Genre: Sports
Publisher: EA
Developer: Tiburon
Release Date: August 12, 2008

If it's August, then it must mean the return of Madden. Like the swallows of Capistrano or your annual date with the IRS, the release of a new version of Madden is an unstoppable force that comes barreling through like Maurice Jones-Drew driving for the end zone. So the question then becomes, should you line up at the store with everyone else and pick up your copy of Madden '09, or would you be better off sitting out for a season? The answer is really quite simple: If you're a Madden junkie who craves your next fix, this year's edition is for you, and if you aren't, then you're just as well of saving your $60 and putting it toward one of the plethora of great games gearing up for release this fall.

The question Tiburon struggles with every year is how to keep a game fresh when it's essentially the same experience year in and year out, with little more than some graphical tweaks and a roster upgrade. This year, it seems like the team has realized that the hardcore fans will come back no matter what harebrained schemes they try (QB Vision, anyone?) so they've instead opted to include some features to appeal to the Madden rookie. All of these tools seem great in theory, but each one also falls short in execution. It ultimately results in stagnation, with no progress or decline to be found anywhere.

The first "great in theory, horrible in practice" idea is the newly introduced "My Skill." When you first boot up the game, you'll be greeted by a holographic John Madden (enjoy it, it's the last time you'll be seeing him) and put through the paces in four offensive and defensive tests. Each of the challenges is meant to gauge how good you are at various aspects of the game, and assign four independent difficulty levels tailored to your own abilities. As stated above, this sounds like a terrific idea, and with a bit more tweaking, it may well turn out to be one of the series' greatest innovations in future years, but this time around, it all falls apart once you get on the field.

The main problem with the tests is that they are so simple and stripped-down that even newcomers will likely excel far beyond their true skills. Take the rushing offense challenge, for example. Have you played a game like God of War, Resident Evil 4, or any of the other hundreds of titles that have required quick-time button presses over the past five years? If you have, you'll likely ace this test, as every time a defender approaches, you'll see a button appear over his head; press the corresponding button, and you'll break out of his tackle. Your almost-guaranteed success will throw you into the All-Madden difficulty, and then when you go to play a real game, you'll be promptly humbled. When you're on the field for real, no button prompts come up, and you'll be lucky to eke out 50 yards a game against the CPU.

This problematic evaluation system is present across all spectrums, and you'll most likely head out for your first game completely overmatched in nearly all respects. After you get your butt handed to you, the game will rebalance the skill levels a bit, taking your performance into account, but the changes are never drastic enough to really feel a difference. Sure, you could play 20 games with the same two teams to get a "true" measure of your skill, but that's definitely not a prescription for fun gameplay. Any title that makes you spend days trying to discern your actual ability has some serious issues.

Aside from My Skill, there are a couple of other new features this year designed to make life easy on the newcomer, and both of them fall just short of being truly great inclusions. First up is Rewind, which will allow you to redo any play by simply pressing the X button once the action is over. Throw a stupid interception? No problem. Gave up a big play that you think you could have prevented? We can take care of that. You can have one, five or unlimited Rewinds in a game, or you can turn off the feature entirely if it feels too much like cheating (and indeed in online games, Rewind isn't even an option). However, the option still inexplicably exists in offline multiplayer, meaning that you can quickly earned a controller-shaped indentation in your skull by Rewinding your buddy's touchdown or big defensive stop. It's a great tool for erasing mistakes you've made against the AI or taking away what you think was just one of those lucky plays the computer seems to make from time to time, but if you use it while playing against a friend, then you are just a genuinely bad person.

The final major new addition is BackTrack, which takes you back when you screw up a play and shows you what exactly went wrong. During this recap, Cris Collinsworth will diagram out what just happened and how you failed. He'll likely point out that you threw into double-coverage or that a safety you didn't see crept over and made a big play, and then go on to point out what you should have done instead. The only problem is, his analysis isn't always right on the money, and it could confuse a lot of new players more than help them. For example, during one game I threw a pick, and during the BackTrack, Collinsworth pointed out another receiver who was "open," who was actually blanketed by double-coverage. I had in fact thrown the ball to the open receiver, but I threw it behind him, giving the defender a golden opportunity to reach in and pluck the ball away. I realize this because I'm a big football fan, but someone who doesn't know the intricacies of the game would likely end up confused and throwing the ball where he shouldn't simply because "last time, the announcer said that's what I should have done instead."

The gameplay in this year's Madden continues to illustrate our continuing theme of the series being stuck in neutral, with numerous small improvements being unable to overcome some of the seemingly simple flaws the game stubbornly includes year after year. One thing you are likely to love about the latest release is the attention paid to graphics and animation. Players look more realistic than ever, and stadiums and fields have the little touches that make you rub your eyes in disbelief. The first time you play a game in the rain, with mud and sod caking your players, you may be so impressed that you end up taking a picture.

Also new this year is the fact that ball carriers are no longer locked into tackling animations, meaning that when a defender initiates a hit, you can tap a juke or spin button to try and escape the hit. You won't always succeed, and if you're being tackled by two defenders at once, you may as well not even bother because you'll never break free, but it's one of those little wrinkles that makes the game a little more fun and spurs you to keep trying even though it looks like you're about to be dragged down. Eluding a defender and dashing for the endzone is just as exhilarating in a video game as it is in real life, guaranteed to get you up off the couch screaming, "Go, go go!" at your television.

One thing you'll quickly notice is that all the issues that have plagued Madden AI in years past are back once again. Offensive line play is still atrocious, often meaning that play action passes near the goal line, and screen passes anywhere on the field are utterly useless. Also, kick coverage remains as bad as ever, with your teammates often releasing a defender downfield on a punt so they can block a guy 30 yards away, leaving you to be tackled immediately. Also, the CPU has some weird quirks, such as quarterbacks who can make pretty much any pass in any situation once the game has determined that he's going to score on the upcoming drive, as well as players who sometimes run out of bounds for no reason, even if they aren't about to get tackled. These are all legacy issues at this point, and I'm beginning to wonder if they aren't included in the game simply so critics have something to keep complaining about year in and year out. If that's the case, then it's a cruel, cruel trick.

As always, Madden gives you a wide variety of options when it comes to getting out onto the field, but you've likely seen almost all there is to offer before, with no new bells or whistles added. Franchise and Superstar modes are back, but neither one has been improved considerably, and Superstar is such a close retread of last year's version that I thought for a minute I had changed game discs. This edition also promises online leagues, but it's such a neutered experience that it feels nothing like a real league. In NCAA Football '09, developed and published by the same folks as Madden, you and your friends could pick a conference, pick a team, let the CPU fill in the blanks and go all out in a chase for the national title. Madden gives you none of that, instead restricting your league to only human players, and getting rid of the draft, playoffs and Super Bowl in favor of a much weaker substitute. What the whole thing comes down to, unless you happen to have 32 people who all want to play together, is essentially an itty-bitty fantasy football league with even less on the line than real fantasy football. The lack of attention for the online leagues is a huge downer, especially considering how masterfully it was handled in the NCAA version.

There is one new gameplay mode worth mentioning, and that is the Madden Moments. This particular set of challenges has appeared off and on throughout the life of the series, and now it makes its grand return. Madden Moments take you back to some of the biggest plays in the biggest games of last year's NFL schedule and hands the reins over to you. In some situations, you'll be tasked with duplicating the actual outcome, like when the Dolphins beat the Ravens in overtime to keep from being the only team in history to not manage a single win. Other scenarios call for you to change history, such as taking over the Eagles when they led the Patriots in the fourth quarter and holding on to derail the Pats' perfect regular season. These scenarios are great for a quick dose of football when you don't feel like a full game, and they let you relive some of last season's greatest moments one more time.

Rounding out our discussion of why Madden seems to be spinning its wheels is this year's new commentary team. Composed of Cris Collinsworth and Tom Hammond, this year's booth is essentially a tale of one of the league's best commentators/analysts being paired up with a stiff, wooden character who acts as little more than a shill for EA. It is quite apparent that Collinsworth, providing the color commentary, was made for a role such as this. His observations are nearly always spot-on, and his lines are delivered in such a manner that you feel like you're watching a live game unfold rather than listening to canned commentary queued up to play when you face certain situations. His work is artful, and it sets a standard many sports games will be hard-pressed to match.

On the other side is Hammond, the play-by-play man who absolutely kills any joy you'll get from listening to Collinsworth. His delivery consists of a wooden monotone, reminding you more of the guys who were calling Madden games in the early '90s than the radio announcers who have been handling the duty for the last couple of years. Hopefully, Hammond will be canned before next year's game, and maybe ol' Johnny Boy himself will get back into the booth and do a bit of work. Madden and Collinsworth calling the games together could be quite the delight, but it seems doubtful such a utopian future will come to pass, at it seems John is perfectly happy slapping his name on the game and collecting a check for him to resume any "real" work on the franchise.

Unfortunately, this year's Madden is one of those games that had so much potential to be amazing, yet it squandered the opportunity at every pass. For every new mechanic implemented, there is something else botched just enough to render the neat new aspect moot. Perhaps if Tiburon and EA had spent a bit less time worrying about what to do about Brett Favre's jersey and a bit more time focusing on ironing out a few more of the nagging issues that plague the title, then Madden '09 would be a must-own. However, there are just enough things wrong with the '09 edition that there's not a whole lot of reason to upgrade over last season's affair. If EA wanted to prove that the universe is balanced, and that for every yin there is a yang, then the mission has been accomplished; if they wanted to make a great football game, then they've fallen a bit short.

Score: 7.0/10