One of the Best

I had been anxiously waiting for Madden 2000 to come out whenever I brought it home. I have always enjoyed playing football games on my Nintendo 64, and now I was going to have one of the best. It truly is, until Madden 2001 came along, but that is for another epinion.

Of course the announcers for this game are John Madden and Pat Sumerall. Just like in real life, the combo on the game are annoying and have nothing important to say. It is hard to play this game for an extended amount of time without becoming highly annoyed at the repeat one-liners these guys use. I think this has to be the biggest flaw with the game, which is why I bring it up first. I grow very tired of hearing Madden say “The defense filled all the gaps and the runner had no way around.” So generally when I play Madden 2000 I mute the TV, put in a few CDs and hit the Random play button.

As far as play itself goes, this is a great game. I had no trouble learning the moves and buttons to use. There are a lot of new moves included in 2000 that were not used in Madden ’99 like breakable wrap tackles, diving catches and gang tackling, to name a few. The game play itself is faster than before. All NFL teams are included in the game and each team has its own playbook, so you don’t get bored playing the same game over and over but with different teams. You can even switch the team playbooks, so you could play the Dallas Cowboys using the Washington Redskin’s playbook, if you wanted.

There are several game modes. I usually opt to play an entire season and have done so with several different teams. Within the season, you can re-align the six NFL divisions and play a custom season as well. This is pretty interesting and also adds a nice twist to the game. You move on to the play-offs (hopefully) after the season ends, or if your team does not make the play-offs you can still play or simulate any of the play-off games. Ultimately there is the Pro Bowl.

In franchise mode, you can take control of an entire franchise and customize it your very own way for up to 30 seasons. You get to be coach and make all decisions, but if you choose poorly you can be fired. The main difference in playing a franchise game to a season mode game is that you can only control your own team in franchise mode and all the other games have to be simulated. You can play multiple franchises at the same time. After the season, you get to sign new players, trade players, and draft players.

There is a tournament game mode, which is a single elimination tournament. This is a great mode to use when you have a lot of friends or people to play. I am a youth minister, so a lot of the guys like to come over on Saturdays and we will select a team for each person and play a tournament until it is down to the last two players who battle in the final game. You can also use practice mode to get a feel for the game or just goof around if you don’t want to play for an extended period of time.

There is the Madden Challenge, which is a series of goals and trivia questions that award you points. There are 2000 total points to be earned and as you reach certain point levels you receive secret codes that unlock new features of your Madden 2000 game. Or if you are impatient you can do some surfing for the secret codes on the internet, I assume.

The graphics are awesome, the sound is good but the announcer’s are annoying since they have a limited number of phrases, and game play is fun. I’d have to say this is one of the better Madden games I have owned and played.