Football franchise scores another touchdown

When Electronic Arts announced the retired Brett Favre as its 20th anniversary cover boy, it looked like the notorious Madden curse – which had mangled the careers of Michael Vick, Donovan McNabb and Shaun Alexander – was broken. But when Favre decided to play again and was traded from the Packers to the New York Jets, it seemed the Curse simply reversed onto EA itself.

By the time the dust had settled, Madden 09 (EA Sports, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii, PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable, Nintendo DS), the football video-game franchise's latest installment was too far into production to switch wardrobes.

But this chaos has distracted EA Sports from promoting Madden 09 the way it should: as the 20th anniversary edition of the longest-running franchise in sports video games. EA has delivered new features before, but this year it's stuffing a dozen fresh game modes and gimmicks into the package.

Many of the new features are geared towards helping the novice. For example, play selection can be as simple or as deep as you want it. At the easiest level, the computer will select your plays for you. Later on, you can arrange your playbook by play type.

You start off with the Madden Test, which gauges your skill in passing, running, pass defence and run defence, then adjusts the game's difficulty to your strengths and weaknesses. Each time you play a game, your skill level is adjusted according to your performance. If you're particularly weak in one area, you can go to the Virtual Trainer, a holodeck-like gridiron, and bone up on the skills.

A few more in-game features let you learn from your mistakes. Instead of kicking yourself over that end zone interception, you can hit the Rewind button and try the play again; or you can Backtrack to know how you can salvage a botched play.

The Franchise mode has some nice upgrades. In Franchise Rivalry games against division rivals, the pressure is ratcheted up and everything is more difficult.

Finally, there are Madden Moments, where you try to duplicate some of the most memorable events from the 2007-08 NFL season.

As you'd expect, Madden 09 is better than ever, with high-definition graphics. The audio has undergone the most jarring change: Al Michaels, the veteran TV broadcaster, is gone, and John Madden himself has been demoted to the halftime show. Their replacements in the booth, the bland Tom Hammond and the insufferable Cris Collinsworth, are poor substitutes.

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