''Madden NFL 2004'' is the 15th installment of the ''

Madden NFL ''Madden NFL'' (known as ''John Madden Football'' until 1993) is an American football video game series developed by EA Tiburon for EA Sports. It is named after Pro Football Hall of Fame coach and commentator John Madden and sold more than 130 m ...

'' series of

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

video games Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device to gener ...

. Former

Atlanta Falcons The Atlanta Falcons are a professional American football team based in Atlanta. The Falcons compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) South division. The Falcons joined th ...

quarterback The quarterback (commonly abbreviated "QB"), colloquially known as the "signal caller", is a position in gridiron football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive platoon and mostly line up directly behind the offensive line. In modern Ame ...

Michael Vick Michael Dwayne Vick (born June 26, 1980) is a former American football quarterback. Regarded as having transformed the quarterback position with his rushing abilities, he is the NFL leader in quarterback rushing yards and was the league's firs ...

is on the cover.

Gameplay

New features in ''Madden 2004'' include a new owner mode option that allows the player to control a

franchise Franchise may refer to: Business and law * Franchising, a business method that involves licensing of trademarks and methods of doing business to franchisees * Franchise, a privilege to operate a type of business such as a cable television p ...

. In this mode, the player takes on all the responsibilities related to owning a professional football team, from regulating

hot dog A hot dog (uncommonly spelled hotdog) is a food consisting of a grilled or steamed sausage served in the slit of a partially sliced Hot dog bun, bun. The term hot dog can refer to the sausage itself. The sausage used is a wiener (Vienna sausag ...

prices, to team relocation, to hiring and firing

coaching staff The coaching staff is a group of non-athletes tied to a sports team. A coaching staff can be existent at all levels of athletics. It is led by a head coach (known as a manager or senior coach in some sports) and consists of one or more assistant c ...

. Another new feature is the ability to edit a historic team. Also, a new

training camp A training camp is an organized period in which military personnel or athletes participate in a rigorous and focused schedule of training in order to learn or improve skills. Athletes typically utilise training camps to prepare for upcoming events, ...

mode, occurring before the

preseason In an organized sports league, a typical season is the portion of one year in which regulated games of the sport are in session: for example, in Major League Baseball the season lasts approximately from the last week of March to the last week of Se ...

, that can help player progress faster by putting him through mini-camp drills. This Madden game is best known for its version of then-Falcons quarterback Michael Vick, an arguably

overpowered ''Overpowered'' is the second solo studio album by Irish singer and songwriter Róisín Murphy. It was released on 15 October 2007 by EMI Records. Receiving widespread critical acclaim, the album was more commercially successful than its predece ...

character and by acclaim the greatest Madden player of all-time due to his 95 speed rating. In 2016, developer Clint Oldenburg told Gameradar that over the next several years "features were added to the game specifically to stop Vick." The 04 version of Vick has been used in Madden NFL 25 and 15 in Ultimate Team mode as a 99 overall with either 99 or 100 speed. The game is an EA Sports Bio game, and is compatible with other EA Sports games with the feature (''

NCAA Football 2004 ''NCAA Football 2004'' is an American football video game released in 2003 by Tiburon. It is the successor to NCAA Football 2003 in the NCAA Football series. The player on the cover is former USC quarterback Carson Palmer. The game is available f ...

'', ''

NASCAR Thunder 2004 ''NASCAR Thunder 2004'' is a racing simulator by EA Sports, released on September 16, 2003 and available in separate versions for PlayStation, PlayStation 2, Xbox, and Windows. It features the 2002 champion Tony Stewart on the cover with a scowlin ...

''). The soundtrack of the game features various hip hop and rock songs.

Trivia

* Over 40 players, including

Troy Polamalu Troy Aumua Polamalu (; born Troy Benjamin Aumua; April 19, 1981) is an American former football strong safety who played his entire 12-year career for the Pittsburgh Steelers of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football ...

Nnamdi Asomugha Nnamdi Asomugha ( ; born July 6, 1981) is an American actor, producer and former football cornerback. He played college football for the University of California, Berkeley, and was drafted in the first round of the 2003 NFL Draft by the Oakland ...

, and

LaVar Arrington LaVar RaShad Arrington (born June 30, 1978) is a former American football linebacker who played in the National Football League (NFL) for seven seasons. He played college football at Penn State and was drafted second overall by the Washington Re ...

, went unnamed in the game due to not being in the

NFL Players Association The National Football League Players Association, or NFLPA, is a labor union representing National Football League (NFL) players. The NFLPA, which has headquarters in Washington, D.C., is led by president J. C. Tretter and executive director DeM ...

, the

union Union commonly refers to: * Trade union, an organization of workers * Union (set theory), in mathematics, a fundamental operation on sets Union may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * Union (band), an American rock group ** ''Un ...

, for NFL players which was required to be named in the game. * 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 ...

''.

Reception

Upon release, the game sold over copies in three weeks. By July 2006, the PlayStation 2 version of ''Madden NFL 2004'' had sold 3.5 million copies and earned $170 million in the United States alone. '' Next Generation'' ranked it as the fourth highest-selling game launched for the

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 ...

Xbox Xbox is a video gaming brand created and owned by Microsoft. The brand consists of five video game consoles, as well as applications (games), streaming services, an online service by the name of Xbox network, and the development arm by the na ...

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 ...

between January 2000 and July 2006 in that country. Between those dates, 22 million copies of the ''Madden'' series were sold in the United States, of which ''Madden NFL 2004''s PlayStation 2 version had the highest share. Based on the platform, ''Madden NFL 2004''‘s ratings ranged from universal acclaim to average reviews.

GameRankings GameRankings was a video gaming review aggregator that was founded in 1999 and owned by CBS Interactive. It indexed over 315,000 articles relating to more than 14,500 video games. GameRankings was discontinued in December 2019, with its staff bei ...

and

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

gave it a score of 91.77% and 94 out of 100 for the PlayStation 2 version; 91.54% and 94 out of 100 for the GameCube version; 89.24% and 92 out of 100 for the Xbox version; 88.40% and 91 out of 100 for the PC version; 80% and 80 out of 100 for the PlayStation version; and 74.60% and 70 out of 100 for the Game Boy Advance version. ''

Playboy ''Playboy'' is an American men's lifestyle and entertainment magazine, formerly in print and currently online. It was founded in Chicago in 1953, by Hugh Hefner and his associates, and funded in part by a $1,000 loan from Hefner's mother. K ...

'' gave the game a score of 100%, stating: "Looking for more depth? Take the owner's seat and relocate your team, set concession stand prices in your new stadium and hire your coaching staff. Ditka: Send us your resume." ''

Entertainment Weekly ''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, and popular cul ...

'' gave it an A and praised the Owner Mode, "which lets you negotiate salaries, build a stadium, and - for the detail obsessed - even set prices at the concession stands." ''

The Cincinnati Enquirer ''The Cincinnati Enquirer'' is a morning daily newspaper published by Gannett in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States. First published in 1841, the ''Enquirer'' is the last remaining daily newspaper in Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky, alth ...

'' gave it a score of four-and-a-half stars out of five and stated, "Because of its tight game-play, depth and dizzying amount of features, Madden is still the one to beat." ''Madden NFL 2004'' was named "

Game of the Year Game of the Year (GotY) is an award given by various award events and media publications to a video game that they feel represented the pinnacle of gaming that year. Events and ceremonies British Academy Games Awards (BAFTA Games Awards) ...

." At the 2003 Spike TV Video Game Awards, also ''Madden NFL 2004'' was named Editor's and Reader's Choice "Sports Game of the Year in 2003." on GameCube and PlayStation 2 from

IGN ''IGN'' (formerly ''Imagine Games Network'') is an American video game and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa distri ...

. ''Madden NFL 2004'' also won ''

The Electric Playground ''EP Daily'' (formerly ''The Electric Playground'') is a daily news television show that covers video games, movies, TV shows, comic books, collectibles and gadgets. Created and executive produced by host Victor Lucas, and his Vancouver, British ...

''s 2003 "Best Sports Game for PC" and "Best Console Sports Game" award, and the 7th Annual Interactive Achievements Awards for "Computer Sports Game of the Year" and "Console Sports Simulation Game of the Year".

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Madden Nfl 2004 Madden NFL 2003 video games Electronic Arts games PlayStation (console) games PlayStation 2 games GameCube games Game Boy Advance games Xbox games Windows games Interactive Achievement Award winners EA Sports games Spike Video Game Awards Game of the Year winners 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