Madden 2005 Review

I suppose it was only a matter of time before Electronic Art’s 800 pound gorilla known as Madden were to come to the Zodiac. Tony Hawk, which has found its way onto nearly every platform since the PlayStation, has also made the Zodiac and N-Gage its home. Tomb Raider has made an appearance on the N-Gage, and will soon be released for the Zodiac. Now it’s Madden’s turn.

It’s hard to call Madden 2005 for the Zodiac anything but a mediocre title. Such a simple task as passing the ball is made difficult by cycling through the receivers, though it is optional to put it in ‘single receiver’ pass mode. You’ll manage these plays using the traditional Madden playbook with little difficulty, which is good. Other than that on the gameplay side of things, Madden 2005 feels much more like an arcade football game than the more simulation-style of Madden on the consoles.

I was under-whelmed by the on-field action of Madden 2005. It felt more like a failed Game Boy Advance 3D attempt than a Zodiac game. The limited 3D engine does the game no justice, and in fact deters from what could have been a more preferable ‘Tecmo Bowl’ style graphics with horizontal gameplay, instead of the vertical on-field action of this game.

Madden 2005 for the Zodiac offers a ‘Play Now’ mode, ‘Season’, and ‘Front Office’. The ‘Play Now’ is a quick start to on-field action. The Colts and Lions are default teams, but you have the option of selecting who you would like to play for and against. With ‘Season’, you’ll play the regular season with the option to trade players and the sort with the ‘Front Office’. It’s only the most basic ‘Season’ mode that you’d find in any game, but it works.

Two areas that impressed me were the statistics in the game and the sound. The statistics provide a cohesive breakdown of how each game turned out by the end of the game. In the sound department, the developers used the voices of John Madden and Al Michaels of ABC’s Monday Night Football. Their commentary adds to the ambience of the game, which is severely hindered by the game’s graphics.

At the current price of $29.99 on Tapwave’s website, it’s hard to recommend a subpar football title to consumers. Sure, you’ll get endless hours of replay value and a ‘Season’ mode to conquer, but the game mechanics are basic, the graphics are worse than the Nintendo DS version of Madden (which says a thousand words), and your overall experience will likely leave a bad taste in your month. Spend that $29.99 elsewhere, like on Animated Dudes or Gloop Zero.