Topic: Madden 2006 DS - Franchise mode

[jasonditz]

I've heard that the DS version of Madden 2006 has a franchise mode, but does anyone know if it's as deep a franchise mode as the other versions offer? Basically all I ever use Madden for is as an ownership simulation, so if it's as good I'm probably further ahead to buy the cheaper, portable version.

[Nile Boogie]

I haven't seen one screen shot or any information on this game yet, and it was released to masses already. Strange!

[Spak-Spang]

I am actually really curious about this game.  I hate sports games but I really hope this one is good.

If I was EA designing the game, I would have created the game using sprites instead of 3D characters to really play off of the DSes Strengths, and give it a classic old school football feel.  

Then enhance the experience with all the modern flare of today's football simulations.

I think another 3D football game with bad character models will hurt the franchise for future DS EA sports games.

[KDR_11k]

Basically all I ever use Madden for is as an ownership simulation

Might be interested in the Football manager games instead, then. They're not american football but probably much more complex than an extra mode in some action game.

[jasonditz]

I haven't played a Soccer ownership sim in years... have you tried the Sega "Football Manager 2005"? Seems to be the only one on the market that supports OSX.

[KDR_11k]

Last one I played was "RTL Fussball Manager" for DOS back when PC magazines came with 3.5" floppies. But I always thought the "Football Manager 200X" series was EA...

[darknight06]

Nobody's gonna use sprites anymore for a sports game, especially on a system that can do 3D reasonably well.  The only reason Madden 05 was as crap as it was all around had everything to do with being rushed out to launch, not because the system couldn't handle a decent version.  Madden 06 on the DS is a vast improvement over 05, with the graphics getting one of the biggest upgrades.

[jasonditz]

That's weird, there are actually two "Football Manager" series out... there is an EA one, like you said, but then Sega got SI (that used to make the excellent Championship Manager series) and renamed it Football Manager as well...

[jasonditz]

Incidentally, what's the deal with the lack of reviews for the DS version... every site is falling all over itself to get out indepth reviews of the console versions and Gamerankings still doesn't have a single review of the DS version.

The few message board comments I've seen seem universally positive.

Graphics are better than last year, most say it's visually impressive, a couple seemed disappointed that it looked "too much like Madden 2000 for the N64". The Framerate is as smooth as any of the console versions... which I'm assumnig is a good thing.

There appear to be some touch screen controls, but they have to be enabled to  use. One person mentioned being able to draw your own plays, but no one else seems to have mentioned it.

There are classic teams, and inserting the GBA version of Madden will free up some bonus teams. There appears also to be a Create a Team option.

The Franchise mode hasn't really been discussed yet by anyone though, so I'm still in the dark.  

[jasonditz]

Fed up with waiting, I went to Target today and bought a copy for myself:

Here's some early impressions and I'll post a more detailed review later:

Franchise mode:

The franchise mode is good, but not great.

The good:

* Multiplayer, single system support... yes, if you're using this as a management sim, you can control as many teams as you want, just like in the console games.

* Depth Charts, play style, trades, free agency, and drafting in the offseason all made it into the game

* Even better, Fantasy Drafts are possible, so you can draft you own team... or teams.

The not-so-good

* A lot of the ownership mode options that were introduced in 2004 didn't make it into the handheld product. No obvious way to set ticket prices, etc... finances begin and end with negotiating contracts and the salary cap.

* Some of the coordinator hiring-firing stuff seems to have been cut.

* Rather than scouting upcoming draftees in the offseason, you're presented with a list of who's available and how good they are... takes some of the mystery out of it, but it's probably not that unreasonable.

* While the menus are fluid and fairly intuitive, the small text is a little hard to read at time. It also feels like they could've put the second screen to  better use for the menus... sometimes it looks like they took one screen full of info, chopped it in half and stuck half on top... which would've been fine if they'd enlarged the text. Half the screen is empty, and I'm squinting to read numbers?


Actual Game Play:

Graphics: I had to pop in Madden 2000 for the N64 to remember what it looks like. If you're going in expecting the visuals of the Gamecube version, you're going to be sorely disappointed... the models are blocky at times, my first thought when seeing them was "ewww..." but the visuals have plenty of detail (a lot more than Madden 2000 had). The important thing though, is that the graphics are servicable during gameplay, you have no problem picking up who's doing what, and the framerate is, as reported before, rock solid.

Sound: There's play-by-play, kind of... the Madden color commentary was never one of my favorite things, but its rather sparse in this game, which I guess isn't a big deal. If they had to cut something, I'm glad it was this and not franchise mode. There's menu music, but it seems to be limited to a single song, which sounds like it might be the Foo Fighters, but I'm not entirely sure. Its not a bad song, but if you're playing franchise mode without playing games (in the menus for hours on end) you'll probably want to shut it off rather than listen to it repeat 50 times in a row.

Controls:

Standard Layout: Using the D-pad and the buttons, you have pretty good control of the action. Sometimes you'll miss having an analog stick, but the game is more than playable this way. One nagging concern, you don't seem to be able to kick the ball without a stylus, which is weird because all the other aspects of gameplay allow for either. The control is way better than other analog-free versions, like the old Sega Saturn Madden '97.

touchscreen control: Seems more complicated in some ways, but it seems to give you a more fine control. Probably will be the mode of choice once I get the hang of it, as much as I like D-pads.

Side Note: I should mention also that the much vaunted passing controls that EA is pimping so hard are conspicuously absent from the game. Probably there aren't enough buttons... but the game plays fine without them, and they'd probably be a distraction more than anything.

[Darc Requiem]

Thanks for the impressions Jason. I may pick up a copy. Its not like I can find Nanostray anywhere.... I wonder how the DS version compares to the PSP version features wise, I know the PSP version will have the graphical edge. I'm curious as to the AI on DS version too. Does the CPU adjust? Or is it pretty dumb.

[jasonditz]

On a reasonable difficulty (the game defaults to Rookie when you first get it) the CPU seems fairly adaptive, they won't let you burn them with the same play over and over or anything.  

[jasonditz]

Here's my final review:

Graphics:

The more I play the game, the more I think the graphics could have, and should have, been a lot better. There's some interesting attention to detail in some cases, and some absurd neglect in a lot of others. The graphics, as I said, are servicable to the gameplay, but oftentimes they leave a little too much to the imagination. The graphics in the replays are zoomed in more than gameplay, and that's where you can really appreciate the lack of polish.

Case in point though: when a player is lined up along the edge of the screen in game play the game will sometimes decide to stop rendering the helmet of the player, and you get a good view of just got shamefully slopped together the head models are... Lavar Arrington's head should be more than four black boxes of varying shade.

Seriously though, if EA doesn't want to put more of an effort into making the games look as good as I know DS games can look (or for that matter, as good as N64 games can look), they really need to just bail on the whole graphics engine and switch to a 2D engine.

Sound: One song? What's the point? This is another example of EA making some poor choices about the use of the limited space of a DS card. They could've put in a midi song and with the saved space used made an actual "create a stadium" mode. The commentary audio is another issue. It's fairly detailed (better, I'm told, than last year's), but the default sound levels make it completely impossible to hear what is being said over the din of the crowd. Even if you do switch to a better sound balance, there's not much to hear... Madden is rarely insightful. Which again leaves me wondering, why even bother with an audio voicetrack if that's all you're going to do with it? You might as well have used something like the old Sega "Sports Talk Football" games for the Genesis.

The franchise mode: I went into some detail before, but let me just add: its not that fun. The removed ownership mode features take a lot of the flavor out of playing the game as a franchise sim... the players don't improve in the offseason in a reasonable manner, basically it sucks.

Play Control: I was wrong. The touch screen controls aren't just a question of getting use to them, they're fundamentally flawed. The idea was interesting, but the execution is so half-assed that it's not going to be much fun to try to use. The digital controls are some better, but its incredibly annoying that there is NO digital control option for kicking... if I'm playing digital style, I don't want to have to take out the stylus every 4th down... its again, a detail that more attention could've been paid to.


Conclusion: Fair, but not good seems to be the order of the day. EA seems content to produce a sequel that is incrementally better, but still nowhere near as good as it should be. Perhaps it's a marketing strategy where they're trying to leave obvious "room for improvement" in later versions, but in the end they leave DS users with a second rate product that probably only belongs on the shelf of the most dedicated football fan.

Fool me once, shame on you, EA... but i won't be rushing out to buy next years version, no matter how radically improved it's alleged to be. This game needs a major overhaul of the type that a game which is a monopoly probably won't get.  

[darknight06]

"Sound: One song? What's the point? This is another example of EA making some poor choices about the use of the limited space of a DS card."

On this front, I doubt that they used a 128MB card on since, since from the sounds of things even the N64 with a 16 or 32MB card could've probably done all of what this did soundwise.  The commentary comment is a real disappointment considering that International Superstar Soccer on N64 was a 64mb game with a load of commentary.  I remember it bugging me back then that EA never even looked to beat that back then and it's bugging me now.  They have a storage medium with 3x if not more space than Madden 2002 N64 and they STILL want to shovel out crap.  It's unacceptable.

[jasonditz]

I'm guessing they burned a fair amount of their storage on photographs of all the players... which is silly since they couldn't take the time to include the players' first names.

[Darc Requiem]

Quote
Originally posted by: jasonditz
I'm guessing they burned a fair amount of their storage on photographs of all the players... which is silly since they couldn't take the time to include the players' first names.

Yeah but I could have sworn they had player photos in the N64 version of Madden as well.

[trip1eX]

I got this game today.  I only bought cause I got it for $20 new.  

This game is plain 'ole EA.  It sucks.  IT's just an unfinished work.  

The touchscreen controls royally suck.  They could have done alot better.  But it's obvious they just slapped them on to say they have touchscreen controls.  

Even the menus aren't touch control friendly.  You have to click on them and then hit 'a' in the lower right corner.  And it doesn't feel good at all.  The Nintendo games I've played on the DS have awesome use of the touchscreen in menus.  So good that it makes you want to click thru the menus just for the sake of clicking on them.  Totally not so on Madden 2k6 DS.

When selecting teams  you have to touch these tiny little icons.  They could have made it much easier.  IT's hard even with the stylus.  

You can't help but think that Nintendo would make  a totally better football game for the DS.  And I can't help but think that a game like NFL Blitz with less players would be more appropriate on a handheld like the DS.

ON defense you're supposed to touch a player to select him.  Well you can only do this by touching the 'x' or 'o' representing them in the bottom touchscreen.  So somehow you're supposed look at the bottom screen then figure out which 'x' you want then touch him then look back up at top screen and somehow tackle the ballcarrier.  IT's impossible.

The game also froze on me!!!  

The touchscreen is also used for passing.  They almost could be on to something here as it's kinda neat that you can just tap on the screen and the ball goes that direction.  In practice it doesn't always work great.  Passes don't always go to the reciever you want them to unless you stare at the x and o screen and just tap on one the 'x's' you want to throw to.  The problem with that is that you end up staring at the screen.  That's not a fun game.  

But with some refinement they probably could come up with a good system of doing this.

What EA needs to do is refine the game.  They need to go to 2d sprites if they can make 'em better looking and make 'em more distinguishable especially down the field.  They to rethink the game on the handheld.  Fat chance they'll do that, but that's what they need to do.

Another problem with the game is the quarterback automatically passes.  I don't know I haven't been able to turn this option off yet.  If this is an option I don't see it.  But if you don't pass quick enough he'll throw it to a receiver of his choice.  That is f'd up.  You can't wait for guys to run a long route for fear your qb will automatically throw it to whomever.

The kicking is pretty dumb too.  Especially since you're forced to use the stylus even if you use the dpad controls (which you is a 99% certainty you will have to.)


The DS is a problem too.  Even without using the stylus the whole thing is a bit hard to hold.  I didn't think that was going to be true.  But my hands have a tough time with the tiny buttons and the positioning of the triggers.  

I actually like holding it with the stylus better say in Kirby or in the Metroid Prime Hunters demo.

All in all this game doesn't translate well to this handheld.  It definitely will be better on the PSP with it's better graphics and widescreen.

My first three DS games were all stylus games.  They were really designed for the DS and are fun.  Madden wasn't fun.