madden 2002 negates
any threat of running in the game by a quarterback who usually inflicts
a lot of headaches on the defense facing him in real life due to his
talent at scrambling (McNabb, Kordell Stewart, Jeff Garcia, Daunte
Culpepper to name but a few). I don't see how Tiburon Entertainment
could have allowed the important game feature of quarterback running
options to be left out. It is inexcusable from the self-appointed
masters of the sports video game.
Learning the nuances of the kicking game is one of Madden 2002's tougher
acquired skills. I still haven't found the perfect stoppage points on
the kicking meter to attempt a field goal or loft an effective punt.
Early on, you won't have any faith in either aspect of the kicking game.
In fact, even in field goal range, I more often than not will wind up
just going for the necessary yardage on fourth down instead of what to
me is a futile and generally unsuccessful field goal.
Tackling on defense isn't too easy either. Frustration mounts as an
offensive player escapes the seemingly inescapable grasp of your
controlled defender. Usually this occurs against the better running
backs in the league like the Rams' Marshall Faulk or the Redskins'
Stephen Davis. I guess you won't mind your player gaining a few more
unexpected yards if you are on offense, but it can be maddening (pun
intended) while you are on the defensive side of the ball.
Considering how many button, joystick, and trigger variations are
possible with the XBox controller, the control scheme is much less
complex than one would think possible, especially after dealing with the
harder-than-it-needs-to-be controls of NFL Fever. Offensively, the
running game is much easier to learn than the passing game. Passing the
pigskin requires dedication. Madden 2002's passing controls are
frustrating for a while until you play a few games and gradually get
more comfortable. Defensive controls take much longer to master. I like
the ability to easily shift both the defensive line and linebackers. But
learning to play with your cornerbacks covering passes to wide receivers
will take time. The only facet of Madden 2002's control scheme that I
didn't like was the assignment of letter-coding instead of color-coding
to your available offensive receivers during passing plays. Maybe it's
just me, but I think its easier to figure out which receiver is you best
option by having a color button above identifying him instead of a
letter. In NFL Fever, the receiver assigned to the red "B" button has a
red "B" identifying him, much the same as in some variation NFL2K2 and
GameDay do. In Madden 2002, you have a yellow "B". Being used to the
color-coding of the above-mentioned games made Madden 2002's passing
attack more difficult to learn.
For the hardcore Maddenite, this is the best and most balanced Madden
yet in spite of some absent and suffering game conditions. But 2002 is
the greatest season for football game choices. Those with a leaning
towards arcade gridiron action or an easy-to-learn football experience
may want to consider the other two relatively solid choices out there
instead, NFL Fever or NFL2K2. The various 2002 releases have made this
the most competitive contest ever when it comes to selecting a football
game to buy. Madden certainly fills up a lot of the holes that made my
prior experience with the recent series releases on the N64 and PSX
totally unpleasant. But it is definitely NOT the unanimously brilliant
game many make it out to be, although I will throw Madden its just props
for giving the Xbox another early A-list title.
