From humble beginnings on the Apple II, the Madden franchise has become one of the hottest properties in video gaming. The series has changed remarkably over the last twenty years: early versions of the game didn’t carry the licenses of the NFL or NFLPA, leaving you with fictitious teams and players, you could run into the other team’s scrimmage and punch the opposition, and let’s not forget the ambulance that would screech onto the field and run over every player in its way. Now the game not only forms a major part of EA’s software line up each year, but the NFL season as well.

Yet in recent times, the quality of Madden NFL games has fallen from grace. After a very disappointing debut on the newest generation of console hardware, the series has been playing catch up. Madden NFL 08 came pretty close to being the first of the new generation of Madden games to match the last generation in terms of quality. As you’d expect, this put a lot of pressure on Madden NFL 09, so EA has tried to pull out all the stops.

Madden NFL 09 begins with a projection of John Madden introducing you to the game and waffling on about the new features. After the big man has finished his speech, players are taken to the Training Centre to undertake the Madden IQ test, where you run drills on pass offence, pass defence, run offence and run defence. Your performance and success in these drills is used by the game in determining your Madden IQ, which is essentially another term for difficulty. The Madden IQ system sounds good in theory, but the initial drills for offense do not reflect realistic in-game situations due to a reduced number of players on field. Since the drills are so easy, you’ll undoubtedly end up on All Madden difficulty, and find yourself being severely punished in your early matches if you utilise the game’s suggested difficulty. The Madden IQ does adjust based on your performance in matches after the initial test, but it never quite accurately reflects your true abilities.

Once you get a match going, it becomes readily apparent that EA Tiburon has spent a lot of time rejigging Madden’s presentation for this year’s game. When Madden made the transition to new hardware with Madden NFL 06 for the Xbox 360, EA opted to drop the commentary team of Al Michaels and John Madden for a more colourful nameless radio commentator. That didn’t work out for them, so they’ve introduced a new team of presenters, with Cris Collinsworth and Tom Hammond providing play-by-play, and John Madden introducing the game and presenting half-time and post-game highlights. Commentary is good, but far from perfect – there is still an abundance of redundant calls and repeated lines, and Hammond’s play-calling is somewhat lifeless. Collinsworth does a much better job, offering more dynamic and excitable commentary, as well as breaking down plays through the new EA Sports Backtrack feature. When a play is Backtracked, Collinsworth will pinpoint the moment which had the greatest impact, such as a running back spotting a gap through the defensive line, or a corner back blocking a receiver to snatch an interception. It’s a cool little feature, something that has long been used in broadcasts but forever omitted from sports games – the only problem is the game doesn’t use it nearly enough.

From a visual standpoint, Madden NFL 09 is the finest looking game in the series. It’s still not a gigantic leap over the previous generation of Madden games, but it has improved over last year’s game in several areas. The stadia are much more detailed than before, lacking the blurry look that plagued last year’s game. Weather effects such as snow and rain have a profound effect on stadium atmosphere and on field play, but don’t actually deteriorate the field, which is a little weird considering players’ uniforms will be covered in dirt and grass by the end of a match. Players are a little more detailed than before, but the animation is noticeably more natural. Still, EA Tiburon still seems to waste a lot of time on crap like custom touchdown celebrations when they could be dedicating resources to more varied and consistent transitional animations.

On the field of play, Madden NFL 09 retains the tighter control of its immediate predecessor (a serious improvement over the 06 and 07 games) and makes a few subtle changes to offensive and defensive dynamics. Pass defence has been something of a weakness in Madden games, but this year’s passing game seems to be much more difficult. Of course it’s not quite a fair and balanced effort; CPU cornerbacks sometimes momentarily gain superhuman abilities in order to block or pick off a pass. On the other hand, the running game seems to be much more effective due to a deeper tackle breaking and dodging system. For the more advanced and strategically minded players, pre-snap options have been expanded, allowing for bluff plays, defensive adjustments and audibles without formation change. The only problem is that you need to have superhuman reflexes to make any adjustments prior to the snap, due to the speed at which the opposition tends to play the ball. Perhaps the biggest change on the field is the addition of the rewind system, which gives you the opportunity to mulligan a play. It’s particularly useful in the event of an unfair fumble or interception, but the potential for abuse is scary, especially in multiplayer – my advice is to turn it off.

In spite of the changes that have been made to Madden NFL 09’s presentation and on-field play, EA Tiburon has spent little time enhancing existing play modes such as Franchise and Superstar. The Madden Challenge feature has been reintroduced after years of conspicuous absence, letting you relive some of the more fantastic moments of the 2007 NFL season. It’s unfortunate that many of the situations are repetitive or infuriatingly difficult, because it is a good idea. Online play has been expanded with the long-awaited addition of online leagues. It’s not going to mean a lot to most people, but serious NFL fans with a lot of friends should be interested. The implementation of online leagues is far from perfect, however. Up to 32 players can participate with games played at any time, but empty spots in the league cannot be filled out with computer controlled teams, and stat tracking is decidedly limited. Fortunately, online matches perform a lot better than previous years, with little in the way of game-breaking lag.

I honestly expected EA Tiburon to pull out something a little more special for the Madden franchise’s 20th anniversary. The problem with this year’s edition is that many of its ideas sound great on paper, but haven’t been fully implemented or tested. Madden IQ is a cool concept, but the balance just isn’t there. Online leagues have been demanded by fans for years, but the implementation is half-baked. Noticeable improvements in presentation, graphics and strategy go a long way, but they can’t justify a purchase on their own. It feels like something is missing from the package, as though there should have been one major improvement to really re-ignite interest in the game. Madden NFL 09 is a good game, but needs something a little more to make it great.