Last year when Madden 13 released, it was the first time in about…five years or so that I stated that the previous year’s edition of Madden wasn’t worth hanging on to. Usually, unless you absolutely must have updated rosters, Madden doesn’t change enough to justify immediately jumping to the new edition. Madden 13 was an exception. Oh, it had some flaws, but it made enough significant changes with Connected Careers and with the new Infinity physics engine that it wasn’t the same game as the year before. This year marks the 25th anniversary of the Madden football franchise, and as much as I’d like to say Madden 25 is the definitive version of this console generation, I’m afraid I have to go back to saying unless you are a diehard fanatic who want’s current and updated rosters, this is really just an slightly improved version of last year’s game. So if you’re happy with Madden 13, there’s not a lot of compelling reasons to upgrade to Madden 25.
That isn’t to say there aren’t improvements, because there are. The physics engine has improved; no more awkward animations of players flopping around on the ground after a play is over. Owner mode is back, and while not quite as fully featured as it has been in the past, it’s still fun to move the Vikings to Vancouver and re-christen them the Mounties. There’s some refinement to the controls, making it more productive to juke, spin and otherwise shake and break away from tacklers. Pretty much everywhere you look you’ll see refinements and fine-tuning; but nothing drastically different. For the most part this looks and plays like last year’s game. Plus it still has all the same flaws; really slow menus (why?), repetitive commentary (why, why?), the animations on the field are awesome, but sideline animations, cutscene animations, presentation…pretty much everything else is canned, reused, and repetitive (why, why, why?). Oh, and if you’re wondering what makes this 25th anniversary edition so special, during the load screens, you’ll get little bits of trivia about past releases. Yup, that’s about it. Not quite the big celebratory bash I was expecting, just one more iteration of a yearly franchise that improves slightly but continues to carry forward problems that have become as much of the game’s legacy as the Madden cover curse (fortunately Barry Sanders is retired, so don’t have to worry about him getting bit by that).
The new moves are nice, but they can be tricky to learn, so it’s nice that you can go into the simulator and do some training until you get them down.
In fact, the simulator is actually quite useful when it comes to learning the moves necessary to be become a dangerous running back. You know, it’s kind of funny, because training and discipline are so necessary in sports, and yet often in the church they often have kind of a bad rap. For whatever reason, we can get concerned about discipline and training as being “too legalistic” and therefore not something we should indulge in. And yet Paul reminded us of the importance of training and discipline (1 Timothy 4:8). More than that, how can we possibly be proficient in anything if we don’t spend time training ourselves in the basics and learning “the right moves” as it were. We need to know our Bibles, we need to pray not just when we feel like it or when we want something, we need to evangelize, we need to study, we need to memorize scripture. Some of those are challenging moves to learn, but as with anything, time and practice can make them second nature, and when they become second nature, they’ll be ready for us to use in those “heat of the moment”…er..moments. So spend some time in the “simulator” learning the right moves to use in your Christian life. Trust me, the discipline will definitely benefit you and pay off.
I love Madden football. I have a lot of fond memories from past games. I remember the worthless vision cone. I remember the thrill of seeing it on the Xbox for the first time (it looks so real!), I have many fond memories of thrilling victories against my friends and some agonizing defeats where I wanted to throw that controller throw the wall. Madden has such a great, long history that it’s a shame this “25th Anniversary” edition turned out to really be nothing more than a mild update of last year’s game. Now, I’m not sure exactly what I was expecting, mind you. I can’t say what I feel is missing, but something…something more than just having a few factoids during loading screens would have been nice. As it stands, Madden 25 is not a must buy. It’s still a solid game, and it is an improvement over last year, but all in all it’s a mild upgrade, and not the full blown celebration of 25 years of Madden we were all hoping for. For Madden fans, it will satisfy, for everyone else, hang on to that copy of Madden 13.
This is still a solid football game, but it’s not the celebratory edition I was expecting. For the most part, this is a refined version of last year’s excellent version, so unless you’re a diehard fan, there aren’t many reasons to upgrade. Best to look for a bargain price on this edition.
