''Madden NFL 2003'' 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 wi ...

simulation video game Simulation video games are a diverse super-category of video games, generally designed to closely simulate real world activities. A simulation game attempts to copy various activities from real life in the form of a game for various purposes such ...

based on the NFL that was developed by

EA Tiburon EA Tiburon is an Electronic Arts video game developer, video game development studio located in Orlando, Florida, United States founded in 1994. It was formerly known as Tiburon Entertainment, which was List of acquisitions by Electronic Arts, ac ...

and Budcat Creations and published 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 ...

. The 14th installment of the ''

Madden NFL series ''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 ...

'', the game features former

St. Louis Rams The St. Louis Rams were a professional American football team of the National Football League (NFL). They played in St. Louis from 1995 to the 2015 season, before moving back to Los Angeles, where the team had played from 1946 to 1994. The arr ...

running back A running back (RB) is a member of the offensive backfield in gridiron football. The primary roles of a running back are to receive handoffs from the quarterback to rush the ball, to line up as a receiver to catch the ball, and block. Ther ...

Marshall Faulk on the cover. This edition of ''Madden'' was the first to have

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 ...

, the Mini Camp mode, and to feature

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 n ...

play-by-play announcer In sports broadcasting, a sports commentator (also known as sports announcer or sportscaster) provides a real-time commentary of a game or event, usually during a live broadcast, traditionally delivered in the historical present tense. Radio wa ...

, who took over for

Pat Summerall George Allen "Pat" Summerall (May 10, 1930 – April 16, 2013) was an American football player and television sportscaster who worked for CBS, Fox, and ESPN. In addition to football, he announced major golf and tennis events. Summerall announ ...

. Although it featured the expansion Houston Texans and the relocation of the Seattle Seahawks 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 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, ...

, GameCube, Microsoft Windows, PlayStation, PlayStation 2 and

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 ...

. The PlayStation version also includes the Sega Genesis version of '' John Madden Football 93''.

Roster errors

* Bruce Matthews is the starting center for the

Tennessee Titans The Tennessee Titans are a professional American football team based in Nashville, Tennessee. The Titans compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference (AFC) South division, and play their hom ...

despite having retired by the start of the season. * Retired

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 ...

Mark Rypien Mark Robert Rypien (born October 2, 1962) is a Canadian-born former American football quarterback who played 14 seasons in the National Football League (NFL). He played college football at Washington State and was drafted by the Washington Redsk ...

is listed as a free agent. *

Ryan Leaf Ryan David Leaf (born May 15, 1976) is a former American football player who was a quarterback in the National Football League (NFL) for four seasons. He played for the San Diego Chargers and the Dallas Cowboys between 1998 and 2001, and also pl ...

appears as a backup quarterback for the Seattle Seahawks despite retiring before the start of training camp. *

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 R ...

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 Patrick Daniel Tillman Jr. (November 6, 1976 – April 22, 2004) was an American professional football player in the National Football League (NFL) who left his sports career and enlisted in the United States Army in May 2002 in the afterma ...

appears as a free agent despite retiring before the season to join the military. *

Tony Boselli Don Bosco Anthony Boselli Jr. (born April 17, 1972) is an American former football tackle who played in the National Football League (NFL) for seven seasons with the Jacksonville Jaguars. He played college football at USC, where he received th ...

appears as a left tackle for the Houston Texans, however he retired before the 2002 NFL season because of injuries. * Ben Coates 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

video game to feature

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 A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

website

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that 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 average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

. In Japan, where the PS2 version was ported for release on December 19, 2002, ''

Famitsu formerly ''Famicom Tsūshin'', is a line of Japanese video game magazines published by Kadokawa Game Linkage (previously known as Gzbrain), a subsidiary of Kadokawa. ''Famitsu'' is published in both weekly and monthly formats as well as in the f ...

'' gave it a score of 33 out of 40. ''

Maxim Maxim or Maksim may refer to: Entertainment * ''Maxim'' (magazine), an international men's magazine ** ''Maxim'' (Australia), the Australian edition ** ''Maxim'' (India), the Indian edition *Maxim Radio, ''Maxim'' magazine's radio channel on Sir ...

'' 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 ''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, al ...

'' 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 BBC Sport is the sports division of the BBC, providing national sports coverage for BBC television, radio and online. The BBC holds the television and radio UK broadcasting rights to several sports, broadcasting the sport live or alongside flag ...

'' 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 ''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 ...

''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

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