The good, the bad and the ugly on Madden 2006 for the PS2.
User Rating: 8.5 | Madden NFL 06 PS2
The good. Gameplay: Madden is simply the best NFL football sim you will find on the commercial market and 2006 introduced some new features to their on-field play. The most notable addition to Madden 2006 is the Quarterback Vision which based on your QB's abilities will show you what area of the field your QB currently has in his sight. Meaning, if you throw to a receiver outside your QB's vision the chance of them making a catch drops considerably. So, a QB like Peyton Manning or Brett Favre will have a very large plane of sight where as someone like Alex Smith will have a plane of sight so small you will indeed have a hard time making plays. This feature is either loved or hated by gamers. They also added a new option on the analog sticks to allow RB's to juke or smash forward "truck stick" to break some blocks. Other than these couple changes the gameplay stays the same which is a good thing. The bad: On the field features: Nothing really new was added to Madden 2006 to the on-field action. There are no new note worthy cut scenes, fan interaction, scoreboard antics, commentary or anything that might make you go "wow." However, they did remove some on-field extras such as the pre-game discussion of the most popular player/s on your team. Instead, they go straight to the coin toss after the teams are introduced. Speaking of introduced they should introduce the players like a real NFL game. Madden fails this year in adding enough on-field extras. Superstar mode: This feature was fun for people wanting an alternative to Madden by selecting the ESPN Football game. Now that EA has exclusive rights to the NFL they decided to add this feature to their game and I hope they take it away. It is extremely thin in its content. I am somewhat disappointed in EA for allowing this feature to be put into Madden 2006 since it seems to lack everything but potential. The ugly: Superstar mode: In superstar mode some of Terrell Davis' voice mails refer to teams you are not even on. QA in video games is about nil. Most companies I know of hire colleges students to play their games for a little while then they fix what they find instead of having serious professionals dissecting their creations. This is proof yet again. Commentary: Once again the commentary was not even touched allowing for many of the same problems to occur. Have you had a superstar player benched on your team for years because you don't like them such as a QB then have them in the game for a couple plays and have Madden mention how great they played last season? Or how your rookie WR that you just made is being mentioned by Al Michaels as having some of the best hands in the NFL before they even played a game? It's Madden's game get his big butt in there and redo these commentaries and redesign how they are used. Conclusion: Madden 2006 for the PS2 is a classic example of greatness that is stalling. Like any great series of games that have been great for so long but haven't risen or fallen from their rating people begin to point out flaws more than the good aspects of the game. Madden hasn't gotten worse but it hasn't gotten all that much better. Madden 2005 was almost a carbon copy of 2004 which was the greatest of the series. Madden 2006 is about 90% the same as 2005. This is not a bad thing but now gamers are looking at aspects of the game they'd like changed and it can cause negative feelings towards the franchise. Madden 2006 is worth getting if you are an avid fan of the series. However, if you don't get the shakes every year around July/August I'd suggest passing on Madden 2006 and spending your $49.99 + tax on something else. 
