One of the new extras added to this year's game is the inclusion of Family Play, a mode that derives its basic mechanics from the Wii's All-Play mode to simplify gameplay for newcomers to the game. Essentially, what this feature does is boil the complexity of the Madden controls down to a few basic inputs, meaning that anyone can leap into a game and gain a certain amount of success. That means that you no longer have to worry about offensive or defensive line shifts, audibles or formations. Instead, the game will offer basic diagrams with a handful of plays on either side of the ball, as well as a suggested play for you to run based on the gameplay situation. It's helpful if you don't know anything about offensive or defensive packages, and it can make the playing field a bit more even if you're going up against another player that has more experience with the title, but you'll also find some odd choices here and there, such as suggesting a pass play on first and goal with one or two yards to go. But overall, if you're trying to keep up with a friend who's played a lot of Madden before, this is a decent way to get into the game.
Once you've had some relative success with this mode and are ready for a larger challenge, you can test your abilities with the Skill Drills, which make a return from last year's title. Once again, the drills will evaluate how you play during a game and make suggestions based on how good or poor your performance is. Added to the returning elements of rushing, passing, defense and pre-play audibles is receiving, which attempts to teach you how to best position your receivers so that they can make a catch before the training dummy defenders do. Once again, this included drill, along with the others that haven't received any adjustments for this year's game, comes with some caveats. Receivers that are in the right position are still not guaranteed to catch a pass thrown to them, even if you manage to time your catch just right (or in some cases, are playing on the easy setting where they're supposed to automatically catch the ball). The pre-play adjustments still don't help to explain why you would want to run the audibles and shifts you're tasked with, which won't help a newcomer learn the elements of the game. With the same issues from last year's game holding back the other features within this mode, this breaks down into more of an amusing diversion with a mild refresher of football basics than a true teaching experience for beginners – something that won't particularly help them from getting crushed by a veteran.
Speaking of Madden vets, the gameplay adjustments still exist but are perhaps the lightest set that we've seen in quite a long time. Whereas last year's attention was heaped on the defensive side of the ball with the inclusion of the Hit Stick 2.0 and smart zones, this year targets the offensive side of the ball. The first adjustment comes with the addition of QB avoidance moves, which allows you to potentially escape any incoming rusher from grabbing an easy sack by flicking the right analog stick in any one of the four cardinal directions. If you time your analog stick movement just right, your QB will duck under flying defensive ends, sidestep charging linebackers or perform some other evasive maneuver, buying you a few seconds to complete a pass to a receiver. This can be particularly important once you've gotten out of the pocket with the ability to direct a receiver by clicking the R3 button, allowing you to maneuver them to a specific location on the field as you scramble. The third and final addition to your receivers or running backs is the ability to string spins, stiff arms and cuts together. Evasive moves like double jukes have been condensed to pulling and holding the L1 or R1 button, so you're no longer forced to try to double tap the shoulder buttons to escape defenders.
The largest problem that you'll find with these elements is that they're not particularly useful or handled well. To a degree, the QB avoidance was included in previous titles and based off of a QB's stats. The fact that it's isolated to an analog stick doesn't guarantee or improve your chances that you'll escape any more than you would in previous installments of the title, making it an almost meaningless feature. Technically, the same can be said about directing a receiver, particularly because players can still perform some of the same "Madden" exploits from the past, such as seven-step drops before throwing on the run with relatively solid accuracy. This somewhat removes the need to explicitly direct your receivers, and while you can still direct your passes to lead a receiver running a route, you may find that the only time you feel a need to adjust a receiver is during a wildly thrown ball. Finally, the improvement to the ball carrier move set is nice but somewhat underwhelming, primarily because the double jukes are the only ones that feel radically tighter and more responsive. Chaining back and forth from a spin to a juke or easily cutting back and forth across the field still feels sluggish and trapped within completing animations before the next move is executed.
Now, the defense is practically left in the cold this year, although they are tossed a bone with a feature that covers both sides of the ball thanks to the Custom Play Memory feature. Players choose their initial package, and then proceed to make their shifts, audibles, hot routes or zone adjustments as they typically would. Once they're satisfied, they hit the square button to access the audible menu, hit R3 to save the play and a direction on the D-pad to save that configuration to one of four slots. This means that you can immediately call up your favorite plays with its pre-snap adjustments without having to manually go through all of the tweaks over and over again, particularly if your opponent starts constantly trying to run a hurry-up offense on you before you can make your changes.
Another tweak that's been included to the gameplay is the inclusion of the Super Sim feature, which gives players the option to fast forward gameplay to the next change of possession, the end of the current quarter or the end of the game. While it's a great thing to have this feature, it's not a particularly phenomenal improvement to gameplay as much as it's a useful tool to accelerate a match for a player that doesn't want to sit through a full game. The last adjustment that isn't particularly an improvement to the gameplay is the option to choose your celebration when you score a touchdown. Players are given the choice between subdued, over the top and multiplayer options, and by hitting the corresponding button, your player will spike the ball or perform a specific kind of dance or movement. This would be a cool thing if all of these animations were completely new to Madden – for example, if there were moves in the over the top category that could make "Getcha popcorn ready" look tame, it would be a great addition. However, you're getting the same old shimmies, shushing the crowd moves and spikes that you've seen for the past two or three years, which makes this feature pretty lame. Even worse is the fact that sometimes your players won't even perform these moves when you hit the button, such as when you carry one or two defenders into the end zone on a hard earned run.
Outside the dearth of gameplay elements, the same issues that were prevalent within last year's game still exist in this year's version. While it has a newer, cleaner text interface on menus and there are some new animations here and there, clipping is rampant, the same cutscenes from previous years play repeatedly, and it feels as though there haven't been any significant visual changes in any way. Player models are still quite off from the real player they're attempting to approximate. I will reiterate the fact that there are some players that have bald heads or crew cuts instead of the long hair, corn rows or dreadlocks their real life counterpart sports. While this might not seem that big a deal, it is when you notice how frequently a player's helmet flies off his head and how often you are shown a picture of him next to his stats under the blatantly inaccurate character model. As an aside, what's with all of the helmets frequently flying off player's heads anyway? Don't they have their chin straps buckled? Not every hit that flings their hats off is a hit stick blow, so why does it happen? The game can also feature way too many injuries within a game (I stopped counting in one match after four players went down). While some of the AI issues have been slightly improved here, such as the horrible time management after the two minute warning (which doesn't occur as frequently) the ball detection is still shoddy at times – fumbles still take a few moments for anyone to respond to the fact that the ball is on the ground.
The other gameplay modes within Madden 09 return as well, with minor adjustments made to them that are somewhat hit or miss as well. The Franchise mode returns with its condensed set of menus and information that is designed to make the more complex elements much more "accessible." However, the major addition to the mode is the inclusion of Franchise Decades Points. This system evaluates your skill as a franchise manager, coach, GM, and owner via scorecard throughout an entire preseason and season's worth of play and provides a set of points for making the right decisions. Depending on how well you do in the game or what accomplishments you achieve, such as reaching the postseason or expanding a player's skills, you'll receive bonus points. These will be tracked and ranked across all of the decades of play, so you'll be able to see just how you've been progressing across the years.
However, the largest problem is that this feature isn't necessary, particularly with players that pay any significant attention to how they play the franchise. If you're really into franchises, you don't need an arbitrary point system to tell you how you did – you already know whether or not you had a good season based on your play. Nor do you need some system that doesn't unlock anything or have an impact on franchise play being tracked over multiple years. As a result, it's merely an annoying, useless feature that's glommed onto this mode. The other issues from last year still aren't addressed --such as keeping casual players in the dark about the intricacies of the franchise mode because of the simplified screens or infuriating experienced players with the basic presentation that has way too much handholding instead of detailed management.
The Fantasy Challenge mode makes a return and hosts three new teams for your players to go up against with either your preexisting rosters, dream teams or hand-picked squads. Like last year, it can be fun to go through the various leagues and defeat teams, as well as go through the unique teams with their special abilities. However, you're still stuck with some of the same issues from last year, such as being constantly harassed by trade negotiations or player offers before a match, which is rather infuriating. Since you still don't receive roster points regardless of whether or not, you defeat a team, you'll find that the constant fending off of these deals with roster points will wind up destroying the team that you wish you could keep, and more often than not you'll field a squad with a less than optimal, or even desired, set of players. Just don't get too attached to the squad you start out with – you won't have then by the end of the league or the game.
Superstar mode returns as well, and while most of the features from last year -- such as the option to choose one of the new draft picks and make them legends, the new twist comes with the team expectations that you're given when you sign a contract with a team -- return. Initially, as you attempt to rise up the depth chart and prove your worth, you're given rather accomplishable goals, such as attending a certain number of practices, getting a certain number of yards or tackles, or other position-specific goals. However, once you've become a starter, your tasks become much more specific, such as getting a certain number of touchdowns, interceptions or fumble recoveries. Depending on how well you accomplish these goals, you gain more points towards your Hall of Fame goals, as well as lock down your position instead of finding yourself being traded or on the outs with your coach. That adds a new twist to the mode and is perhaps the best inclusion found within this year's game. However, and I will continue to stress this until it's changed or eliminated, this mode's problems are still evident. Camera angles still are horrible during some passes, making it almost impossible for receivers or defensive backs to make the proper play. Plus, you're still penalized for mistakes that your player doesn't make, such as a lineman getting penalized for a receiver dropping a pass or a running back fumbling the ball. I still don't think that should be included in this mode, and it places much more emphasis on players you have no control over.
