PSP World

Madden 06

Every year millions go out to get the latest edition of the de-facto standard for football games — EA Sports’ Madden. This year marks the inaugural edition for the PSP, Madden 06. Promising most of the features that have made the console versions perennial best-sellers, Madden 06 had big expectations to live up to — but could it keep up with its console-based cousins?

We have played a version of Madden pretty much every two years since the franchise’s inception, and we’ve normally had a pretty good time playing it. The recent versions have offered unparalleled depth in the form of franchise mode — but almost as soon as the PSP version hit the streets, we heard horror stories of copies that had serious problems when playing in franchise mode. Although we didn’t find any problems with our copy, we are attaching a warning to preface this review — if you haven’t bought a copy already, make sure you pick it up from a retailer that will allow you to return it if your copy turns out to be faulty.

Graphically speaking, there really isn’t anything to fault. Everything is still crisp and clear on the PSP’s screen, and the player animations are top notch. The controls are also tight and accurate, and the two come together to offer the football experience Madden is known for — last second cut-backs, jukes, and shoe-string tackles are all here.

Gameplay is consistently good and bad — when you are actually playing the game, it’s pretty much what you’d expect — excellent. It’s in-between plays and menus that everything goes awry, thanks to really sluggish menu performance. That said, the franchise mode is excellent, and the 18 mini-games — 10 exclusive to the PSP — are a lot of fun on-the-go. EA also included infrastructure online mode, allowing for cross-country play and the ability to swap info. between the PSP and PS2 versions of the game, provided you own both versions.

Overall, Madden 06 for PSP isn’t an opus, but it definitely is the best handheld game in town and sets the stage for a lot of excellent installments in the years to come. The loading times aside, we couldn’t imagine anything more fun than playing an NFL match-up on the way to an NFL game — that is, until they release NCAA for PSP, so we can tailgate while whomping our alma-mater’s opponent of the week.

Review Round-Up

IGN: 8.5
“Everything from the online play to the depth here makes this a great addition to PSP libraries everywhere. I just wish things could’ve been tuned better so that loading was faster.”

GameSpot: 7.9
“If you’re the patient type and can stand sitting through a fair amount of menu loading, you’ll find Madden 06 to be the best handheld game of football available on the market.”

Yahoo! Games: 7.0
“Granted, it’s everything else the game should be, but until EA smoothes out performance on all fronts, less than patient buyers should be wary. ”

1UP: 6.8
“The rookie’s playing time may be limited, but Madden NFL 06 for PSP definitely shows those flashes of brilliance that could indicate a superstar in the making.”

Aggregate Rating: 9.1