The Madden Football series has been around for several generations of consoles and has released games for every major system since it came out. Not being exclusive has given owners of any system the chance to play the series.

This series has pretty much always been the football game without many challengers to the throne. But when Sega’s NFL2k series came out for the DreamCast, it surpassed Madden in almost every way in its first year. Thankfully this forced EA to up the ante and by the next year they had a game nearly as good, and still more popular.

Unfortunately EA somehow was able to buy the rights to exclusively make NFL video games. This means no competition to worry about, and therefore no incentive to make a really good game. It shows.

Graphics: 8 / 10
Madden for the 360 really outshines any other football game to come out before it. This is of course thanks to the fact it’s the first NFL game to use the next generation systems power. They didn’t just port over the game from the other systems either, it’s been built from scratch as an all new game and given a lot more attention to detail. The players more realistically run, catch, and throw the ball. The character models have enough detail you can actually recognize players on the field, too.

Even though the graphics are really improved, there’s a lot of little glitches that are distracting. The AI sometimes gets stuck on each other or one of them won’t move with the rest after a play, or they’ll even glitch out and shake around a bit. These kind of things make you think they didn’t take enough time to smooth the game out. But hey, with no rivals to worry about, they’ve always got next year.

Sound: 8 / 10
The sound is really similar to the past games. In fact unless I go back and load last year's game up, I don’t think I’ll notice any real changes except the fact that it’s not John Madden doing the announcing. This doesn’t really change the feel much though. Besides that, the commentary is pretty good the first few times you hear it and the sound isn’t bad by any means. It’s just not something to get excited about.

Controls: 7 / 10
Maybe I’m just not well enough versed in the Madden series, but it doesn’t seem like the controls have changed at all. The players respond the same way and at about the same speed as before. There’s nothing here to really complain about if you’re a fan of the series. You can pretty much adjust your setting any way you’d like. I guess they just decided to stick with a tried and true formula.

The only thing I would like to see in next-gen football games is slightly faster, more responsive play. After playing games like Blitz, I’ve grown fond enough of the addictive fast pace that I’m willing to sacrifice a little beauty and realism.

Gameplay: 5 / 10
Single Player -- This is where Madden went all wrong. There’s countless features found in this year's and even last year's Madden on the past systems that aren’t available for the 360. I’m paying $60 a game for this system, and I don’t feel I should be getting a stripped down, rushed game for this price.

Some notable problems are the lack of defensive options, like changing individual player positions. You can’t change your formation at will on offense. You can’t challenge plays. Seems they just didn’t take the time to even include some normal options, let alone spend any time on innovation.

Multi Player – Playing on the same screen is just like usual, but with prettier graphics. You can’t tell exactly what plays the other guy is calling when you are playing on the same TV, but you can often make a good guess. I look back at the DreamCast NFL2k series and still wish there was another system that allowed you to call the plays from your controller.

XboxLive – Every multiplayer game should be online. The 360 does a pretty good job of keeping the game together online, but you will notice any lag. Of course a faster connection and playing somebody closer to you will bring this down a bunch, but when you have a bad game, it’s not totally playable. Overall though, online play is possibly the best feature of the game.

Replay value, longevity: 7 / 10
Since it’s so much like past versions of the game, you may get bored playing quickly if you’re not a diehard fan. It does however, have some qualities that may keep you coming back, notably the franchise mode where you can spend days playing through a season.

I think where you get the best bang for the buck is on Xbox Live though. If you’re a hardcore fan, there’s no limit to how many hours you can put into this game.

Overall (personal bias): 5 / 10
There are some pretty good qualities. The game is pretty. It doesn’t play bad and it’s online. I just couldn’t get over the fact that this is supposed to be a next generation video game, but somehow has less features than games that came before it on inferior systems. If they don’t try harder, I’ll just pick up a copy of Blitz next year. Better luck next time EA.