DS #1309: Madden NFL 08 (USA)

[Fadakar]

FOOTBALL! FOOTBALL! FOOTBALL!

 

[Empyre]

Nobody mentioned Aussie Rules Football yet? Makes Rugby players look like a bunch of pussies.

Who cares what Football, Soccer, American Football, Rugby etc are called; celebrate cultural diversity. It's all just a load of balls.

 

[UncleChuckle]

Am I alone in liking BOTH sports known as football? I mean I'm reading up on Madden here while watching Premier League highlights on TV...

I've played football, I've played american football, I've played rugby etc... Yes I think it's dumb calling what the yanks play football, but whatever. I don't understand this violent hatred people have for one or the other. GROW UP!

 

[ghettobob]

Madden for the DS has improved over the years. 05 looked so terrible on the NDS phat.

This game is actually playable! and has wifi which is a plus

 

[baobab]

I know it seems weird that american football is called football, since it's not played using your feet(much). The reason it's called football is because the ball is one foot long. Strange but true.

 

[Mucuna]

eh... American football...

 

[OSW]

My quick review. As said previously I enjoyed Madden 07, it was pretty good for a DS football game. I've only played one quarter of football and a very quick game of the paper tabletop football game and here's my review.

First thing you always notice is graphics... and graphics are a vast improvement this season over last. The players are considerably less blocky and more detailed, they even show lighting effects on them. The stadium doesn't look any better then last season, they look fine. Every stadium is a near replica of the real world stadium for all teams. I don't think there's too much of an upgrade that you can do to the stadiums without hindering the game due to DS graphical restraints.

Then you start playing the game... there's a few changes. Gameplay is now on the bottom screen, they keep changing this back and forth for the past 3 seasons... I don't think it really matters which screen it's on. The X's and O's (on top) screen is now where you can find the player icons (quick runner, hard hitter, good catcher, etc).  Nice addition is durring play your recievers icons change color (red, yellow, green... showing how covered or open the reciever is), so if it's red or yellow you know there's a good chance of the pass not making it, or worse being intercepted. Nice addition. Running and Defence hasn't really changed at all... but it still plays solid and controls are easy to use. Kicking (kickoffs, field goals and punts) are all now done by the button press (just standard tap a to start, a to set power, a to hit accuracy)... way better then the stupid stylus kicking they tried in previous years, i'm glad they went back to this.

As said I also tried the tabletop paper football game... a classic game played in school with your friends. It's a lot of fun, and includes offline (hot-seat) and wifi multiplayer. They've included a classic mode and an ultimate mode. Ultimate mode gives the defense a chance to block your play by placing coins (defenders) in your path to the end zone. Otherwise in both modes it's still 4 flicks (draw a line with stylus across the football on the touch screen) to get the ball hanging off the edge of the table without falling off. If you do that then you get to try and kick the conversion through two hands making the uprights. This is a really nice addition to the Madden 08 title.

Overall they have done a nice upgrade to the DS version of Madden 08, in both graphics and gameplay. And I like the Paper Football mini game.

Graphics 9/10 - great upgrade, don't know there's too much more they can add.
Audio 7/10 - good audio, nice little voice clips of john madden between plays giving commentary and tips.
Gameplay 8/10 - nice updates, glad they gone back to the basics with the kicking system, overall good game.

OVERALL 8/10 - like the NFL? the DS is your favorite\only portable? then this is your year for Madden NFL on the DS.

Thank you very much my friend.

Now i know it's at least worth trying!

 

[Azadar]

suks that EA has not managed to fix rosters prior to release at least allow a downloaded fix for this man Trent green is still in KC...

 

[dsbomb]

One thing for me that all the Maddens have is difficulty catching a pass. I can find a guy open, pass to him, and by the time the ball gets there, he's covered with 2-4 guys.

I thought the color highlighting would help me, but it hasn't. I played one game, and made two good passes in the game that were more than 10 yards. I can only reliably pass a very short distance, and treat it as a running play.

Oh, and the animations in between plays (players lining up in formation, ets) is definately faster. It gets right to the action as soon as possible.

 

[theorgan]

WHY DO THEY CALL IT CRICKET? WHERES THE BUGS YOU EURO'S?

 

[blahman]

Nobody mentioned Aussie Rules Football yet? Makes Rugby players look like a bunch of pussies.

Who cares what Football, Soccer, American Football, Rugby etc are called; celebrate cultural diversity. It's all just a load of balls.


Aussie No Rules! Aussie No Rules! Aussie No Rules! Aussie No Rules!

actually theyve gotten bit soft over the years. wont be too surprised if they start wearing padding within the next 20years >_>
still get odd big injuries now and then tho: punctured lungs, smashed kidney. and a couple of concussions everyweek.
jessica alba still said its the most violent sport she ever seen tho

WHY DO THEY CALL IT CRICKET? WHERES THE BUGS YOU EURO'S?

Actually the name has nothing to do with the bug -.-
It be derived from either french or old english meaning bat or stick or something, which would make perfect sense for the game.


Back to Madden 08:
The graphics department of the game is pretty well done for a DS game o.o
It seems to use similar graphics to FIFA 07 but slightly better although it might not actually be better just that these players have pads on and these tuby torsos be more acceptable. Im glad that EA didnt go the 2K way and use NES graphics lol

 

[gigermunit]

Im from the US and honestly i hate 'american' football. i hate it how hyped up it is over here.

It strange that soccer, world's favorite sport, is almost nonexistant in the States

Never been to florida have you

 

[Taras]

One thing for me that all the Maddens have is difficulty catching a pass. I can find a guy open, pass to him, and by the time the ball gets there, he's covered with 2-4 guys.

I played one game, and made two good passes in the game that were more than 10 yards. I can only reliably pass a very short distance, and treat it as a running play.

Dude, don't play as Oakland or Washington and you should pass fine.

 

[Dirtie]

Nobody mentioned Aussie Rules Football yet? Makes Rugby players look like a bunch of pussies.

Is that the one where they throw the ball in backwards, play on an oval field, and have 4 upright posts? Sounds a bit crazy to me

Noones mentioned Rugby League yet either - go Warriors!

Anyway, DjFIL's description of tabletop football sounds a lot like how I used to play tabletop rugby back in the day, so I might give this a try for that reason alone

 

[mikagami]

What does this use for NWFC? Friend codes? Can someone explain please? Thanks. Cause I heard the Wii version was going to be using "hubs".

 

[imyourxpan]

Once again another reason this site has become worse and worse, where the hell are the MODS to keep these posts on track.. Stop your stupid football conversations and use the forums for that shit.. This is for comments about the game in question.

The owners of this site try to make a nice spot for releases and while not the fastest updating the lists they should be thanked and the rules should be followed!

I'm seriously pissed that almost every thread anymore is off topic banter by you guys. The old days were better when we just commented about the damn game. Now we read through 50+ posts of Non-sense.

Madden 2008 on DS is supposed to be redesigned and some real effort being put into the game this time as it "supposedly" has a DS to Wii connectivity as well for Madden 2008 so can anyone comment on the controls, graphics and overall feel of the game compared to previous maddens on DS and not RUGBY or SOCCER!?

I agree

how is this game by the way? i came to read up about it, not a discussion on what is football is(other than this damn video game for the ds.) and w/e. go make another topic about it.

 

[UncleChuckle]

Aussie Rules is demented. That's why I like watching bits, as I find it utterly incomprehensible, and it's violent as all hell.

Not played Madden. Did have a quick look though. Classic teams: WOO! Graphics: Double Woo!

WiFi does the friend code thing, or randomly matches you with someone if you wish. Didn't try it though.

The graphics are pretty stunning for the DS I have to say.

 

[DjFIL]

I love Aussie Rules AFL... go Collingwood Magpies... hope we get a region-free (importable) version of an AFL game for the Xbox 360. And a Rugby League game too.

I played the WiFi w/ a friend... worked great. No lag. Wish Paper Football was WFC-abled too... but it's local wifi or hot seat play.

 

[Cutman]

Once again another reason this site has become worse and worse, where the hell are the MODS to keep these posts on track.. Stop your stupid football conversations and use the forums for that shit.. This is for comments about the game in question.

The owners of this site try to make a nice spot for releases and while not the fastest updating the lists they should be thanked and the rules should be followed!

I'm seriously pissed that almost every thread anymore is off topic banter by you guys. The old days were better when we just commented about the damn game. Now we read through 50+ posts of Non-sense.

Madden 2008 on DS is supposed to be redesigned and some real effort being put into the game this time as it "supposedly" has a DS to Wii connectivity as well for Madden 2008 so can anyone comment on the controls, graphics and overall feel of the game compared to previous maddens on DS and not RUGBY or SOCCER!?

I blame 4chan.

 

[shaunj66]

Ok guys, back on topic now please. Anyone continuing the argument or posting off-topic will be warned/suspended appropriately