Madden NFL 2006

Publisher: Electronic Arts
Developer: Tiburon
Genre: Sports
Release: August 8, 2005
Platforms: Playstation 2, Playstation Portable, Xbox, Xbox 360, GameCube, Nintendo DS, Game Boy Advance, Wireless, PC

Reviewer: Eric

Madden NFL 2008 will be in stores on August 14 and it will go on to sell too many copies. Gamers and sports fanatics love these games. I still can't figure out what's so great about Madden so I decided to start with the first Madden game for the Xbox 360. After hearing how easy it was to get achievement points I thought it was a great idea to play it. Not only could I get easy achievement points I could give people my thoughts about Madden NFL 2006 and 2007 before the newest one hit shelves.

Madden 2006 When I went to my local rental store it cost $5.99 to rent this game for a week. I wasn't ready to spend that much money on this game so I went to Game Stop. I figured I'd beat out the middle man and actual buy Madden NFL 2006, used. The nice thing about sports games is when stores start reserves for the newest one everyone in the world trades in their old copy. As time passes these games will pile up and the price will slowly go down. With 2008 coming out next month it only cost $3.99 to buy Madden NFL 2006 for the Xbox 360. It was cheaper to buy this game than rent it for a week, which makes no sense to me.

When I went to purchase this gem I got a weird look, then asked if I would like to put money down on Madden NFL 2008. I said "No thank you, I don't like football games" and the Game Stop employee said that made no sense. If this game wasn't so cheap I would have put it back, but I just ignored her and paid my money. When I got back to my apartment I fired up my Xbox 360 and I heard weird noises. It sounded like Madden was dying in my system, but it was still working. With the main screen up I picked the New Orleans as my favorite team and I was ready to play some football.

Since I read how easy it was to get points in this game I wanted to see if it was true. I started a game and got an easy touchdown, but no points came up. I started to get pissed off, I just spent money on this game and my goddamn achievement points didn't show up. I exited out of the game and started another one and the same thing happened again. After three more times like this I just decided to play a whole game, this is where I realized how much I hated football games.

I use to play NFL Blitz and I was use to running all the way back and then throwing the ball. Wow this didn't help me at all in Madden, the New Orleans Saints suck, I either got tackled right away of the ball went in the other direction. I struggled in this game for the next ten minutes The final score was so bad I got my ass handed to me, but then the noise was heard throughout the living room I was in, achievement points were earned. I had to play through an entire game to earn these points, one whole game of Madden football. OH MY GOD HOW IS THIS EASY?!?! I hate this game and so far all I did was play fifteen minutes, how was I going to earn all 1000 achievement points? Simple, you are alowed to change the options.

Madden 2006After I changed the settings to Madden 2006 I was cleaning house. Any team I picked as great, I could run all the way back and throw that long pass, I was having a blast. Who would have though Madden could be so great on the easiest setting, this game was starting to get super sweet. Once I earned most of the achievement points in single games I looked and saw I had to go through franchise mode for thirty years. Thirty years...THIRTY YEARS!!!!! Oh no, I have to play this game that much longer? Guess what, this game is one of the easiest games to earn achievement points, all I have to do is simulate all the seasons so that is what I did.

Even though it was this easy, it did take a long time. I sat there with my PSP and played it while the game simulated everything. I was playing two games at once, this is what a true gamer does. Whenever I needed to hit the A button I did so, then went back to playing my PSP. For the next week I would slowly go through this process, but then the day came where it was all over. I heard that special noise again and I just earned the last points in Madden NFL 2006, four hundred achievement points. I just earned 1000 points in this game and all I had to do was play a few games. Thank you EA, you only made me upset for a little bit.

Final Verdict

I won't lie when I got the idea to review Madden NFL 2006 and 2007 before the newest Madden came out I got excited, my gamer score was going to go up big time. My friends might give me a hard time about it, but they are just jealous, plus I did this for reviewing purposes. How can you give me a hard time about it? Oh wait I think I mainly talked about my achievement point journey. Ummm Madden NFL 2006 has pretty graphics and there are a few glitches in this version, not seen in the other versions. EA Sports rushed this out so don't waste....wait buy this if it's cheap, you can get an easy 1000 points added to your gamer score.

Rating
1.5 out of 10 for actual game play.
10 out of 10 for being easy earning achievement points.