It's the most popular and well known sports franchise in the world, and without it, EA may not be the gargantuan powerhouse they are today. The Madden series has gone through a horde of competition over the past 20 years: GameDay, Quarterback Club, and especially NFL 2K being the most notable. But no matter the football sim, Madden had no problem outselling them all combined. Now, Madden is the only name in town, and while plenty are still bitter about it, at least we continue to get a quality product. Perhaps the past two Maddens didn't offer any major improvements...but Madden 09 feels like an all new game.

The most frequent complaint I've always made about Madden games is how they never felt quick enough. Gameplay always had a tendency to feel a bit on the choppy side, never truly making Madden feel like it's evolving. For that reason, my personal preference had been the 2K games, they felt more fluid, quicker, and there was a much better connection between the gamer and the athletes on screen. But all of that changes with this year's Madden game, as Madden no longer feels outdated, but rather fresh.

When I first played Madden NFL '09 two months ago during the Madden 20th Anniversary party in New York City, my buddy and I immediately noted how much smoother the game felt. The pace of the game now has that fluidity that the series has been missing, and controlling your players feels superb. As a result of these refinements, the action is now tighter and more precise - gone is that feeling of sloppiness from the past Madden games.

So now that the gameplay feels far more intuitive than before, what does this mean? Well, for starters it means you get a less frustrating experience. Better controls also call for more responsive actions, and that means far less controller throwing, and fighting between you and your friends...believe me, I've been there many, many times. To further improve the intuitive experience is the all new Virtual Training Center (VTC) for Madden 09.

The VTC is the first thing you'll encounter upon booting up the game, and here's where good ol' Papa Madden will explain to you that Madden NFL '09 has a system that can create a customized difficulty level based on your skills. You will go through a series of tests (all of which you can skip), and be graded on them anywhere between Rookie to All Madden. Once you've finished the tests, the game assess your Madden IQ and then creates a custom difficulty level specifically for you. This trial of tests can be repeated at anytime if you'd like to refine your custom difficulty level.

One of the game's 85 new features is a Rewind option that allows you to trigger a re-do that'll rewind the last play and give you another shot. You can set how many rewinds each team is allowed to have per game, and I suggest setting it to zero. This is football, mistakes and upsets are part of the equation. By now, I'm certain that you're well aware that there are a horde of new enhancements and features added to Madden 09, and I obviously can't go into detail explaining them all. But I can say that as a whole, all of those changes have made this the best playing Madden game, and certainly the best playing football game since NFL 2K5.

As far as gameplay modes go, you've got: Franchise, Superstar, Virtual Trainer, Madden Test, Madden Moments, Mini-Games, and Practice. The Virtual Trainer is where you'll go to hone your skills, and the Madden Test is where you'll go to show that you've improved in hopes of getting a better evaluation and harder custom difficulty. The Franchise mode and the way that it creates and tracks your gameplay statistics has been completely redone for the first time since the mode's inception.

The Madden Moments mode is a highlight-reel mode where you'll replay some of the biggest moments from the 2007 NFL season. A Fantasy Football mode has been implemented into this year's Madden, a welcome addition, as the "game" has grown immensely popular all across the country. Lastly, EA has brought back a number of very important features from the PS2/Xbox Maddens, something that the fanbase has been calling for for the past two years now. Online is consistent and smooth, and those who've poured countless hours into last year's game will, no doubt, do the very same for this year's.

Visually, an improved graphics engine carries Madden NFL '09, and allows us to forgive EA for shanking the PlayStation 3's Madden 08 last year with its inferior visuals and framerate. Madden NFL 09 is a performer with its spot-on 60 frames per second, 720p resolution, and very clean picture quality. For Madden '09, Tiburon has re-rendered every NFL player model in the game, creating much more realistic looking athletes, complete with their accurate physiques. The overall look of Madden NFL '09 is a polished one; the grass doesn't look blotchy, the rain and snow look very nice, the lighting is superb, and there is a minimal presence as far as jaggies are concerned. Even though it's still leagues off from EA's CG trailer from 2005, Madden NFL 09 is a good looking title.

One other big feature for the game's visuals is how super smooth each animation is. No longer do animations chop from one to the other, most of the time the action moves very fluidly and smoothly. Furthermore, tackles are more dynamic than past iterations, keeping the momentum feeling fresh and exciting. The weather now has a direct affect on gameplay, as rainy and snowy conditions make players more prone to slipping, sliding, dropping the ball, and so forth.

Audio is handled by Cris Collinsworth and Tom Hammond, both of which take control of the commentary booth for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions. Al Michaels and John Madden take the reigns of the booth in the PS2, PSP, Wii, and Xbox versions. The commentary in Madden '09 is a definite step forward compared to the past games, as the commentators now have more to say about each match, player, and event. An example of this improved commentary is hearing the commentators mention that they spoke to a certain player some days ago, before the on-going match, and asked the player how he felt about a particular scenario. Little things like that help improve the overall presentation. And of course, to wrap the audio up is a soundtrack...with a mixed bag of artists. Acts include The Offspring, Airbourne, Franz Ferdinand, Senses Fail, and others I'd rather not mention.

All in all, Madden NFL '09 is the first Madden game I have enjoyed with very few peeves to complain about. Tiburon has done a fantastic job at bringing us a game that controls superbly well, looks smooth, runs quick, and boasts a horde of enhancements to make this the best Madden game ever. Madden fans don't need me to tell them that this one's worth the purchase, but if, somehow, you're still on the fence and need a push, Madden '09 is definitely worth your time.

Madden 09 comes in this year with expectations of being the greatest simulation of football ever. The game is solid but the expectations and the resources EA has to make the game makes you feel that the game is made each year just to earn a profit it WILL get because it IS Madden. What are the good things:
1. Presentation
a.The game looks great! Stadiums are beautiful even the background you see while you are kicking a punt. The players looks great and move well
2. Attributes
a. The weapons systems is a nice touch. Doesn't make player superhuman but you use your strengths to create mismatches as you do in real life.
3.Chris Collingsworth
a. His voice is beautiful and natural. Anaylsis are great when you make a mistake just like watching the real deal.
4.Beginners
a. If u are a beginnig you can set the difficulty on easy as heck and have fun mainly with running up the field for 300 yds a game.

The bad: Sadly outweighs the good
1.John Madden
a. yes he was added back in at the request of fans but why? To give us a 5 second intro sometimes not stating the teams or the significance of the game? Thanks for being Obi Won in Madden trainer. Madden needs a little bigger role in his own game. Maybe be on MNF games or playoff games.Or if you are old and don't want too ..than don't!
2. Tom Hammond
a. PLEASE! we are aware that EA makes Madden and has done so for 20 yrs! "Just to let you know that our game is brought to you by the good folks at EA Sports." That will be heard probably twice per game! Very dumb. Thats not the main problem here. His voice sounds Mechanical. You know how the lady who reads off the phone number of a generic voicemail sounds? Thats Hammond.You try to press 1 to leave a message then she says "I'm sorry that is an invalid entry." Dangit can't get around it Need a different play by play. Anyone.
3.Feel
a. Madden feels shaky. The atomosphere isn't there. They is no feeling while playing just sound of Tom Hammond and tackling. Need more player chatter or the crowd involved. Better commentary would do it since it's main part of real game
4.Glitches
a. The passing glitches hurt. Throwing out routes is a hit and miss. Some receivers don't run routes causing interceptions. Best defender tackle can be broken by anyone.
5.Franchise Freeze
a. This may sound like a new dance by the steelers but it isn't. Some gamers experience their franchise mode lokcing up. Having your MAIN game mode freeze 2 out 4 games isn't good.

Econ 101:Competition

Our country is built on competition. Madden has no competition.Wheb you have no competition what do you get? USA basketball team when they lost. You were use to being the best and you let your guard down and got embrass and woped. Or Monopoly like oil. There is no alternative to oil so you can do whatever and charge whatever the big dogs are making money what are you going to do? Not buy? Okay. You need a LOT of folks to follow suit to make an impact. Madden has no competition so it can do what it want. a great marketing program builds hype and the game nevers totally sucks so you can always have the self hope " maybe next year will be good" And there is something about "next year" that makes you truly feel it will be a little better than next year and you get it and you start the process all over. Until Madden has competition EA has NO reason to do their true best!

OK let me tell you this I don't really pay attention to Football at all, so Im gonna put this review by my dads point of view, This game is awsome he dosent play game really at all hes kind of like my football quote at the top doesnt really pay attention, but for me it was ok, I liked making me, and my own team the Alaskan Bears.

Oh baby, how I longed for this game. Hell, I waited until midnight at my local Gamestop opening day just to get the damn thing. I, like so many guillible bastards thought that since it was the 20th anniversary, 09 would be super special awesome... but we were wrong. Oh sure, it's just 08 repackaged but with Brett Favre as the coverboy, the nifty Backtrack feature, Madden Iq (which ain't all it's cracked up to be) and Chris Collinsworth (who gives a much needed boost to the commentating) but still is fun, nonetheless. The graphics get a major overhaul, and the overall presentation is finger licking good. The rewind feature is a pretty good addition to ease n00bs into what otherwise, would be a steep learning curve. As I stated before, the idea of Madden Iq on paper sounds promising however, it's just a number that goes up or down depending on your performance and the AI doesn't seem to change drastically as you improve. I expect this will change next year and will be commonplace for the next installments. Oh yeah, the AI still does boneheaded moves like running out of bounds while wide open and running down the clock even though it's the 2 minute warning and they got their pansy asses handed to them. In retropect, while Madden Nfl 09 doesn't reinvent the wheel, it still is a solid title and worthy of the name Madden, so if you like football and you're a red blooded American this the game for you. (Also because it's the only game in town) TOUCHDOWN CELEBRATIONS FTW

Madden 09 this year was NOT a disappointment they fixed everything that they needed to fix I think its great to have a game that adapts to you and the graphics is crazy they really out did themselves so people thats hating on madden09 stop it theres nothing to hate about it

Over the years madden has been the best football game of all time.
And today it still is madden nfl 09 is a great game. Great visual's

After several years of boycotting Madden Football I decided to pick this years installment up. To my suprise this game exceeded my expectations of nothing changed. Same problems as before(back in 05) yet this time around there are now more problems. Instead of fixing problems with their game EA just keeps adding new ones. Yeah the game looks pretty, but that doesn't blind players or distract them from the truth. EA is CHEAP! The easy buck because there is no compatition to speak of in the football genera. I suggest giveing up atleast one of your exclusives. You team Tiburon have become lazy and greedy with your stale game. EA drop you college licence, it wouldn't hurt to findout just how crappy Tiburons games is with a little competition in the market.

Madden 09 is the pinnacle of football and sports games out right now. This game has some of the best graphics I've seen in awile even for a sports game. If you asr a true fan of madden or even football this is the perfect game for you. I'm currently on my 6th season of franchise and the game is still as fun as when I first bought it. If you are looking for a great sports game to play, pick up Madden 09

My favorite Football game of all time is still NFL 2k5. I popped it in after I picked up Madden '09, and it was still surprisingly fun to play, albeit with VERY outdated graphics, but also with a presentation that it still UNMATCHED to this day.

Ok, but this review is for Madden, right? Right. Let's go with what they got right this time.
First, Madden '08 was the first Madden I bought since NFL 2k5. I just didn't like what EA was putting out. Then '08 came out, and I was like, "yeah, they're on the right track finally.".
Fast forward one year later, and after seeing EA talk up this year's bullet points, I was actually excited. The graphics looked great, the EA Backtrack feature looked really cool, the commentary was completely REHAULED...I hated the EA Sports Radio announcer.
I also read about saved replays, etc.
I was sold.
And, like they mentioned, the graphics looked great, and the presentation was improved over '08...but just barely really.

I have a few gripes...
1) Why can I save my replays as "highlights", but NOT view them on my console??? Apparently EA thinks it's a better feature to ONLY view them as compressed video files on EA's website, which suffer from massive YouTube-like video artifacts.
I don't think it's better. Also, you must choose a specific camera angle before you upload it.
This would be ok, if EA allowed you to both upload it to their site, AND save it to your HDD, viewable in ANY angle, ala NFL 2k5.

2) Presentation. The presentation is certainly better than it's been in the past...now between plays, there are more video overlays showing stats of certain random players, both career and season. Cool.
But...the half-time break is a complete, and utter FAILURE.
The screen cuts to a screen with the score, and a small window, showing the first of 5 important replays of the half, while John Madden quickly utters a short comment.
Now, you can cycle between the replays, and press A to watch a full-screen version of it, but that's it...no recap of what happened other than the visual.
In NFL 2k5, Chris Berman actually broke down each replay as it was being shown! AND, we got scores and highlights from around the league! 2k Sports took FULL advantage of the ESPN license.
In Madden '09, I can't even tell that EA HAS the license at all!

It's a shame. But, all in all, it IS a good-looking game, the sounds are great, and it controls and plays really tight. The running game is HARD. But, it's hard in the NFL too.
The game does what it's supposed to do, and provides all the standard modes, but it's just not a giant leap from last year...hardly a hop really.

Bottom line: If you are a Madden fan, it's a no-brainer. For guys that have no choice for a Football title, you really could do worse.
My problem is, I just don't see EA Tiburon trying very hard to give us the ultimate NFL experience.
Now, EA Canada on the other hand, is giving us the best Hockey game I've EVER played in NHL '09.
My advice, EA Tiburon should take a trek up to the Great White North, and pick up some pointers from a development team that truly cares about its sport and its fans.

The problem with being a juggernaught not scared of competition you get subpar product because they know fans will get it regardless. When i first got the 360 i was taken back by how lame their version was with 07 compared to the ps2's. Then i got 08 and was halfway satisfied because i got my created team back. 09 doesn't make up for much. There's some add ons like the IQ which is kinda cool, and the online league but i don't use xbox live so that didn't matter much to me. The animations were kinda lame , the AI made it look like they were high..which may be realism involved ...but it still doesn't feel like i'm watching a game on tv. I would like to see tv presentation where they show the starting lineup at the start of the opening drives, a decent halftime show, an even better one at the superbowl, and a better draft. It's not worth the upgrade but if you're just getting a 360, it still brings you a decent game of pigskin. Why the 360 can't bring the same game as Sony does is beyond me. Sony's got the upper edge on this game however the graphics on the 360 seem sharper. I guess real football fans will just sigh, take their lumps and hope that next year , will bring us something worth shelling out 70 bucks to.