Madden NFL 25 Review: A Nice Way to Go Out

With the arrival of the Playstation 4 and Xbox One consoles just a screen pass away, Electronic Arts knew that “Madden NFL 25” would be a crucial title for current generation fans, their last opportunity to “get it right.”

After years of tinkering with new gameplay modes and physics engines and all their other hocus-pocus and mumbo-jumbo, EA Sports has delivered the goods in what will most likely be their last “real” on current generation consoles. Although the game has its blemishes, the additional gameplay modes and various other do-hickeys hit the spot and deliver what could be considered the best football game this console generation.

While graphically it may be the difficult to tell the difference between “Madden NFL 25” and last year’s version, the animations are a dead giveaway that serious personal enhancement surgery occurred with the Infinity 2 Engine. Players move better and respond with more fluidity to button controls than ever before. Add in the addition 30 running moves with Run Free Precision Modifier and “Madden NFL 25” features the best ground game since, well, the days of the 2K football games.

The same thing can be said for the game’s presentation. Phil Simms and Jim Nantz provide excellent commentary that is full of witty insight and educated comments. For the first time in a long time, the pace and feel of a Madden game feels pretty damn close to a real NFL game.

On these facets alone “Madden NFL 25” is a huge upgrade over its predecessor. The upgrades in the Connected Franchise mode and new Owner Mode, although thin in long-term appeal, are a nice distraction as well, with plenty of little odes to the tender love and care EA is known for in their games.

Speaking of love, Ultimate Team is back and as always, is a joy to behold. Intuitive and easy to get into, players can essentially spend dozens of hours in the mode, forgetting that there is a Play Now and Season mode. Creating your own team is easy and trying to manage chemistry and turn a rag tag group of pros into a winner is super enthralling.

With so many extra modes that captivate, “Madden NFL 25” is like a football all-you-can-eat. There’s just way too much to do- in the best way possible.

At the same time, it’s the smaller things that hurt the game. Repetitive touchdown celebrations and shoddy instant replay camera work puts a blemish on a game that provides so many cool options.

One big problem is the implementation of the right analog to perform “Heat Seeker” tackles. Supposed to balance out the gameplay addition stemming from the Precision Modifers in the run game, they don’t work nearly as well. Simply put, if someone knows what they’re doing and has the ball, the run-game modifiers will leave you in the dust. The same can’t be said for the tackling updates. While the animations are smooth and work well when they do, it’s more of an all risk and reward mechanic and not something you can depend on to make key tackles. The end result is a more offensive-based game that needs some more leveling out moving forward.

But regardless of the few minor issues, the core gameplay of “Madden NFL 25” is a step in the right direction. The additions to the running game and chock-full of depth Ultimate Team mode more than make up for a tackling system that isn’t as solid as it should be.

While “Madden NFL 25” isn’t perfect, it converts far more third and longs than you might expect. Pigskin enthusiasts might not be blown away on their first few possessions, but will realize after a few games that the added polish and animations ensure its place among the top football games of this generation.

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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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