John Madden has now been loaning his name to his EA Sports game franchise for over twenty years. That's almost as long as he's been shilling for Ace Hardware, if you are keeping count. In that time, the game has grown and evolved to become the biggest and best football sim on the market. Still, this didn't happen overnight. The words "baby steps" are familiar to repeat customers of the Madden franchise. Through the years, and through the various iterations, EA has tweaked, polished and added tons of innovations and features to their most beloved cash cow. So what were the best and brightest? Just in time for the release of Madden NFL 11, here is our list of the best innovations that has graced your favorite game of virtual pigskin. Ten hut!
1. Actual 11 on 11 football - John Madden Football - Apple II computers (1988)
This might seem like a no-brainer, but the initial concept for the very first iteration of the franchise was to have only 6 or 7 players on each team. This is because the creators felt that early Apple hardware wouldn't be able to handle a true game of football. Legend goes that John Madden refused to endorse the product if it didn't accurately represent the sport. So the team went back to the drawing board, squeezed some more power from those Apples and the rest is gaming history.
2. Instant replay and other goodies – John Madden Football 92 – Genesis (1991)
There once was a time your friends and family would actually have to believe you when you performed an amazing feat while playing Madden. This all ended in 1991 with the instant replay function. Now you'd actually have to prove it to them. Madden 92 also came with a slew of other features that have now become commonplace, including two-player cooperative play and QB Injuries. And, of course, the ambulance that would rush onto the field hitting any player in its path.
3. NFL license - Madden NFL 94/95 - Genesis/SNES (1993/1994)
It's hard to believe, but before 1993 the Madden games were legally bound to not use any real player or team names. This made the realism a bit, um, sketchy. The license almost never happened, actually. Sega's rival football franchise, Joe Montana Football, acquired the rights earlier, which almost left Madden in the cold. However, a year later the NFL softened on the idea of more than one franchise using real team names. A year after that, in time for Madden 95, they acquiesced regarding player names. Something tells me there was money involved.
4. Create-A-Player - Madden NFL 96 - Genesis/SNES (1995)
The ability to create your own player, via both looks and attributes, seems like one of the oldest features in sports games. It has not been around forever, though. EA Sports pretty much invented the idea in Madden 96. You can create your player from the ground up. There are minigames to decide stats, and a rudimentary (by today's standards) design system to assign looks. This went a long way to creating an emotional connection with your players because who doesn't want to take themselves and all of their best friends to the Superbowl? Only really, really mean people, that's who.
5. Franchise Mode - Madden NFL 99 - PlayStation/Saturn/Genesis/SNES (1998)
This is the number one game mode for football fans who also suffer from OCD. Franchise Mode allows you to act as both manager and coach. Make trades, participate in the draft, run through years of your team. It's the perfect mode for when you want to play football but you don't want to, um, play football. Also, EA went the extra graphical mile with this iteration and axed the sprites in favor of polygonal models.
6. Online play - Madden NFL 03 - PlayStation 2/Xbox/PC (2002)
The online play here is rather archaic compared to modern iterations, but hey, it lets you go online and play against friends. Without this starting point, the quick-starting matches and trash-talking that populate Xbox Live would not exist. Then none of us would be able to feel OK, for the first time in our lives, about cussing at a twelve year old. Thanks Madden, and f*ck you twelve year old who just sacked my QB.
7. Hit Stick - Madden NFL 05 - PS2/Gamecube/Xbox (2004)
The right analog joystick that came along with that generation of hardware had to be used for something cool, right? EA used to it redefine how defense was played (and in later games, how offense was played with the "Truck Stick" and "Highlight Stick"). While on defense, flicking the analog stick at the right time would allow your player to make a big hit and potentially force a fumble. This, combined with the new defensive hot route system, made defense in Madden just as important as offense.
8. FreeMotion controls - Madden NFL 07 - Wii (2006)
While many third-party developers decided to cash in on the Wii's success by throwing in some half-hearted waggle control, EA decided to go the extra mile with their key sports franchises. Madden saw the brunt of these changes come in the form of FreeMotion control. The control scheme as you grew up with was thrown out in a favor of a new scheme that took full advantage of the burgeoning Wii hardware. FreeMotion has you basically throwing passes as you would in the real game, along with some other interesting mechanics. It sounded cool on paper, and it ended up being cool in execution. A rare case where the promise of the Wii lived up to it's potential.
9. Online league play - Madden NFL 09 - Xbox 360/PS3 (2008)
It's one thing to obliterate your long distance pal in a quick game every now and again. It's quite another thing to participate in an online league with dozens and dozens of friends, family and strangers. Madden NFL 09 allowed you to do just that. Go through entire seasons, participate in drafts, handle intra-team trading. Do all of this and more with a stable of actual people, a good many of them being real life friends (If you are lucky.) This mode alone amped the online functionality of Madden up from "Something to do when bored" to "Must do at all times instead of eating and sleeping."
10. Online Team Play - Madden NFL 11 - Xbox 360/PS3 (2010)
Sure, it's not out quite yet, but those who have had a chance to preview the final build of Madden 11 have said the major innovation that stuck with them was online cooperative play. Madden 11 allows you to play online with up to three different people on one team, and three different people on the opposing team. The game designers have wisely split the teams up into subsets, so as to eliminate different players vying to control the same avatar. Finally! Teamwork. Maybe humanity is advancing after all.
So that's it for now. Any innovations you love that didn't make the cut? Drop us a line or leave it in the comment box. And don't forget, Madden 11 drops on August 10th.
