Instead, you had to play roulette until you found the combination you wanted. But it was good to try out as many combinations as possible, especially because you weren’t able to choose your parents directly. Would having your mom work at a grocery store improve your ability to calculate routes as a quarterback? Who knows. You could create your own player, but you were able to choose your parents to see if that had any type of effect on your talent and skills. The untapped potential of the “Madden Test” is why it makes the list.
It wasn’t perfect, but it was a good idea that the series could have expanded upon. They made it hard as shit in Madden 10, but that’s a separate complaint I have.Īt its core, the “Madden Test” was a great way to both introduce new players to the game as well as get people reacclimatized to the game in case they hadn’t been playing over the last couple of years. Players would theoretically use this to test out their skills so Madden could evaluate the player’s Madden IQ. This game mode was a fun new thing in Madden 09. It’s an effective tactic that makes sense at the end of the day. For example, if your receiver has a height advantage, you can throw a high pass and have your receiver perform an aggressive catch.
This feature also helps you exploit mismatches and get the best out of designed routes. This is extremely helpful because it makes accurate quarterbacks even more accurate and adds an additional wrinkle to the passing game. The passing modifier is a cool feature because it allows the player to throw a high or low pass depending on the situation. That’s not what I’m talking about right now. Passing/Catching Modifier from Madden 18įorget target passing. Creating your own plays was always a joy and it’s a shame it’s no longer in the game. NFL Head Coach 09 had this same feature and you could do it mid-game.įor instance, on second-and-9, if you had a play idea you wanted to run and edit some routes, you could try it out in the middle of your game and then after you run it, there was an option to keep the play. Unfortunately, the create-a-playbook was phased out of Madden and hasn’t been seen in a long time. The only drawback to the older feature is that there aren’t any option plays you can create.
The default Falcons playbook had formations that looked like this. Both NFL and Madden playbooks have evolved over the years, and the ability to create these plays allows the older teams/games to have a new playbook.įor example, you could give Vick’s Madden ‘04 team more spread formations. You could also invent your own formations, which made the games feel timeless. You could tell Peerless Price to basically run in a circle while Michael Vick improvised. For one, it’s WAY more fun to feel like an actual coach. But there was a time in Madden when you were able to create your own plays. In a lot of the Madden and NCAA Football games, you had the opportunity to create a playbook by adding and subtracting certain formations, plays, and audibles. Look, the best part about sports games is the customization, and the best part about any football game is customizing a playbook and going to WORK against a friend or the computer. Create a Play: Madden 2004/NFL Head Coach 09 Skipping a single song feels like a party foul. Transitioning from Lupe Fiasco’s smooth flow to the HEAVY guitar from Rise Against, there are so many electric and diverse bangers on this soundtrack.
If you had both games, you could listen to “Woman” by Wolfmother, “Don’t Hold Back” by The Sleep, or “Monsters” by Matchbook Romance and then pick up your toy guitar controller and play those songs. In addition, several of these songs were also featured in Guitar Hero. No two songs sound the same and, more importantly, no songs hog the spotlight. But what jumps out in this is that every song has such a distinct and recognizable sound. Most sports game soundtracks showcase many genres like this one does.