''Madden NFL 2003'' is an American football simulation video game based on the

NFL The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the major ...

that was developed by EA Tiburon and

Budcat Creations Budcat Creations, LLC was an American video game developer based in Iowa City, Iowa, United States and was a wholly owned subsidiary of Activision, though they formerly had partnerships with Electronic Arts and Majesco Entertainment. They were la ...

and published by EA Sports. The 14th installment of the '' Madden NFL series'', the game features former St. Louis Rams running back

Marshall Faulk Marshall William Faulk (born February 26, 1973) is an American former football running back who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 13 seasons with the Indianapolis Colts and St. Louis Rams. He is widely regarded as one of the grea ...

on the cover. This edition of ''Madden'' was the first to have EA Trax, the Mini Camp mode, and to feature Al Michaels as play-by-play announcer, who took over for Pat Summerall. Although it featured the expansion

Houston Texans The Houston Texans are a professional American football team based in Houston. The Texans compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC South, South division, and play their home ga ...

and the relocation of the

Seattle Seahawks The Seattle Seahawks are a professional American football team based in Seattle. The Seahawks compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) West, which they rejoined in 2002 as ...

to the NFC, it was actually the second to do so (after the previous edition had it done in the second season of its own Franchise mode, with the Seahawks still in the AFC and no Texans team when said mode was started). The game was released on August 12, 2002 for the Game Boy Advance,

GameCube The is a home video game console developed and released by Nintendo in Japan on September 14, 2001, in North America on November 18, 2001, and in PAL territories in 2002. It is the successor to the Nintendo 64 (1996), and predecessor of the Wii ...

Microsoft Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...

PlayStation is a video gaming brand that consists of five home video game consoles, two handhelds, a media center, and a smartphone, as well as an online service and multiple magazines. The brand is produced by Sony Interactive Entertainment, a divisi ...

PlayStation 2 The PlayStation 2 (PS2) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on 4 March 2000, in North America on 26 October 2000, in Europe on 24 November 2000, and in Australia on 3 ...

and Xbox. The PlayStation version also includes the

Sega Genesis The Sega Genesis, known as the outside North America, is a 16-bit Fourth generation of video game consoles, fourth generation home video game console developed and sold by Sega. It was Sega's third console and the successor to the Master Syst ...

version of ''

John Madden Football 93 ''John Madden Football '93'' is a 1992 sports video game developed by Blue Sky Productions and Electronic Arts and published by EA Sports. Based on the sport of American football, the player controls a football team in modes such as tournament pl ...

''.

Roster errors

* Bruce Matthews is the starting center for the Tennessee Titans despite having retired by the start of the season. * Retired quarterback Mark Rypien is listed as a free agent. * Ryan Leaf appears as a backup quarterback for the

despite retiring before the start of training camp. * LaVar Arrington does not appear in the game due to him not represented by the NFL players association at the time therefore preventing him from appearing in the game, however his name can be added. * Pat Tillman appears as a free agent despite retiring before the season to join the military. * Tony Boselli appears as a left tackle for the

, however he retired before the 2002 NFL season because of injuries. *

Ben Coates Benjamin Terrence Coates, Jr. (born August 16, 1969) is an American former football tight end who played in the National Football League for 10 seasons, primarily with the New England Patriots. He played college football at Livingstone and was ...

appears as a free agent despite announcing his retirement in the 2001 offseason. * Neil Smith appears as a free agent despite announcing his retirement in the 2001 offseason.

Soundtrack

''Madden NFL 2003'' was the first EA Sports video game to feature EA Trax.

Reception

The GameCube, PlayStation 2 and Xbox versions received "universal acclaim", while the PC, PlayStation and Game Boy Advance versions received "generally favorable reviews", according to the review aggregation website Metacritic. In Japan, where the PS2 version was ported for release on December 19, 2002, '' Famitsu'' gave it a score of 33 out of 40. '' Maxim'' gave it a perfect score twice, once from Ryan Boyce, who said that "The folks at EA Sports... loaded this year's ultrarealistic game up with a slew of new features that include online play, a huge arcade-style training camp, and a nifty play creator that’s so versatile that you can have receivers run pass routes that spell your name"; and once from Scott Steinberg, who said that, "Destined for the Hall of Fame, Madden's latest namesake (now in its 13th year) improves upon already stunning graphics and amps game play with faster speed and such fresh gridiron moves as sidearm passing and—wahoo!—gang tackling." '' The Cincinnati Enquirer'' gave it four-and-a-half stars out of five, saying, "Veteran players will be familiar with the feel of the game they grew up with, but there are certainly enough tweaks and new additions to justify its purchase." '' BBC Sport'' gave the PS2 version 87%, saying, "While 'NFL 2K3' still has slightly better graphics, Madden's updated controls, the excellent franchise features and its heavenly tactical play make it one of the best sports games ever to grace the PS2." ''Madden NFL 2003'' was a runner-up for '' GameSpot''s August 2002 "PC Game of the Month" award. It won the publication's annual "Best Sports Game on PC" award, and was nominated in the "Most Improved Sequel on PC", "Best Traditional Sports Game on GameCube", "Best Traditional Sports Game on Xbox" and "Best Online Game on PlayStation 2" categories.

Legacy

''Madden NFL 2003'' was included in ''

The EA Sports Collection EA Sports is a division of Electronic Arts that develops and publishes Sports game, sports video games. Formerly a marketing gimmick of Electronic Arts, in which they tried to imitate real-life sports networks by calling themselves the "EA Sp ...

'' in May 2004 along with other 2002 EA Sports games.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Madden Nfl 2003 Madden NFL 2002 video games Cancelled Nintendo 64 games Electronic Arts games EA Sports games Interactive Achievement Award winners GameCube games Game Boy Advance games PlayStation (console) games PlayStation 2 games Xbox games Windows games D.I.C.E. Award for Sports Game of the Year winners Video games developed in the United States Budcat Creations games Multiplayer and single-player video games