Madden 16 review

It’s that time of the year again: another much anticipated Madden game is hitting the shelves with flocks of football fans and gamers alike already lining up to make their annual purchase. But how worthy of a buy is Madden 16? Is the hype real, or is the “copy and paste” method still a staple in the franchise? Let’s find out.

First off, I’m going to start by saying that without playing a second of it’s actual gameplay, Madden 16 is extremely similar to Madden 15. In more aspects than one. The entire cinematic introduction, the menus and even the commentators are the exact same as they were in its predecessor with minor tweaks here and there. A very welcome surprise, however, was the inclusion of a real and lengthy soundtrack this year. Kudos to EA Sports for making an effort in this area, but unfortunately, like I said, the majority of the game reuses a lot of old  material.

This isn’t a death sentence to the game as a whole, but I wasn’t very pleased with the way I was introduced to the game, other than the soundtrack.

But come on, people don’t play Madden for the commentators or the soundtrack, they play it because of the core gameplay. They play it because they want to play some dang football. This is where the franchise makes its money afterall. And I won’t lie, Madden 16 is as fun as ever with quarterbacks, defensive backs and wide receivers gaining interesting and new gameplay mechanics.

The most evident change is found in the wide receiver position. Wide receivers now have a variety of different catching abilities depending on the situation. Sometimes the player may want to just make a safe and reliable catch and jog out of bounds. Other times he may want to bust out a nasty one-handed grab into the endzone (no wonder they put Odell Beckham Jr. on the cover). It gives a lot of creativity to the game-player. Choosing your favorite team and playing against the computer is an insanely good time, and the game runs really smoothly while also looking very sharp.

On the other hand, online play is where Madden yet again struggles. It’s a never-ending cycle with Madden, and maybe even all sports games. Playing with friends online is just plain difficult, which is a real shame because it’s a big reason why sports games are so enjoyable. Maybe it’s just me, but having little control of my players and constantly lagging/glitching makes for an extremely frustrating experience. But as always, we’ll just have to suffer through it until Madden can figure out how to fix this very, very old problem.

If you can move past all that frustration, Madden does have a saving grace. In fact it’s the only reason I can see myself continuing to buy these games.

Three words: new game modes.

Madden sure loves to reuse old material, but when it musters the strength to bust out a few new or revamped game modes, it really is a treat for fans. One mode in particular is Draft Champions. This mode puts gamers through several rounds of drafting players, then eventually having to stick with your decision and play in a sort of “king of the hill” style competition. It’s fresh, it’s new and it’s a lot of fun. However one other game mode shines above all the rest (as it has for the past three years), Ultimate Team. Similar to Draft Champions, you must construct a winning team from the ground up and move through online and offline challenges to climb the ranks and beat your friends. Again, online play is a challenge at times, but Ultimate Team is just too fun to let that flaw harm it. Other modes like Franchise and Career mode are fun to mess around with, but they aren’t interesting enough to keep you on the hook.

Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise, Madden 16 is a fun game with lots of content to explore. But at the same time, it’s a clear carbon-copy of it’s twin brother Madden 15. It’s a perfect exemplification of the old phrase, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”

Now if you are a die-hard football fan who just happens to like video games too, this entire franchise couldn’t be more perfect for you. In fact I’m willing to bet you already own at least one Madden game already. But for people like me who are a bit tired of playing the same game over and over again, it’s a tad disappointing.

Can you teach an old dog new tricks? Can Madden ever dig itself out of this stupid trend it’s created for itself?

Here’s to Madden 17 being a true game changer.