Bargain Bin Gaming- Episode 42: Madden 2005

With the lack of sports games available at the launch of the Nintendo DS, many hungry football fans turned to Madden 2005, with mixed reviews. However, regardless of how rushed this game is, it still provides gamers with a competent, fun and semi-deep football game that everyone can pick up and play. Fan boys will complain that graphics could be better, and while that’s totally understandable, there aren’t many better looking portable football games out there on a Nintendo handheld.

Besides the graphics being not up to par with the games overall potential (but still very acceptable), there lies a huge problem in its next to impossible to save modified rosters. There is no save function present either. So all you stat hungry fans out there will have to make your trades over and over again. This basically eliminates any option of keeping this game up to date for any prolonged period of time.

In spite of that, the worst part of this game overall is the sound. Starting the game you’re greeted with muddy rock tunes. The in-game sound isn’t much better, just the typical Madden “Boom” or “Great Play, First Down” from Al Michaels. Hardcore gamers will find the repetitiveness of the sound a tad frustrating, preferring to play with no sound rather than the garbage that is being offered in this game.

There are also a few play modes in Madden that provide the perfect amount of game play for a handheld. The two-minute drill is perfect for gamers on a short train or bus ride, while the season mode is perfect for gamers who want to get the most out of the game. The season mode also has a nice amount of stat tracking, and goals that can be achieved via the madden token system.

The in-game action in Madden 2005 makes up for all of the games shortcomings though, providing football fans with the option of assigning hot routes, and applying an audible with the stylus on the touch screen. This provides a lot more depth and strategy than in your average football game, allowing you to exploit defenses and make the most out of every play. The defensive and offensive AI is very adept too at reading plays and making you pay for bad play calling. Running the ball on 3rd and long is very difficult and passing into a dime or nickel formation can be torture at times. When it’s all said a done, Madden’s on-field game play does the job and then some.

Overall, Madden 2005 for the Nintendo DS provides casual gamers with what they want most, a solid, easy to play football game. Hardcore gamers will want more options and fan boys will complain about graphics, but considering that the game was rushed considerably, Madden 2005 for the Nintendo DS is a positive step forward in the series and is worth playing if you’re a fan of football.

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About Patrick Hickey Jr. 13821 Articles
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports. Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders. His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023. Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief. Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale. Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.

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