''Madden NFL 06'' is an
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 game
Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This fee ...
which was released in 2005. It is also a launch game for the
Xbox 360
The Xbox 360 is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. As the successor to the original Xbox, it is the second console in the Xbox series. It competed with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation ...
. It is the 16th 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 by
EA Sports
EA Sports is a division of Electronic Arts that develops and publishes 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 Sports Network" ...
, named for noted color commentator
John Madden
John Earl Madden (April 10, 1936 – December 28, 2021) was an American football coach and sports commentator in the National Football League (NFL). He served as the head coach of the Oakland Raiders from 1969 to 1978, who he led to eight pla ...
. The product features former
Philadelphia Eagles
The Philadelphia Eagles are a professional American football team based in Philadelphia. The Eagles compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East division. The team plays ...
quarterback
Donovan McNabb
Donovan Jamal McNabb (born November 25, 1976) is a former American football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for thirteen seasons, primarily with the Philadelphia Eagles. Before his NFL career, he played football and b ...
on the cover. It is the first Madden game for the PlayStation Portable and Xbox 360.
Significant changes
''Madden 06'' introduces the
Superstar mode
Career Mode is a video game term referring to the mode of gameplay that involves taking control of a single character and guiding the character through a structured career. The mode is normally associated with sports games, where it is referred t ...
, which allows the player to create and take control of an NFL player from his rookie year all the way to retirement. An athlete can be created by evaluating pairs of judging, based on their IQs, occupations, and hobbies, whether their child would excel in the NFL or by importing a player. Superstar mode is essentially Madden's Franchise mode seen through the eyes of this athlete. Rather than manage the team's front office, the player manages the career of his athlete.
It also features the new QB Vision Control. A cone, appearing as a spotlight emitting from the quarterback, simulates his field of vision. To make an accurate pass, the quarterback must have his intended receiver in his field of vision. Passing to a receiver not in the cone reduces pass accuracy significantly. The size of the quarterback's vision cone is directly correlated to his Awareness rating.
However, this has been criticized by many fans because it may resemble some
bias
Bias is a disproportionate weight ''in favor of'' or ''against'' an idea or thing, usually in a way that is closed-minded, prejudicial, or unfair. Biases can be innate or learned. People may develop biases for or against an individual, a group, ...
that
EA Sports
EA Sports is a division of Electronic Arts that develops and publishes 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 Sports Network" ...
and the
Madden series itself is frequently accused of. A player can shift the vision cone with the right analog stick, or focus the cone on a specific receiver by holding a shoulder button and pressing the button assigned to that receiver. This change also met with the poor reception. Although the passing system adds a whole new level of realism, it also makes the game significantly more difficult for players playing teams with less-aware quarterbacks. These players will be forced to improve their reflexes in order to be competitive, as throwing outside the QB vision cone results in a very weak and inaccurate pass.
Accompanying QB Vision is Precision Passing. Pressing the directional button or left analog stick in a certain direction as the quarterback passes the ball will make the throw over the receiver's head, behind him, in front of him, or at his knees.
The most critically acclaimed new feature is the highlight stick, which functions like an offensive version of the hit stick from the previous year. When running the football, a player can push forward the right analog stick to run over the defender, at the cost of risking a potential
fumble
A fumble in gridiron football occurs when a player who has possession and control of the ball loses it before being downed (tackled), scoring, or going out of bounds. By rule, it is any act other than passing, kicking, punting, or successful ...
. Several features from previous titles return such as hot routes, playmaker features, and franchise features.
The soundtrack for ''Madden NFL 06'' featured
EA Trax
Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) is an American video game company headquartered in Redwood City, California. Founded in May 1982 by Apple employee Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer game industry and promoted the d ...
integration that includes
Avenged Sevenfold
Avenged Sevenfold (abbreviated as A7X) is an American heavy metal band from Huntington Beach, California, formed in 1999. The band's current lineup consists of lead vocalist M. Shadows, rhythm guitarist and backing vocalist Zacky Vengeance, ...
,
Tech N9ne
Aaron Dontez Yates (born November 8, 1971), better known by his stage name Tech N9ne (pronounced "tech nine"), is an American rapper. In 1999, he and business partner Travis O'Guin founded the record label Strange Music. He has sold over two m ...
,
Memphis Bleek
Malik Deshawn Cox (born June 23, 1978), known by his stage name Memphis Bleek, is an American rapper who was a protégé of fellow New York rapper Jay-Z. Cox started his own labels: Get Low Records in 1998, and #Warehouse Music Group, Warehouse M ...
,
Slim Thug
Stayve Jerome Thomas (born September 8, 1980), better known by his stage name Slim Thug, is an American rapper. He initially gained mainstream attention for his contribution to the hit single by rapper Mike Jones, "Still Tippin'". In July 2005, h ...
,
Disturbed
Disturbed may refer to:
Books
* ''Disturbed'', a 2011 novel by Kevin O'Brien (author)
Film and TV
* ''Disturbed'' (film), a 1990 film starring Malcolm McDowell
* "Disturbed" (''Numb3rs''), a 2009 episode of ''Numb3rs''
* "The Disturbed", a 20 ...
,
Foo Fighters
Foo Fighters are an American rock band formed in Seattle in 1994. Foo Fighters was initially formed as a one-man project by former Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl. Following the success of the eponymous debut album, Grohl (lead vocals, guitar) re ...
and many more hip hop/rock artists.
Compatibility
The player could import their created player from Own The City mode in ''
NFL Street 2
''NFL Street 2'' is an American football video game developed by EA Tiburon and published by Electronic Arts under the EA Sports BIG label. It was originally released for the PlayStation 2, GameCube and Xbox on December 22, 2004. It features the ...
'' into the game's Superstar mode after finishing the game mode. The player starts as an 18-year-old rookie in NFL Superstar mode and attributes are given by how development points were distributed in ''NFL Street 2''. Also, draft classes from ''
NCAA Football 06'' could be imported to franchise mode. If the player has a save file from ''Madden NFL 06'', they can unlock the Madden Challenge Bus in ''
Burnout Revenge
''Burnout Revenge'' is a racing video game developed by Criterion Games and published by Electronic Arts for PlayStation 2, Xbox and Xbox 360.
Similar to its predecessor '' Burnout 3: Takedown'', ''Revenge'' focuses on a mixture of racing in th ...
''; a gameplay demo of ''Revenge'' is also available on the PlayStation 2 and Xbox versions of the game.
Reception
The game was met with very positive to mixed reception.
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 85.26% and 88 out of 100 for the PlayStation 2 version;
84.11% and 86 out of 100 for the Xbox version;
83.07% and 86 out of 100 for the GameCube version;
76.61% and 78 out of 100 for the PC version;
74.55% and 74 out of 100 for the Xbox 360 version;
74.14% and 75 out of 100 for the PSP version;
69% and 71 out of 100 for the Game Boy Advance version;
66.67% for the Mobile version; and 63.22% and 66 out of 100 for the DS version.
Fans and EA developers both view ''Madden NFL 06'' as "the undisputed lemon of the franchise", because of the concurrent shift from the Xbox and PlayStation 2 to the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. The passing cone was so unpopular that it disappeared in ''
Madden NFL 09
''Madden NFL 09'' is an American football video game based on the NFL that was published by EA Sports and developed by EA Tiburon. It is the 20th annual installment in the ''Madden NFL'' video game franchise. The game was released for the Ninten ...
''.
Reviewers criticized the game's lack of new features and lackluster soundtrack (a recurring complaint), claiming the game plays very similarly to ''
Madden NFL 2005
''Madden NFL 2005'' is an American football simulation video game based on the NFL that was developed by EA Tiburon, along with Exient Entertainment and Budcat Creations, and published by EA Sports. The 16th installment of the ''Madden NFL serie ...
'' if the QB Vision cone is turned off.
GameSpot
''GameSpot'' is an American video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information on video games. The site was launched on May 1, 1996, created by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady and Jon Epstein. In addition ...
gave the mobile version a score of 7 out of 10 and called it "a decent game of football with a solid statistical foundation. It breaks new ground for the franchise and promises future installments for football fans. However, this edition definitely shows EA's wireless inexperience and wasn't the stunner it should have been. In particular, the game's visuals are a disappointment. If you already have a V Cast phone, Madden 06 isn't a bad way to go. It's just not the killer app that forces an upgrade." Similarly,
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 ...
gave the same version seven out of ten, saying that the game "was developed not internally, but by a development house called Finite Monkeys. And it ultimately feels like they were rushed to get this game on the decks by "Madden Tuesday." This is unfortunate, because I think a lot of people will download the game hoping to have a "Madden experience" on their handset, and just end up with an average football game, albeit one with above-average visuals and spoken commentary."
''Madden NFL 06'' was 2005's only NFL-Licensed football videogame, due to the 2004 deal between 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 ...
/
NFLPA
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 DeMa ...
and
Electronic Arts
Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) is an American video game company headquartered in Redwood City, California. Founded in May 1982 by Apple employee Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer game industry and promoted the d ...
. The deal grants EA exclusive rights to the likenesses and names of all players, stadiums, logos, and jerseys. Electronic Arts also signed a long-term deal with
ESPN
ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...
, complicating the game's relationship to its titular announcer. In early 2006, Madden—at the time under contract as color commentator for
ABC
ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet.
ABC or abc may also refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting
* American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster
** Disney–ABC Television ...
's
Monday Night Football
''ESPN Monday Night Football'' (abbreviated as ''MNF'' and also known as ''ESPN Monday Night Football on ABC'' for simulcasts) is an American live television broadcast of weekly National Football League (NFL) games currently airing on ESPN, AB ...
—moved to
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...
to join their Sunday night NFL coverage beginning in the 2006 season. The Xbox 360 version of Madden 06 features neither
Al Michaels
Alan Richard Michaels (born November 12, 1944) is an American television sportscaster currently working as the play-by-play announcer for ''Thursday Night Football'' on Prime Video and in an emeritus role for NBC Sports. He has worked on netwo ...
nor Madden in the announcing booth. Some positives with the Xbox 360 version were the right stick being used for the QB Vision feature and different songs from the original.
Sales
In the United States, the game's
PlayStation Portable
The PlayStation Portable (PSP) is a handheld game console developed and marketed by Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on December 12, 2004, in North America on March 24, 2005, and in PAL regions on September 1, 2005, ...
version alone sold 590,000 copies and earned $28 million by August 2006. During the period between January 2000 and August 2006, it was the 48th highest-selling game launched for the
Game Boy Advance
The (GBA) is a 32-bit handheld game console developed, manufactured and marketed by Nintendo as the successor to the Game Boy Color. It was released in Japan on March 21, 2001, in North America on June 11, 2001, in the PAL region on June 22, 2 ...
,
Nintendo DS
The is a handheld game console produced by Nintendo, released globally across 2004 and 2005. The DS, an initialism for "Developers' System" or "Dual Screen", introduced distinctive new features to handheld games: two LCD screens working in tan ...
or
PlayStation Portable
The PlayStation Portable (PSP) is a handheld game console developed and marketed by Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on December 12, 2004, in North America on March 24, 2005, and in PAL regions on September 1, 2005, ...
in that country.
The game sold more than 6 million copies.
Awards
E3 2005
Game Critics Awards
The Game Critics Awards are a set of annual awards held after the Electronic Entertainment Expo, E3 video game conference since 1998. The awards are given to products displayed at E3 with the title Best of E3 of their category.
Format
The nomine ...
: Best Sports Game
References
External links
*
{{Authority control
Madden NFL
2005 video games
Electronic Arts games
Game Boy Advance games
GameCube games
Mobile games
Nintendo DS games
PlayStation 2 games
PlayStation Portable games
Windows games
Windows Mobile Professional games
Xbox 360 games
Xbox games
EA Sports games
Sports video games with career mode
Multiplayer and single-player video games
Video games developed in the United States
Exient Entertainment games
Budcat Creations games