Review by: William Abner

There is no denying the staggering popularity of EA Sports’ Madden franchise. This is a game that year in and year out sells millions of units worldwide. It’s a game that the mainstream media mentions by name when released; as big as videogames are today – that’s still rare.

So it may strike some as odd (I prefer the term interesting) that EA Sports would decide to shake things up a bit. To change the overall direction of the franchise from one that has always been about gamepad skill more than it has football knowledge. To take this supremely popular arcade game and attempt to meld it with serious simulation aspects. Let’s be clear: this is still Madden. This is not a complete reboot of the franchise, but you can easily see and feel the changes that were made to the gameplay and in a larger sense to the player ratings, and how the players interact with one another on the field.

The result is that, while still flawed in a few key areas, Madden 10 is far and away the best Madden game ever released. Of course that should be the goal every year for a yearly sports update but this version reaches out not only to the gamepad skilled Maddenite but also to serious football fans who have always wanted a bit more from their Madden experience.

It all starts with the player ratings. This is the single most important change from previous editions. For the first time ever the ratings in Madden not only make sense but they truly matter on the field – and not just speed and strength ratings, but other more delicate ratings like throwing accuracy, play action passing, and route running. Playing with the Browns and asking Brady Quinn to make certain throws downfield is a risky proposition as Quinn’s long range accuracy is highly suspect – and you see this on the field as Quinn struggles mightily on his deep balls.