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    • Madden NFL 2010 Review

    Written By: Justin Grubbs
    September 18, 2009

    Football season has started. Fantasy teams all around the world have formed, and whether you’re a Michael Vick lover or hater, you’re about to see him on the field all over the country. All of your friends are getting ready to watch the big game, food and drinks are plenty, but wait! You have to go to the dentist! As you drive to their office, you start going through pigskin withdrawals. Your hands start shaking, your foot is bouncing around the gas and break pedal with a mind of it’s own, and every time you see a car moving ahead of you you get the urge to speed up and run it out of bounds. What can you do to save your sanity? Well, lucky you, because Madden NFL 2010 is here for the iPhone!a bit of shameless advertising

    Madden 2010 had me from the get-go. The graphics are beautiful, the gameplay is smooth, and the sound is great. From the moment I picked it up, I was immersed. First off, there are a couple game modes to play, you can do a quick game, or you can do a full season. One thing I’m loving about this game is that it’s not meant to be played in one sitting. I’ll go through two quarters, get up and go to class, and finish the game while listening to the lecture (the joys of college.) It took me about a week of casual playing to finish a season, and that’s just the initial play through with my home team the 49ers (I know, they suck.)

    The graphics are beautiful. My 3GS easily handled two full teams running around doing their own thing without a hiccup. Even if I received a text or a call, it would pause, save, and let me respond. One beef I have however, is that it seems as if your chances of catching the football are skewed. For instance, I tossed a pass to a player who was wide open, and he still missed it, and I’ve tossed to a player who was surrounded by three Raiders, and he still caught it. Also, it is very easy to tackle a player, if you dive towards him, you will most likely pull him to the ground. Gore knows how to drop it like it's hot

    The sound in this game is great, the background music pumps you up, but it also has an option to make your own play list of songs from your library. Also, it sounds like a real football game, complete with whistles, grunts, sacks, and the rest. The only thing missing was the guy in the stands selling peanuts.

    Madden’s team at EA got the gameplay controls down well. Virtual joypad has become the standard in games recently, and it’s for good reason. It works well, and in Madden, it’s no exception. You control your players movement with the left thumb, and with the right you have buttons for sprint, spin, and “bullet time” as it were. Once you tap that you have about 3 seconds of slowed time in which you can do more advanced moves such as a juke or tackle. It all works well, and with the ability to select a player by tapping him, makes for a great control scheme.First down!!!

    Also, You can trade players and customize your teams, so if you want your fantasy team, go for it! You may need to work for it a little, but you can have all your favorite players on a team together. I was playing with three minute quarters, but you can extend the length to 5 or 7 minutes each if you want longer games.

    Presentation & Graphics

    4-stars_sm
    Graphics are great, and menus are simple and easy to navigate

    Sound

    4-stars_sm
    I love the background audio and effects in Madden, and I love the fact that it’s got the jukebox for your own tunes even more!

    Gameplay

    4pt5-stars_sm
    This game has a great control scheme, and there are over a hundred different plays you can choose from, keep your opponent guessing!

    Gamelife

    4-stars_sm
    Madden is a long term game, it will take you days to complete a season, and that’s just with one team! if you love more then one team then you’ll be playing for weeks on end!

    Game Rating

    4-stars

    Madden 2010 is a great football game, easily the best out there right now. If you have been on the fence about getting it, you had better hop off right now and go buy it. This game is a Must have for any and all football fans, and is definately worth the $10 price tag. If you like football, then you’ll love this game. Go get it now!

    Madden NFL 2010 – $9.99

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    • Scott

      Bought this when it came out I’d have given it a 3.5-4.0 at best personally…

      No play clock is a glaring issue, takes the suspense out of the game. No replays, while not game-breaking must have issue would be nice, since Gamelofts game has both of these things.

      Too many running money plays that the AI cant stop makes things too easy, pitching the ball right or left non-stop can get you a score every time. So you have to use some self control not to use those plays but it always takes away alot of the running plays you can use.

      The sounds of players hitting sounds awful to me while I dont expect this to mirror the console Maddens by any means the sounds shouldn’t be that bad. The rest of the sounds may be nice but to me this one is most important and its just bad.

      The good things are controls are pretty good, although the passing game can be tough when selecting a ring for reciever too many times they can overlap each other ( even at good distances from each other) and you choose the wrong one.

      I’d prefer to have a option for A,B,C,D buttons for recievers on the bottom.

    • http://touchgen.net Nathan

      Well lets HOPE your 3GS can run it well Justin! :) (Otherwise the majority of people that get this are screwed)

    • Justin Grubbs

      I beg to differ Scott, I don’t know if the issues that you have mentioned were in a previous version or what, but in the version which I reviewed there is a play clock, and I’ve not encountered any running plays which are unstopped by the AI. granted, I’ve not played each of the hundredish plays, but I’ve not encountered any that are truely easy. In fact, I’ve found that the easiest way is to do long passes most of the way down the field.

    • BBK357

      i have a second gen 32gb ipod touch and it is smooth smooth smooth.
      great game, great review.

    • Scott

      Well obviously you have some super special version of the game lol, there is only one version and it does NOT have a true play clock, I hope you know the difference between a play clock and a game clock.

      Theres a invisible timer that stops the clock after 30 seconds like a play clock yes I’ve found this out but in real Football you get a 5 yard penalty for delay of game after this 30 seconds.

      In Madden it just stops the clock and you can sit there all day to choose a play without penalty.

      And its been proven by alot of other ppl on forums that HB pitches are money plays that the AI cant stop. I can get first down after first down with just that play. Won a game 50-7 this way.

      Which brings me to another point I forget the complete lack of difficulty settings there are none, even without using those money plays I win 34-7 using a subpar team as it is.

    • The R

      Wow, no disrespect to you Justin, but I find it kind of odd that you reviewed this game and did not notice that this game does not have a play clock? Also, even though the game is good, you seem to praise it too much and not point out its obvious flaws, which to me needs to be corrected before the game can be labeled an “instand buy” Firstly, the money plays seem to work against the A.I all the time, you can’t adjust the difficulty settings, which to me is terrible for any type of game! The graphics are good but I honestly prefer gamelofts version as the computer A.I seems smarter and it seems easier to play defense on that version of the game. Also, the commentary repeats itself wayyyy to often in Madden. I think Gameloft will sit well with the more casual football fan and at $3.00, I think it is the better buy until Madden fixes its bugs. I can not recommend this game for $10.00 with the issues it has as of now.

    • Justin Grubbs, USA

      My appologies, when you said play clock for some reason I read it as game clock. You’re right that there is no play clock, and it’s one of the cons with it as of right now. I’ve not had any plays work over and over again, aside from a long pass play I discovered yesterday. Perhaps I’m just a horrible football player, but I’ll have to check out what people are saying regarding certain plays and check those out specifically.

    • http://myspaceandgmail brandon gutierrez

      you are the best

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