Madden NFL 2004

Win the coin toss and kick off a fight to the playoffs and your quest for a Superbowl XXXVIII victory this season with EA Sports’ Madden NFL 2004 for PS2.

You can play as last year’s winners the Tampa Bay Bucs, play in an underdog team like the Cincinnati Bengals, take over ownership of the New York Jets, or be extra daring and create your own team. With your own franchise, you get special business tips and can manage every detail of the business from player’s salaries, ticket prices, promotions and even the cost of the hot dogs, drinks, and jerseys. The game offers many features that add to the satisfaction of your gaming experience; like the referees and announcers will recognize your custom made team’s hometown.

Choices, challenges and opportunities with Madden NFL 2004 are the gamer’s best friends. You want offense; you’ve got offense–with lots of ways to modify plays on both the offensive and defensive sides in the coach’s menu. You can even go for the John Madden style of defense, like when the Raiders limited the Vikings to just four first downs, and the Raiders won the Superbowl 32-7.

You can fine-tune your own instincts and reactions. Try to outwit the unpredictable, when you create your own strategic playbooks or put together your idea of what should be the all-star NFL roster. You can even take advantage of a special mode where Coach Madden teaches you the basics in Football 101. Just about any player at any age can enjoy picking up some fundamentals from Coach Madden.

Another exciting feature is the playmaker control that can be used to execute some quick action, like when your quarterback is in trouble, you can make a fast strategic decision by moving a receiver a bit to increase the likelihood that he’ll make the catch and gain a few yards or run in a touch down for your team. The playmaker control is a plus that gives Madden 2004 a decisive edge.

Over last year’s release, the plus features and play-action passing plays are good, the camera action gives you a better arena and sports action feel, rather than some of the off beat close up shots and action of some players last year that took away from the game experience. The music push is great for game promotion, but some players have opted to mute it in favor of realistic sounds of the crowd roar, announcers, the stomp and roll of the players in the football arena.

Madden NFL 2004 offers professional football with some fine big game features and seamless winning qualities that you can enjoy on PS2 or take in the road with online play.