The Madden football franchise has been on a decline in recent years. No not in sales but the game itself seems in recent years to be a little lackluster due to the lack of competition.

Well the slump is over ladies and gentlemen. Madden '09 is a real good football game from the graphics to the gameplay. The graphics were built from the ground up, literally ground up since the grass in '09 is just splendid to look at. The player models are all superb in detail. The game has very lifelike animations you'll say to yourself "Am I watching a real football game?" There are some small things I have noticed because I was nitpicking but I have noticed some problems with cpu play calling, A.I and one big problem that I hope gets patched is that the game will freeze from time to time.

The gameplay is typical Madden its well done and very polished but leaves room for improvement. You will still have all night marathons off and online. Speaking of online, there are now online leagues in Madden witch is a nice addition but its a little bland of features. The mini games are the same as last year as well as Superstar mode but they were fun to play to begin with so why fix whats not broken?

The sound is done well with bone crushing hits and crowd noises. The new additions of Tom Hammond and Chris Collingsworth are ok but Collingsworth is really annoying but he is certainly much MUCH better than that damn radio announced from previous years.

If you passed on Madden the last couple of years I dont blame you but this is the year you should get back in the game and pick this football title up, not because its the only football game but because its actually a good football game.


GameWired Score: 8.0 out of 10