Madden NFL 2002 (GameCube) review " As with all Madden games it is just an improvement on the year before. Incase there are people that actually don't know about the Madden series, it is a simulation style football game, alot like NFL 2K2. It is a video game made by EA Sports, year in and year out for around 10 years with never a failed year. This year is definitely no exception, and even the graphics are stunning for a PS2 import. This game amazed me happily, and well deserves it's rating. "

As with all Madden games it is just an improvement on the year before. Incase there are people that actually don't know about the Madden series, it is a simulation style football game, alot like NFL 2K2. It is a video game made by EA Sports, year in and year out for around 10 years with never a failed year. This year is definitely no exception, and even the graphics are stunning for a PS2 import. This game amazed me happily, and well deserves it's rating.

GRAPHICS (23/25): Madden 2002 is a PlayStation 2 import for the Gamecube. Usually this leads to unstunning graphics and such, but this is not the case. The actual play-by-play graphics are very good for a video game, but that is not where Madden shines. Unlike most games were replays are irritating and annoying to watch, when the computer pops up a replay it is dazzling, and looks just like a real NFL game. When you first play this game you will definitely be amazed. The graphics lose 1 point because of a minor technical area, where at the end of the play it will show you a stat, but will pop off before you can read it. This will irritate you to begin with, but you'll get used to it.

SOUND (4/10): I don't care what anybody says, Madden's voice does get annoying. After playing the game many times, you will get used to Maddens annoying whining and pointing out the obvious. His partner Pat Summeral is less annoying, cause he basically just point out how long you have to go for first downs and stuff, but he too is annoying. This is an improvement of past Madden games sadly enough. Too bad that they will never take Madden out of his own game. The ingame sounds are pretty good, as you can hear grunts as the linebackers and linemans fight off and screams of pain when someone is hit hard. Unluckily enough you won't hear these too much.

GAMEPLAY (37/40): There is so much to do in Madden, so you will not get bored. The best mode of play however is the franchise mode which lets you play over 20 consecutive seasons controlling the same team. You can start by either taking one of your favorite teams (in my case Cardinals and Colts) or a fantasy draft. After doing this you will play out through a regular season and be able to make trades and resign players. Then comes the playoffs, where if your team was good enough you can fight for the SuperBowl. After this is where franchise mode shines, the offseason. You are able sign free agents, go through the NFL draft, and the first season you even have an expansion draft for the new team, the Houston Texans. This also leads to realignment just like the real NFL. This definitely adds to the realism. Then there is the Madden Cards, with over 300 in total. Just try collecting them all, it is not even remotely easy, but definitely fun to try. There are cheats, special teams, and even hot cheerleaders to find. There is also the added two minute drill which you try to score as much as possible in 2 minutes, and the situation mode, where you can choose any situation to put your team in. Maybe you are not fond of real NFL players, well create some of your own. This is still evident in this Madden game, where you can create teams and player, and put them into the entry draft. There are thousands of possible ways to play Madden.

REPLAYABILITY (9/10): This game has high mode of replayability, as each game takes around an hour, and you will find yourself playing through multiple seasons. This is definitely a fun thing to do. You can also spend alot of time trying to collect ALL of the Madden Cards, which is not even close to an easy task.

MULTIPLAYER (8/10): Like all Madden games however, the multiplayer mode is fun, but lackluster. You cannot pick which controller to control you QB, so you will find yourself switching on and off. However it is still fun to play with friends, and will definitely a good game to play with a single friend. It is competitive and even the lesser players can sometimes stay alive with lucky catches. It could've been better, but it also could've been much worse

DIFFICULTY (5/5): It really depends on how difficult you want it. It is easy to set which difficulty you want out of the 4 choices, and you can even change the difficulty even more by arranging on how good you want the CPU to be at catching, and other things like that. You should be able to make a well balanced difficulty.

OVERALL (86/100): Easily the best in the Madden series, for it improves on every aspect. If only Madden had good sound it would have been deserving of a 90, but alas, just like always the sound is irritating. The game itself however is extremely fun, and if you enjoy simulation football games, this is definitely the game for you.

Community review by ratking (Date unavailable) A bio for this contributor is currently unavailable, but check back soon to see if that changes. If you are the author of this review, you can update your bio from the Settings page.