Madden NFL 07 – NDS – Review

What happens when you put Tony
Gonzalez, LaDainian Tomlinson, Chad Johnson, Larry Johnson, Antonio Gates,
Carson Palmer and Edgerrin James all on the same team? Do you get a team of
destiny that crushes the competition leaving broken egos in its wake? How about
a team of Pro Bowl players that cruises to the Super Bowl? Well not in Madden
2007 on the Nintendo DS. The tried-and-true Madden franchise returns again for
another yearly outing but the DS version is still falling short of the first
down.

Madden is simply a monster franchise
that shows no signs of slowing down. EA knows, or seems to know, what gamers
want in a football game and tries to revamp each version released before the
football season begins. The amount of gameplay options and modes included in a
Madden game is usually staggering because you can do almost anything in the
game. The 2007 version for the Nintendo DS includes a wide assortment of modes
that was very surprising to find on a portable game. The game includes the
standard instant play mode along with a Season Mode, Franchise Mode, Wireless
Play, Create A Player and Create a Team. But gameplay modes do not make the
complete game since incredible gameplay is a true sign of a champion, which is
where Madden 2007 comes up short.

I will give my honest interpretation
of how I believe the gameplay in Madden 2007 is flawed. I will take you through
several hours of starting the game from scratch, creating my personal team and
then what I found out by playing the game. Think of this as a documentary inside
of a game review. Gaming can be compared to relationships; just because it
starts out great doesn’t mean it will end well.

I started the game out by playing a
Play Now game and selected my favorite team the Miami Dolphins. Almost
immediately I was impressed with Madden 07 for the DS. The graphics looked good,
for a DS game, the sound effects and voiceovers by Madden and Michaels sounded
great and I was able to pull off some big plays right away. In fact I was
pulling off too many big plays, such as huge runs and big pass plays, without
any challenges from the defense. But then the defense of Pittsburgh came on
strong and started shutting me down. Soon Pitt’s offense was firing on all
cylinders and the game became much closer than I would have preferred. But in
the end the mighty Dolphins prevailed with a victory and I was felt that the
game had some potential.

Next I moved on to creating a new
team in hopes of building a potential Super Bowl legend: The San Antonio Heat.
Yes it might sound corny but it’s hot down here in TX and I’ve been using the
Heat name for years in some fantasy football leagues. When you create a team the
game has you replacing one of the current NFL teams. I selected the Cincinnati
Bengals since I used to live near Cincy and was a Bengals fan growing up.
Besides the home away from home connection I thought the Bengals had a balanced
roster with a solid defense and a great offense. I then changed the colors of
the uniforms to a more Southwestern look and made one big trade. I traded Rudi
Johnson for Edgerrin James. It was then time for some football!

The season started out really rough.
The passes and runs I made in the Play Now option had no success. I started to
notice that my wide receivers couldn’t catch anything and Edge couldn’t find a
hole to save his life. Tackles by the defense would sometimes come out of
nowhere to stop a potential big play. What should have been easy wins for the SA
Heat turned into disappointing loses. After the first four games the SA Heat was
dead last in the division sitting at 0 and 4. Ouch!

I then decided to trade for some
more players. I picked up all of the players I listed earlier that were not
already on the Bengals’ roster when it was turned into the SA Heat (which wasn’t
an option in the Franchise mode since the computer would deny each trade
request). I thought my fortunes had to turn because no team would be able to
stop all of these players. At first it seemed to work, with me winning a couple
of games in a row. But none of those games were easy, all of them providing a
close game. In fact close games is what seems to be the expertise of Madden 07
for the DS. No matter how far ahead I would get the computer would always seem
to pull in amazing catches, stop me from making runs for the first down or
anything else it needed to do to win. After 11 weeks into the season the Heat
was now 4 and 7, would I’m sure would lead to me losing my job as coach if I had
all of those players on one team.

Just to get a moment of clarity I
decided to try the Play Now option again just to see if maybe it was me that was
causing the problems with my team. But I guess it wasn’t because I didn’t have
any problems pulling off the big pass and run plays. Outscoring the computer by
20-plus points was never an issue in the Play Now mode. With my confidence
riding high again I went back to my team in San Antonio to see if we could
salvage the season. Surprisingly we managed to end the season at 8 and 8 which
is due to just one player, LaDainian Tomlinson. He had in almost every game
after the 11^th week at least one running play that was 50 yards or
longer. It was amazing! But what was even more amazing to me was the computer
still performing miracle plays to stay in the game. No matter how many big plays
LT pulled off the computer would always find an answer. I think I finished the
season with only two games that I outscored the computer by more than one
touchdown.

Some of you might be wondering why
I’m making a big deal about computer AI but it needs to be addressed. When you
play a sports game and know that you never have a chance to win, where is the
fun? Even with the game on the lowest difficulty setting makes me shudder to
think of just how bad it would be on the higher settings. Finishing the season
at 8 and 8 makes me believe that all hope isn’t lost but I would have to grow
some thicker skin just to deal with the inconsistencies in how the computer
plays.

One huge part of the game that needs
to be mentioned is the kicking game. EA has decided to use the touch screen for
the kicking game which is, of course, a feature exclusive to the DS. But be
prepared to practice kicks and punts. If you do not practice kicking and punting
you will be left in a very unfavorable position when it comes to extra points
and punt returns. The way the kicking works has you touch two points on the
touch screen. The first point you touch produces a green X and the next point
you touch produces a red X. You then need to draw a line between each X in order
to kick the ball. The longer the distance between the two X’s should produce a
stronger kick. But the touch screen makes this somewhat challenging because you
can also call an audible and change hot routes with the touch screen. I usually
found creating a diagonal line from one corner of the touch screen to another
created the longest line. But you might end up pressing either the audible or
hot route button instead during field goals. Another sore spot in regards to
kicking was that I never made a field goal longer than 30 yards. My kicks were
never long enough which almost cripples the kicking game. I would usually try to
make anything that was shorter than five yards when it came to fourth down,
especially if I was near my end zone.

Madden 2007 just ends up missing the
goal line when it comes to scoring a touch down in the gameplay department. The
game is a great package filled with a ton of options but the unforgiving
computer AI will give you the creeps. The kicking game is a unique feature
because of the touch screen but it could limit players due to its learning
curve. If you must have a football game for the DS then you’re really left with
only one option which is Madden 2007. Just be prepared to scream and yell while
the computer decides to perform a miracle comeback to win the game.

Gameplay: 6.5
All of the controls in the game are tight and responsive with players performing
jukes, spins and other assorted moves. But the relentless AI in the Franchise
and Season modes will have you wishing for a bulldozer to ride over the opposing
team.

Graphics: 7.0
For a DS football game the graphics look good but still something that would
have appeared on the PlayStation 1 or Nintendo 64. All of the players are
animated nicely and I didn’t notice any slowdown in the game. There were a
couple weird issues such as players bouncing off of other players five yards
after tackles and players walking through other players during the change of
quarters. I do want to cast my vote, if EA is reading this, to bring back the
classic 2D style graphics found in some of the N64 Maddens. I think those
graphics would work great on the DS and would look much nicer compared to blocky
3D character models.

Sound: 7.5
You get actual voice samples of John Madden and Al Michaels included in the
game. The samples are limited to a few phrases but it’s still nice to hear in a
portable game. The sound of crowd is always noticeable during the game as well.
The game even includes a song during the menu selections which is great to hear
in a portable game.

Difficulty: Medium/Hard
It’s a tale of two different games. During the Play Now option you can roll over
the computer without a problem but the Season and Franchise difficulty will have
you grinding your teeth.

Multiplayer: 7.0
The game allows up to four players to play via wireless connection on the DS,
with each DS requiring an individual copy of the game. There is no Nintendo
Wi-Fi support.  Why can’t the Nintendo Wi-Fi service get more third-party
support?

Concept: 8.0
The game includes a ton of options and choices for a portable football game.
This isn’t a stripped-down version of its console bigger brothers. Almost all of
the features found in the console version are in the DS version. The touch
screen offers the ability to control players with the stylus instead of just
pressing buttons which is a nice feature but a little difficult to master. Even
the DS microphone comes into play when calling an audible.

Overall: 7.2
Madden NFL 07 for the DS offers a ton of features, touch screen support and
wireless play to make it a solid portable football experience. However the
frustrating AI, learning curve when using the touch screen and blocky 3D
graphics slows the game down. But if you want a full-featured Madden game that
offers an unforgiving football experience then look no further than Madden 2006
for the DS. But then again how many football games are available on the DS
anyway?