LessThanNick1's Full Review: Madden NFL 2002 for PlayStation 2
I’m a big fan of sports games. If made correctly, they never become tiresome. They’re not linear like most other games. There’s no real way to “beat” them. You can play a good sports game almost forever. I played NHL 94’ for the SNES for about a year non-stop and I never grew tired of it. That was back in the my elementary school days, when I had the attention span of a young child. Madden 2002, the newest PS2 football game is quite possibly the best sports game of all time, it’s definitely the best football game of all time. That’s right, it’s better than NFL 2k1. I know this may sound like blasphemy to you Dreamcast fanboys, but it is. Madden captures the essence of football, all of the strategy and thinking. This is the closest thing to real life football.
The gameplay for Madden is great. The AI is very good. The Madden level of difficulty is so realistic. If don’t make logical decisions like a real coach you’ll get your a*s handed to you by the computer. You have to read defenses, carefully select plays, and learn your Wide Receivers routes so you can pass them the ball at the exact moment they need it. You also have to find a good balance between runs and passes. This is not like the old skool days of Madden when you just needed to run the same 3 plays that worked over and over again. The AI gets wise to you in you try to run the same plays over and over and adjusts. The first time I play on the ALL Pro difficulty level I threw 7 interceptions. It was frustrating.
The graphics are very impressive. The PS2’s true power is shown here. The player animation is great. Even the coaches and guys on the sideline look great. You see all the little details like a big fat lineman standing by the giant fan, or a waterboy with a rack full of Gatorade bottles. The coaches are also very detailed and look like their real-life counterparts. The tackle, run, and catch animations also look great. I love tackling a guy so hard that his helmet pops right off. The crowd isn’t animated quite as well as in NBA 2K1, but they look pretty good. All of the various fields look great and unique. In Oakland’s stadium you can see where the baseball field is. It’s the little things that make these graphics so great.
The controls are pretty much the same as the first game. The buttons are the same, you can customize the controls if you don’t like the set-up which is always a plus. The only new thing on the control a new kicking system. This makes kicking a little tougher, but it’s easy to get used to. After 2 or 3 games you’ll be knocking down 50 yard field goals without too much trouble.
Madden doesn’t just have great gameplay it has tons of modes that add hundreds of hours of extra gameplay. There’s than traditional practice, season, exhibition, and franchise. Madden 2002 also has a bunch of new modes. There’s training in which Madden explains the different formations and plays and how to run them successfully. This is very good for newbies, that don’t know a ton about football. There’s also two minute drill which is a game where you are awarded points for doing things like getting out of bounds and saving clock time. There’s a situation mode were you can pick any sort of situation, set the score any way, the time any way, ect. You can re-create past memorable moments. Madden cards also add depth to the game. For performing certain tasks you are given madden cards which unlock hidden teams, stadiums, and old skool players. The expansion Houston Texans are also available.
The sound is pretty good. Madden and Pat Summeral’s comments are usually on point. They usually don’t make the wrong comment. The crowd noise is pretty good, and the players gloating is also pretty cool. Sack the QB with Warren Sapp and enjoy his taunts. The in game sound are good, but not great. The tackling noises and whatnot are good.
Madden 2002 for the PS2, is the best football game of all time. If you’re even a casual fan of football you should own this. Be cautioned that this is more of a sim, and if your not into that type of thing you may not enjoy this. Madden will not make football fans out of non-fans. This game is well worth the $50, it’ll provide months and months of good times.
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