Madden NFL 2006 (2005) (VG)

User Rating:

7.6/10   

Release Date:

9 August 2005 (USA)

Tagline:

Year of the Quarterback

Awards:

2 nominations

Cast

Troy Aguayo	...	Football voices (voice)
Tony Bruno	...	Himself (voice)
Adam D. Clark	...	Mocap Actor
Lisa Guerrero	...	Herself (voice)
John Madden	...	Himself (voice)
Al Michaels	...	Himself (voice)

Certification:

USA:E

Trivia:

Donovan McNabb of the Philadelphia Eagles missed seven games in the 2005 season due to injury and his team failed to make the playoffs after appearing on the cover of the game, thus continuing the "Madden Curse".

Movie Connections:

Featured in The Break-Up (2006)

Soundtrack:

Rock Da Party

With no competitors, EA still proves they won't give up

Although this generation of systems (XBox, PS2, and Gamecube) can only improve so much as far as graphics go, it is actually a drastic change from Madden 2005 to Madden 2006. It's tough to explain, but the entire presentation was more realistic than before. The EA Sports Radio with Tony Bruno has many new segments this year, although after a while, it gets old. Nothing you can do about it though. And, as usual, the sound effects are still as good as they've ever been. The main extra of Madden 2006 is of course Superstar mode, where you can track a player from the minute he declares for the NFL draft to that final moment where he retires with every other NFL record under his belt. It's an extremely detailed mode, much better than that of this year's NCAA's (Race for the Heisman), and it can supply you with many more hours of game play. The new Total Control Simulation system was also another one of my favorite extras. You're able to call every play and see how your team executes it. It's basically the same as Coach Mode, except you aren't actually watching the game, you're reading the play-by-play messages. And at any moment. you can interrupt the game and play it if you're not comfortable with the score or just itching to get in there. I saved several of the new features for the game play description rather than extras. First off, the new vision passing adds such a new level of difficulty and skill to the game that you can't believe they successfully created it. It's difficult at first and takes some practice, but once you get the hang of it, you can become the next Peyton Manning. Second, the new truck stick allows you to deliver a huge hit to the opposing defense, similar to the hit stick that defenses can use. Just flick the right control stick up as you make contact with the defender and you can bulldoze over him (obviously it doesn't work all the time, but is still effective, especially when you're 1-on-1). Finally, the running game has vastly improved and although you can find patterns that the computer won't ever recognize, you can really no longer call the same play getting the same result. You must actually recognize your blocks rather than running east and west until the defense gets tired or forcing your way through the line.