Stats of Import
Platform: PS2
Absurdly Specific Genre: Old guys talking about penetration, and how vital it is
Difficulty: There were exploits available, I'd say maybe 3?
Beaten: Well, I won the Super Bowl as the Vikings. I don't know how much more a football game can be beaten.
Let me preface this by saying that I've probably never spent as much time with any game (with two exceptions, but those two games are much higher up the list) as I have with this one. I completed a 30 season franchise. I didn't skip more than a couple games.
I heard Alien Ant Farm so many times that I think of "These Days" as their biggest song, not "Smooth Criminal". I heard Madden talk about whatever it is that Madden talks about when he's not talking about Turduckens so many times that his voice echoes in my dreams.
Gameplay-wise, there's not much to say. It's a 6th Generation Madden game. From what I hear, 2005 was a little better, but I was still loving this one at the time, so why pay $50 for a roster upgrade?
What I do know is that this one had (for me) the perfect mix of arcade and semi-realism. They've never regained that balance to my liking, so now all that Madden is good for is the occasional online grudge match against Branny (though we've had some legendary games).
This might be heresy, but this game has become the definitive football game to me.
