I’ve been a dedicated NCAA Football gamer for many years, but I did play some of the Madden games in the past.
Now that this site covers football games in general, I think it is time for me to invest many hours into one of the Playstation 2 Madden games.
Although I played some Madden, I never sunk enough time into one to call my own. I remember playing Madden 2005 more than the rest but not enough to declare it the best by any means.
However, since it has been so long since I played any of them, I’m going into these games as a newbie and with fresh eyes.
What About ESPN NFL 2K5?
You maybe asking why I’m not adding ESPN NFL 2k5 to the discussion.
First, I plan to import draft classes from whichever NCAA game of the same year of the game I plan to play and I can only do that with a Madden game, not with 2K5.
Also, while 2K5 does appear to be a great game, the Madden games were just as much fun back then and I enjoy the same feel they and NCAA 06 have.
Lastly, I think 2K5 got a ton of love for two big reasons: the presentation was amazing and the game was only $20 compared to the original higher price of Madden back then.
Not that this is a bad thing, but it’s something to keep in mind.
What Do I Want in a Madden Game?
I simply want a game with solid gameplay and a fun Franchise Mode with longevity.
This shouldn’t be too hard to find as outside of the Vision Cone feature in Madden 06, I don’t think the Madden games were pumped with goofy game-breaking features like NCAA Football 07-11 had.
Besides, you can turn off the Vision Cone feature so there’s that.
I’ve been told by others that some of the later Madden games had players getting better too quickly in the ratings but I’m not sure which games had this issue.
You may think I should just play Madden 06 because I play NCAA Football 06 the most, but that’s not really the case.
I can always sim a dynasty and just save draft classes for whichever Madden equivalent I choose.
There is also the Create-A-Playbook feature in Madden that I would love to use but that feature has several little flaws to keep me from using it too much.
For example, Madden 2005 was the last one where you could use your created plays/playbook in Franchise Mode but you couldn’t use its audibles.
Madden 2004 was the last where you could do both.
Either way, this feature had a few other issues, some I may discuss in the future, but for now this feature is not a must for me.
Why didn’t I play much Madden in the past?
First, I’ve always enjoyed the college football game more even though I follow the NFL game heavily and consistently.
Second, I enjoy the play/playbook variety of the the college game more.
Let’s face it, NFL games, especially for the PS2 games, offer much less variety in terms of offensive schemes.
I can get creative and work outside of the pro style and west coast styles but when you take out an sort of option game, then your options are more limited.
The positive to this is I can come up with some pretty deep pro style-ish offenses that I normally don’t recommend in the NCAA games.
Another positive is that the Madden playbooks are very unique from each other team-by-team so I look forward to exploring them all.
Lastly, I enjoy recruiting players more than dealing with their contracts and stuff but since I have a few business degrees,
I’m actually looking forward to getting back into the business side of things with football.
Accidentally hit 03. I do love anywhere from 03-08. I meant to say play 05
Any thoughts on why I should play 05? I’m hoping others can shed a light or two on why some of these games are better than others.
madden 12 was always my favorite on 360 not sure if its any different on ps2 but I would say that.
03 is probably the first ‘Modern’ Madden game worth playing. I’ve never given it a serious shot, but I know it supposedly has very solid gameplay. The main issues I think it has are DB play and you can’t flip run play directions – this was added in ’04 with the “Playmaker” Feature. I think this actually probably makes the plays better since they don’t update them much. Franchise might have issues but I wouldn’t know. I’ve actually been interested in doing an 03 franchise, so I’ll probably start one with the Cowboys soon.
04 is my favorite game, but it has a serious balancing problem in that the playmaker feature and the balancing of the passing game make offense way too easy. Even the weaker teams can dominate in the air thanks to how easy it can feel to complete the long ball. There’s also an unfortunate glitch where the RT whiffs his block so hard on passing plays that it’s literally impossible to get the ball out. I will say that a major boon of 04 vs 03 is that I think NCAA 04 is much better than NCAA 03.
05 is the reverse of 04 – Offense was so strong in 04 that they made defense ridiculous in 05. Now instead of it being too easy to complete longer plays I actually think it’s too hard unless you’ve duped the AI with a strong running game. I also dislike the forced owner mode, as I do not believe you can turn off franchise relocation in 05 which is frustrating to me (might be wrong though).
06 is the last game with good sim stats – that is to say, RB1 vs RB2 stats after 06 start getting wonky as hell which brings down the relative quality of all RBs in the game since only the top RB is getting carries. I love the vision cone because it forces the player to care more about AWR on QBs, but the AI is pretty poor at using it unless they have a player like Peyton Manning who doesn’t care. 06 shares with 05 as well this graphical difference where players start all looking slim similar to NCAA 06, which bugs me personally.
I don’t know much about the rest. I know 08 gets a lot of acclaim because of its PC Modding scene. It should be noted that by around 05 or 06 or so the way players progressed became markedly worse which led to way too many players becoming 90 OVR.
Helpful stuff, thanks.
I owned Madden 2001, 2005, 06, and 07 for PS2. All I can tell you is that Madden 07 was my favorite from them. 2001 was still too new for NextGen, 2005 was still pretty fun and had Tony Bruno’s radio show, but Vick and Shotty Tight was still too overpowered. 06 had the run/pass tell in half of the formations, which ruined it for me. I loved the balance of 07 and I feel like any title after that was neglected with the move to PS3 era.
I own Madden 02, 05, 07 , 08, 09, 10, and 12 for the PS2 and I have had the most fun playing 07. Madden 07 in my humble opinion has the very best balance for the PS2 era of Madden football.. Madden 12 for ps2 would be an option to play seeing that the game has a nice franchise mode and the player movement still maintains an organic style of play. Its like a shootout and it can make for an exciting change of pace for us that really appreciate the PS2. So yes other than 07 Madden 12 would be something to look into playing given the time.
07 and above. Has player roles. Really helps cpu draft logic and logic in general. Tony bruno show.
08 adds player weapons. Or icons atleast for them plus best madden for coaches stats being correct.
09 adds toe taps on sidelines and still has madden cards. Why im leaning towards it.
10-12 just to show off the lazy. Id consider 10 just to have rookie maclin n mccoy to go with Jackson. 11-12 all 09 rookies n higher and a bunch of other players career stats say n/a. Also coaches past seasons all stop at 06. So after year 1 you’ll see coaches past go 06 then whatever year your in. 08 best to for continuity in that.
08 playbooks seem to be more old school nfl. 09 -12 with each higher year seems to be more towards the spread and new nfl.
09 and 10 are my picks for the toe tapping on sidelines. Big deal for me. Plus having a couple more great young players in without worrying that the ncaa imports tune high 90 speed players like maclin to 90 or less in madden
Madden 2003, 04 and 05 were my favorite Maddens on the PS2. Maybe I had some childhood bias with 03 – it being one of my first Maddens, one of my favorite players in Marshall Faulk being on the cover, combined with the first Madden that had a soundtrack. My 11 year old self could definitely be clouding my early 30s judgment today, but I had a fun time with 03. Gameplay was an absolute blast.
Madden 04 is quite fun, though if you either play as, or go against, a speedy quarterback like Mike Vick, you can run on the opposing team (or will be run on) all day. Vick was known as a cheat code back then. But the dynasty mode was a blast, gameplay was really good, and another solid mid-2000s soundtrack.
Madden 05 was an excellent game as well. Another excellent dynasty mode and gameplay.
For some reason, I didn’t like Madden 06 when I had it as a kid. I did not like the vision cone that they had as a gameplay feature, and the feel of the game at the time just didn’t feel good to me. I recently bought a copy of 06 to give it another try, and couple it with NCAA 06. Hopefully I will find a new passion for it.
Thanks for the feedback.