Madden 08 for PSP: I Love Madden and I Don't

Anyone who is even a casual football fan, or on occasion plays a video game, should be familiar with the John Madden football series. As the former Coach of Super Bowl Champion Oakland Raiders, and someone who did win under Al Davis, he knows a thing or two about the x's and o's of this sport. He has been in the booth as an announcer for years, and due to his fear of flying, has taken his bus across the country to all of the nation's stadiums. I'm waiting for him to write a tailgating book, because while I know appearances can be deceiving, it seems that Mr. Madden doesn't miss a lot of bratwurst parties before each game.

The Madden Series is the best compilation of football video games ever, and this is with apologies to Tecmo Bowl, which I still have a soft spot in my heart for. Electronic Arts has monopolized the football genre with this, which has increased its market share for games based on basketball, hockey, baseball, and soccer. I just love to hear before every game completely loads up, "EA Sports..its in the game." You quickly realize that there is something special about this company, because they are very consistent about producing sports based games for true fans, and the Madden Series might be the next best thing to putting on the pads and guzzling gallons of Gatorade.

I have had several editions of Madden NFL over the years, and on a number of platforms. My time with this series goes back to the 1990's, and my favorites are 04 for the Sony Playstation 2 and 2009 for the Xbox 360. The 08 Madden for the Sony PSP is a decent game, that is wonderful for its portability, but it seems to lack a bit of character from what you'd expect by being spoiled on the full sized platformed editions. The main problem that I have with this, is mostly due to the small screen size, but there are other problems associated with its graphics than just this.

You have to strain to see the players on the screen, and its really difficult to figure out where your wide receivers are. For instance, if you have an offensive play with four receivers that are moving in opposite directions across the field, it is difficult to see which one is the square, triangle, circle, or x according to the buttons. This causes a lot of interceptions that wouldn't happen if you could see better, because when the wide receivers are far downfield, its hard to discern them and the opposing team.

This has caused a lot of frustration, and the only players you can easily see are your quarterback and running back on offense. EA Sports cut some costs on graphics in other places, that weren't limited to the screen size. The stadiums are Playstation 1 quality, as I had to laugh when I saw fans that looked even worse than cardboard cutouts. Each stadium is distinguishable from the others, but there isn't a lot of detail, and the field colors and uniforms aren't that brightly colored. The replays are pretty cool though, as the image quality does improve, but this is only for a few seconds of each game.

In addition to the graphics that were a bit disappointing, there are a fair amount of glitches to this game. My portable is well taken care of, and I bought this game new, but yet it has frozen during the middle of several games. Of course, per Murphys law, it always did this in the third or fourth quarter. This has caused me a lot of frustration, so be warned that you might have to repeat a few game during a season. Also, there are times when the graphics cut out and get blurred during fast moving plays. This has actually distracted me, and I lost yardage opportunities due to this.

The gameplay itself is a lot of fun. You can either play a single game, or go through a season, which is what I usually do with my New England Patriots. You can set up your rosters however you see fit, call the plays, and then execute them on the field. This allows you to get involved in every angle of the game, much like previous editions of the series. The plays are easy to choose from when in the menu, but you of course have to be within the time clock, or get penalized for it. The authentic feel cannot be beat, but one thing I do want to beat, is John Madden himself.

This game would be so much more fun, without the annoying comments of Madden, who is the announcer for each game along with Al Michaels. For this reason alone, I sometimes turn the volume completely down, even though I do miss the screaming of the fans, and the sound of the ball being kicked. Madden is the master of the obvious enough during his regular broadcasts on television, but he gets almost to the stupidest level possible with this game. He discusses "dead ducks being thrown by the quarterback," and brilliant ideas such as "When you run with the ball hard, you might gain a few extra yards." Wow, thanks for the insight on this. Al Michaels stays perfectly in the background, and does decent commentary on what is going on with the game, and I wish I could leave him on and shut Madden off. Thankfully, this has been taken care of in the 09 version on the xbox360.

The controls are intuitive for any Playstation gamer, and if you've played the series before, you'll be going at it full force in under ten minutes. For beginners, I'd recommend sticking it out in the tutorial for awhile, which teaches you the basics such as how to pass, run, block, grab interceptions, etc. While this game does not live up to the full sized platformed versions, it is the most realistic football game you can take with you on a roadtrip or if stuck with nothing else. Due to its season and challenge modes, the replay value is excellent, and you can get it used for around $15.

Vince Young continued the tradition of the Madden Curse, as he is on the cover of this game. While the game itself is not suffering from voodoo that bad, it fails to deliver on many levels. I am hoping that 09 and future PSP versions of this game increase the graphics capabilities a bit, and also do away with Madden's useless blabbering. Otherwise, this is a fine investment for its now low price, and its the best option for portable football. Due to the PSP's online capabilities, you can play someone else, and see if you have what it takes to be considered All-Madden.