Game Rave Presents: BATTLE MODE

The Introduction
There was a time when EA did not hold the NFL license hostage. There was a time when at any given moment you had four or more choices in your football game purchases. Sony's PlayStation was home to plenty of pigskin brawls, but there were two franchises that went the distance. Sony's own NFL GameDay and EA Sports Madden NFL both lasted the full 10 year tenure of the PlayStation with one small caveat. Madden NFL '96 was cancelled due to unknown reasons, though quality was the biggest guess. Game Rave has played the prototype and would agree.

Back on track, EA has been famous for closing out game systems. Their NHL '98 was the final Saturn game, Madden and FIFA were the final PSX games, etc. During the 1997 to 2000 era EA and Sony had a great rivalry going between their football games. This Battle Mode has been created to see how two different companies treated not only the final game in a series, but closing out the system it's on.

The lines have been drawn, the sides have been chosen, and the ball is on the tee...

The Evidence A: The Play Choice Screen

With Madden, you have a very nice organized screen. The human player gets the better view, but the offensive controls show something more important. If you look closely, you can see the receivers are clearly button marked. You don't need to waste clock time looking at your players on to the field to figure out who has what button assigned to them. A very clean, organized set-up.

Here we have Gameday's play choices. Besides being horribly mirrored to cause confusion as where you need to look, none of the buttons are assigned to the players. You have to view them on the field to prepare yourself for the throw or hand-off. Worse, after picking your formation and play, the game returns you to the formation again - acting as if you didn't pick a play. Very, very sloppily done.

Advantage: Madden 2005

Here's where Madden really shines - our first look at the graphics. Madden provides lush looking grass, players who look like finely carved statues poised waiting for the snap. The camera is angled just right so that the upper scoreboard does not block any players in deep cover. Note the player physiques - they are tilted, one arm lower than the other at the line. The runner behind the quarterback is poised to start his motion, but is not flat like a defender.

Sony's game poses some serious design flaws. First is the camera angle blocks the deep coverage man - if you weren't looking for the feet, you may throw an interception right off the bat. Then we have those poor character models. Practically everyone at the line is a bent flat back, like they were balancing invisible giant blocks on their backs. The shadows and poor leg modeling make players appear to be kneeling, not poised at the ready. What's with the grass too? How bland of a green can you choose?

Advantage: Madden 2005

EA Sports uses some interesting tricks to make the characters seem more detailed than they really are. The helmets have fake reflections, flat polygons are shaded to look 3D (the wrinkles in his sleeve, shirt bottom) and much more detail has been added to various areas. Using solid lines rather than smudging allows for the details to come through nice and crisp in S-Video. There are also really nice facial scans on players. Madden actually looks damn good in HDMI as well.

Note the difference in texture detail when viewing GameDay. Grass isn't as nice, the clothing seems very dull and grey, and the skin textures look bizarre. Brett looks like he rolled around in some clay with how 'dirty red' his arms are. I tried to get as close to the players as I could in Madden, but this is as close as they would allow.

Advantage: Madden 2005

I was originally going to go for a snow or rain image for this section, but the standard 'day, sunny' option comes across just as well. Madden's weather is amazing - clear skies are bright and blue, rain days are storming complete with lightning and thunder, and the snow looks like it's good ol' Chicago Bear weather. I was totally impressed by the weather effects. I refuse to play any game not in the rain after this.

Grey. Greyer than Grey. This is a sunny day in the world of GameDay. Rain was terrible - you could barely see it. Snow was about as plain as you could make it.

Advantage: Madden 2005

Well folks, the Madden curse had to arrive sometime, and a perfect sweep is swept away (ha!) by the one area the older Madden games truly fumbled; The play results. The box score arrives with just names and the yardage. By the time this pops up, most players are off the screen and you're staring at nothing.

GameDay's only saving grace, and perhaps the most well thought out section are the replays and results. You get player number, player image, a chance to show off at your own leisure, and more. While you're usually just seeing players huddle off and on the field, often times you'll see high fives, players butting helmets in celebration, and more.

It's truly depressing to see so much love put into a feature that's saddled by dismal graphics and models. Truth be told though, GameDay gets the prize this round.

Advantage: GameDay 2005

And the Lombardi Trophy Goes too...

Clear and away, Madden NFL 2005 shows what you could squeeze out of a 10 year old system when you actually care about the product. There were other deciding factors not focused in here. EA Sports included the original Genesis Madden as a free bonus, as well as Madden having an easier-to-navigate menu system and better soundtrack.

Madden NFL 2005 for PlayStation is by far one of the best retro games you could own for any system. It shows off the system, it's fun and easy to pick-up, it's dirt freaking cheap, and the nostalgia factor will be relatively high depending on what teams you loved back in that era.

ESPN NFL 2K5 on Xbox will forever hold the all-time best pigskin game award by this gamer's standard, but you'd be hard pressed not to acknowledge EA's 32 Bit Legacy.

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