Ranking & Rating All Madden's Ever Made (1999 onwards)

[Blazer026]

2007 and 2003 were my favorites.

[MacReady]

So Madden 07 arrives probably Monday.  I'm trying to figure out what the best thing to do is in order to get it as close to current lineups as possible.

Does anyone remember if you can even edit player names in Madden 07?  I'm thinking I would go in and edit the names of the 12 best players per team and just ignore others because that would be a lot of editing otherwise. 

I'm thinking I'll just simulate every regular season and make sure that year's Super Bowl winner gets to the playoffs, make sure they win the Super Bowl, then get to 2020.  Do a little bit of trading and roster editing to make sure it's at least remotely similar as far as not turning some 60 overall QB into Aaron Rodgers and making sure each team's 12 best players get in the league.

 

[43M]

10 hours ago, Outpost31 said:

So Madden 07 arrives probably Monday.  I'm trying to figure out what the best thing to do is in order to get it as close to current lineups as possible.

Does anyone remember if you can even edit player names in Madden 07?  I'm thinking I would go in and edit the names of the 12 best players per team and just ignore others because that would be a lot of editing otherwise. 

I'm thinking I'll just simulate every regular season and make sure that year's Super Bowl winner gets to the playoffs, make sure they win the Super Bowl, then get to 2020.  Do a little bit of trading and roster editing to make sure it's at least remotely similar as far as not turning some 60 overall QB into Aaron Rodgers and making sure each team's 12 best players get in the league.

 

I am 99% positive you can edit almost everything in M07 franchise except ratings.

You might just be better off playing an alternate reality version of the NFL with the rosters it comes with.

One thing I remember hating about those older Maddens is the draft and free agency.   Not that its much better now, but it was worse back then.   

[MacReady]

7 minutes ago, 43M said:

I am 99% positive you can edit almost everything in M07 franchise except ratings.

You might just be better off playing an alternate reality version of the NFL with the rosters it comes with.

One thing I remember hating about those older Maddens is the draft and free agency.   Not that its much better now, but it was worse back then.   

I was thinking about that, too, but I really like realism.  Maybe I'll just do the quarterbacks and like 3 or 4 other players per team, but I think I want to take a stab at getting it updated as much as I can. 

 

[43M]

2 hours ago, Outpost31 said:

I was thinking about that, too, but I really like realism.  Maybe I'll just do the quarterbacks and like 3 or 4 other players per team, but I think I want to take a stab at getting it updated as much as I can. 

 

As another person who doesnt buy Madden regularly, I know the pain of updating rosters manually.    I used to do it with those older games alot, and I remember I had more fun editing players and ratings than I did actually playing the game.   Kinda sad.

I used to be all about the NFL rosters and stuff, but now I think I would like to play a franchise mode with entirely fictional characters.    I remember years back on Madden 12, when you could still create teams from scratch, I created an "Any Given Sunday" league.   I created about 8 original teams and edited alot of the players so it was a fictional league with some notable fictional players from movies.       I was the Albuquerque Aztecs, and my starting QB was Willie Beaman.     On other teams I had turned Tony Romo into Shane Falco and Aaron Rodgers into Johnny Utah.

I know it sounds silly....but it actually helped me forget about some of the unrealistic aspects of Madden since I kind of viewed it as "alternate reality" football.

Wouldnt mind doing that again.  Wish you could still create teams from scratch.   😡

[MacReady]

7 hours ago, 43M said:

As another person who doesnt buy Madden regularly, I know the pain of updating rosters manually.    I used to do it with those older games alot, and I remember I had more fun editing players and ratings than I did actually playing the game.   Kinda sad.

I used to be all about the NFL rosters and stuff, but now I think I would like to play a franchise mode with entirely fictional characters.    I remember years back on Madden 12, when you could still create teams from scratch, I created an "Any Given Sunday" league.   I created about 8 original teams and edited alot of the players so it was a fictional league with some notable fictional players from movies.       I was the Albuquerque Aztecs, and my starting QB was Willie Beaman.     On other teams I had turned Tony Romo into Shane Falco and Aaron Rodgers into Johnny Utah.

I know it sounds silly....but it actually helped me forget about some of the unrealistic aspects of Madden since I kind of viewed it as "alternate reality" football.

Wouldnt mind doing that again.  Wish you could still create teams from scratch.   😡

It's all in the team building for me.  The only reason I really like football is in the team building aspect of it.

Draft capital. 
Cap health.
Positional value.

I like creating dynasties with the Packers, but I also like building bottom teams up by purging their terrible rosters, then getting smart with their draft picks.  Get an offensive line before you get a QB.  Get DL before you get ILB. 

This is why I loved early Maddens, too.  It actually had player personality.  Not as good as it could be, but thanks to the exclusive licensing, we will NEVER get as good as it should be.

A football simulation game should have personality types.  Distinct personality types.  They should have divas who demand the ball and their ratings drop if they're not getting enough targets.  They should have a player type that butts heads with coaches. 

This is why the only hope of a great simulation/RPG football game is if somebody just drops the NFL from its hopes and makes a game with fully customizable leagues.  You could have 20 teams, 40 teams, 100 teams, 32 teams.  You could name the teams...

You could also name the trophies.  So in the game it would be the Mega Bowl.  Change that to Super Bowl...

Then allow for downloadable content and some hero would make NFL rosters.

It can be done.  Start the Kickstarter.  I should just start the Kickstarter and then once it gets to like 4,000 dollars just say LOL, I don't know how to make a video game, but I've got 4,000 dollars that says this idea would reach its funding goal. 

[MacReady]

EDIT: I Keep saying Madden 06.  It was Madden 07.  I wanted to go as late on the original Xbox system as I could, but 07 was like 5 dollars cheaper than 08 still.  Th

Alright, so I got Madden 06 for the original Xbox. 

I wanted to go later after 2004, which was my favorite, because I was afraid the actual gameplay would take me out of it.  It didn't. 

What took me out of it was the lack of Supersim.  I've grown way too accustomed to that feature in Madden games.  I can't be bothered with kicking extra points, punting, kicking, kick returning, punt returning, etc. 

The supersim feature was bad in this one.  I will not be able to continue playing it.

Everything else, however... My God is it superior to modern Madden games.

*Player Morale and team morale had a real impact on your team while simulating.  A VERY real impact. 
*You could hire and fire head coaches, defensive coordinators, offensive coordinators, special teams coordinators.
*You could choose your gameplan for simulating games.  Aggressive, conservative, play the run, play the pass.  THIS IS IMPORTANT, EA!
*They tried to make player personalities matter.  Some would hold out, some would skip training camp, some wouldn't re-sign with your team based on their morale. 
*Retired players became coaches.
*Simulated statistics were REALISTIC.  My rookie QBs threw for 17 touchdowns and 13 interceptions.  Second years they went 22/12. 
*Top picks in the draft had a REAL IMPACT.  I drafted an EDGE with the first overall pick and suddenly my defense got better imagine that.
*Retired players.  This was the first step of the offseason.  You got an announcement for coaches who retired, and then you got to see an actual list of retired players.
*Restricted free agents.  You know, the thing that happens in the NFL where not every Goddamn player hits unrestricted free agency.
*Free agents picked teams based on more than how much you paid them.  Players chose which teams to sign with based on team morale, money, talent, fit... 
*You could play the Senior Bowl game.  Yes... This was real.
*There was a scouting combine. 
*Call me crazy, but I think the passing gameplay was better here than in current Madden.  Current Madden it seems like players get open too easily. 

There were, however, some things that brought the experience down a bit.  I'll admit that. 

*You couldn't trade future draft picks.  This really hurt.
*You could only have 10 draft picks a year.  I kinda understand this one, and it's not a huge issue, but it kinda sucked. 
*Draft pick value was way off.  The top 5 picks got traded way too often for, say, 21st overall and 42nd overall.
*The gameplay was a bit more rigid than you're accustomed to.  It was like every player was a square.  This would NOT have taken me out of the experience though.

 

Overall, 2006 - One that isn't even really praised or especially memorable - has a franchise mode that completely and totally destroys every single Madden game made in the past 10 years.  If it wasn't for its lack of the supersim feature, I might still be playing it. 
*The passing game

Edited November 12, 2020 by Outpost31

[43M]

22 hours ago, Outpost31 said:

EDIT: I Keep saying Madden 06.  It was Madden 07.  I wanted to go as late on the original Xbox system as I could, but 07 was like 5 dollars cheaper than 08 still.  Th

Alright, so I got Madden 06 for the original Xbox. 

I wanted to go later after 2004, which was my favorite, because I was afraid the actual gameplay would take me out of it.  It didn't. 

What took me out of it was the lack of Supersim.  I've grown way too accustomed to that feature in Madden games.  I can't be bothered with kicking extra points, punting, kicking, kick returning, punt returning, etc. 

The supersim feature was bad in this one.  I will not be able to continue playing it.

Everything else, however... My God is it superior to modern Madden games.

*Player Morale and team morale had a real impact on your team while simulating.  A VERY real impact. 
*You could hire and fire head coaches, defensive coordinators, offensive coordinators, special teams coordinators.
*You could choose your gameplan for simulating games.  Aggressive, conservative, play the run, play the pass.  THIS IS IMPORTANT, EA!
*They tried to make player personalities matter.  Some would hold out, some would skip training camp, some wouldn't re-sign with your team based on their morale. 
*Retired players became coaches.
*Simulated statistics were REALISTIC.  My rookie QBs threw for 17 touchdowns and 13 interceptions.  Second years they went 22/12. 
*Top picks in the draft had a REAL IMPACT.  I drafted an EDGE with the first overall pick and suddenly my defense got better imagine that.
*Retired players.  This was the first step of the offseason.  You got an announcement for coaches who retired, and then you got to see an actual list of retired players.
*Restricted free agents.  You know, the thing that happens in the NFL where not every Goddamn player hits unrestricted free agency.
*Free agents picked teams based on more than how much you paid them.  Players chose which teams to sign with based on team morale, money, talent, fit... 
*You could play the Senior Bowl game.  Yes... This was real.
*There was a scouting combine. 
*Call me crazy, but I think the passing gameplay was better here than in current Madden.  Current Madden it seems like players get open too easily. 

There were, however, some things that brought the experience down a bit.  I'll admit that. 

*You couldn't trade future draft picks.  This really hurt.
*You could only have 10 draft picks a year.  I kinda understand this one, and it's not a huge issue, but it kinda sucked. 
*Draft pick value was way off.  The top 5 picks got traded way too often for, say, 21st overall and 42nd overall.
*The gameplay was a bit more rigid than you're accustomed to.  It was like every player was a square.  This would NOT have taken me out of the experience though.

 

Overall, 2006 - One that isn't even really praised or especially memorable - has a franchise mode that completely and totally destroys every single Madden game made in the past 10 years.  If it wasn't for its lack of the supersim feature, I might still be playing it. 
*The passing game

You should try Madden 09 if you can get your hands on it.   It doesnt have all the things you listed, but it does have many of them, including player personalities and motivations, coordinators, retirements...and it does have supersim.

Its beyond annoying how many cool things they had in the game that they just got rid of for no good reason.

[AkronsWitness]

10 hours ago, 43M said:

You should try Madden 09 if you can get your hands on it.   It doesnt have all the things you listed, but it does have many of them, including player personalities and motivations, coordinators, retirements...and it does have supersim.

Its beyond annoying how many cool things they had in the game that they just got rid of for no good reason.

too busy building MUT for Pay-to-win loot boxes to care about any sort of basic things in Franchise mode. Simple things, like the training camp drills to boost players stats in the offseason that was in PS2 Maddens but not anymore.

Either way, the last 5 years have been brutal for the franchise. I honeslty havent had fun playing a Madden since 2008-2009. They got rid of the arcade-y ness about the game with hit sticks, truck sticks and all around fun in favor for making a pure similation that gets extremely repetitive really fast.

[43M]

1 hour ago, AkronsWitness said:

too busy building MUT for Pay-to-win loot boxes to care about any sort of basic things in Franchise mode. Simple things, like the training camp drills to boost players stats in the offseason that was in PS2 Maddens but not anymore.

Either way, the last 5 years have been brutal for the franchise. I honeslty havent had fun playing a Madden since 2008-2009. They got rid of the arcade-y ness about the game with hit sticks, truck sticks and all around fun in favor for making a pure similation that gets extremely repetitive really fast.

I agree with most of this, but I sure as hell wouldnt call Madden a pure simulation.  Its kind of in its own category which caters to online casual players.     Madden for consoles is essentially a glorified mobile game, but even worse because it ist free to play and still encourages heavy purchases of microtransactions.

[Lions017]

On 11/13/2020 at 9:01 PM, 43M said:

I agree with most of this, but I sure as hell wouldnt call Madden a pure simulation.  Its kind of in its own category which caters to online casual players.     Madden for consoles is essentially a glorified mobile game, but even worse because it ist free to play and still encourages heavy purchases of microtransactions.

Yup. Madden is in an awkward stage where it's technically a sim game, but doesn't really play like real football in a lot of ways. 

[BayRaider]

After playing Madden 22 for 10 hours, I would put this game 29th on this list between Madden 16 and 15 on PS4/One, with a rating of 5.0/10. 

I don’t need more than 10 hours considering this is a 100% copy/paste from Madden 21, and I played that game 60-70 hours when it landed on Gamepass last year. 
 

This game is better than 19-21, but barely. The only good thing I can say is player movement is excellent for 21/22 compared to the 6-7 years prior. Outside of that, gameplay is still absolutely trash… super arcadey, super buggy and glitchy (less buggy than 21 though for sure), and a horrible animation engine instead of a physics engine. Also, despite what’s being “marketed” Franchise is still pretty bare bones and simulation is still totally broken. And no customization of any kind allowed. Yes, I realize a patch is coming, but overhauling the scouting system does not make the mode good or unbroken. The Presentation in the mode is awful, the sims are awful, the stat engine is awful, the menus are awful, and no customization is obviously the big drawback. 
 

 

Edited August 30, 2021 by BayRaider

[43M]

On 8/30/2021 at 6:27 PM, BayRaider said:

After playing Madden 22 for 10 hours, I would put this game 29th on this list between Madden 16 and 15 on PS4/One, with a rating of 5.0/10. 

I don’t need more than 10 hours considering this is a 100% copy/paste from Madden 21, and I played that game 60-70 hours when it landed on Gamepass last year. 
 

This game is better than 19-21, but barely. The only good thing I can say is player movement is excellent for 21/22 compared to the 6-7 years prior. Outside of that, gameplay is still absolutely trash… super arcadey, super buggy and glitchy (less buggy than 21 though for sure), and a horrible animation engine instead of a physics engine. Also, despite what’s being “marketed” Franchise is still pretty bare bones and simulation is still totally broken. And no customization of any kind allowed. Yes, I realize a patch is coming, but overhauling the scouting system does not make the mode good or unbroken. The Presentation in the mode is awful, the sims are awful, the stat engine is awful, the menus are awful, and no customization is obviously the big drawback. 
 

 

Lets be honest...you didnt need 10 hours.

You didnt even need 10 minutes.  😏