| Play Now |
| Selecting "Play Now" will allow you to quickly start a game against the computer or a friend with parameters you set. You can control the time, the weather, time of day, and of course, which team you play as and against. Otherwise, "Play Now" has little use to the Madden player who really wants to immerse him or herself in the truly epic parts of the game. Use "Play Now" for a quick scrimmage, to test out a team or a player, or to get a feel for a particular field, weather condition, or other controlled variable that you may want to try out for size. |
Game Modes
As mentioned earlier, "Game Modes" is the real meat of the game. Here, you will find seven features that are all fun to use and have practical in-game applications. These seven features are discussed below:
| Franchise | This is the reason many people purchase Madden year after year - so you can have the chance to play as your favorite team through many seasons. Once you select this option, you will be asked to load a franchise or begin a new one. Choose your poison, then continue on to playing what is arguably Madden's deepest feature. |
| Fantasy Challenge | Madden NFL 09 introduces the series' newest option - the Fantasy Challenge. This mode takes advantage of the fantasy football craze sweeping the nation, allowing you to draft a team of your own choosing and following them through various leagues of varying competitiveness. If you're keen on picking the next star or have gut instincts on certain players or moves, this is definitely a mode for you. What's more, it adds incredible depth to a game that already has incredible depth in its Franchise and NFL Superstar modes alone. Remember - this is a mode you'll want to explore if you want to unlock everything in the game, including the very team you decided to take to the top. |
| NFL Superstar | If you ever imagined playing as just one particular player, a player which you create and control the ultimate destiny of, than this feature is what you want to explore. You can literally pick any position, create a player at that position, and then play only as him in-game, without even calling any of the plays on your team's behalf. Remember, this can be on the offensive and defensive side of the ball. But you don't only control the player on the field, but also off the field as well. Give it a go, and you'll see exactly what we're talking about. Madden veterans will be more familiar with this style of deep gameplay. What's more, if you cultivated a player in EA's NCAA Football 09, you can import that character into the world of Madden! |
| Tournament | You can create unorthodox, un-NFL styles of play here by creating tournaments of varying "types." More akin to World Cup soccer or something of that nature, these tournaments are completely customizable and oddly enjoyable. Definitely check this option out when Franchise mode or playing against your friends has given you enough for one day. |
| Mini Games | This is a little aside to Madden, if you will, where you can run some random drills with various teams. For the hardcore football fan only... there's little enjoyment in these situations, many of which you regularly find during any given in-game situation. However, the more you do here the more you can unlock, so if you're a completionist, as so many of us are, you'll be sure to spend extra time here. |
| Practice | It is what it says it is. What did you expect? |
| Play Online | There's really little to explain here - if you're a person who loves to play Madden online, then this is the option for you. Selecting this with an internet-ready gaming console will allow you to join other Madden players on the network, where you can putz around with friends or make some new enemies by showing them just how well you play the game. Remember, things get competitive online, so it's only for the well-prepared! |
| Features |
| The Features part of the game is a little more straight-forward than Game Modes, simply because it's all about unique creations on your part, as well as a look into team rosters and historic teams. The real intriguing part of this section is creating your own player, team, playbook, or roster - this might be confusing, or even useless, to some, but we highly recommend you give these features a go at your earliest convenience. They add some depth that you'd be surprised to find in a football game. |
My Madden
The My Madden section is where you can find all of the Madden Cards you won in the game by accomplishing certain tasks in your various games. For instance, you get points for a long touchdown throw, a shutout, a blocked kick, or a quarterback sack. These points all go towards your Madden Cards, which is a collector's dream.
On the other hand, you can also find a stat book, as well as coaching strategies, gameplay settings and system settings. This is the section where you can also load and save various in-game "personalities." In other words, you can load a franchise here, or save it. You can do this for all of your Madden saves at this very location. You can also find the Ring of a Champion here, which will chart your save file's progress through the annuls of Madden completion. As usual, depth, depth, and more depth.
| Skill Drills |
| Skill Drills is an all-new option featured in Madden NFL 09 which allows you to work on some in-game fundamentals to become better at the game. The better you are at the game, generally, the more worthwhile your Madden experience will be. Therefore, Skill Drills may be a part of the game you will want to spend some time with, especially if you're new to the series. However, even veterans will find worthwhile exercises in Skill Drills, considering some rare plays and rare occurrences happen with regularity in Skill Drills. |
| EA Sports Extras |
| This section can be explained with the utmost simplicity - you can check out all of your in-game extras (both unlocked by you and automatically unlocked) featured in Madden. In the beginning of the game, all that will be available to you is the Season Preview and the game's credits, but as you unlock things, so too will features be unlocked here. |
