| 1 | [[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/madden24.jpg]] |
| 2 | [[caption-width-right:350:[[CaptainObvious The best strategy in winning this game is to score more points than the opposing team.]]\ |
| 3 | [-The cover athlete of ''Madden NFL 24'' is [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josh_Allen Josh Allen]] (QB, Buffalo Bills), with the Deluxe Edition cover pictured above showing him celebrating with Bills fans (officially called the "Bills Backers").-]]] |
| 4 | |
| 5 | ''The'' definitive football franchise. ''The'' game that brought video football into the 21st century. |
| 6 | |
| 7 | Developed by Creator/ElectronicArts, ''John Madden Football'', later shortened to simply ''Madden NFL'', is the namesake of coaching legend John Madden, an UsefulNotes/AmericanFootball game based on the UsefulNotes/NationalFootballLeague that has, since 1988, been released annually, and always falls among the top sellers of gaming each year. It's praised for [[ShownTheirWork its realistic level of play]], to the point where the latest edition is frequently used to predict the outcome of big games up to and including the UsefulNotes/SuperBowl. |
| 8 | |
| 9 | Still, the franchise has some detractors (mainly because, by this point, they've run out of things to add, so the latest sequels are more like roster updates). The most notable incident happened in 2005, when it was announced that the ''Madden'' games would be the only football games allowed to use current NFL players and teams for (at least) the next few years. While many people [[{{Misblamed}} blamed EA for buying out the license because they couldn't handle competition]], the truth is that the NFL was going to give one franchise or the other exclusivity; the venerable ''Madden'' franchise simply won the bidding war.[[note]]Remember Creator/{{Sega}} and [[Creator/TakeTwoInteractive 2K]] selling their NFL game for only $20? The NFL was ''pissed'' about that, believing nothing carrying the NFL logo should be presented as a "discount product". Sega and 2K were parted from the NFL license shortly thereafter; fortunately for the latter, [[VideoGame/NBA2K their 2K series]] of [[UsefulNotes/NationalBasketballAssociation NBA]] games is still quite popular.[[/note]] |
| 10 | |
| 11 | Also of note is the [[PopCultureUrbanLegends Madden Curse]], which has felled some of the great football players of the last decade, and was famous enough to have its own page on this wiki before it was decided to be cut. Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes, who appeared on the cover of ''Madden NFL 20'', eventually broke the "curse" when he would go on to win Super Bowl LIV, as well as the game's MVP award, on February 2, 2020. Both he and Creator/TomBrady, the latter who was also the cover athlete of ''Madden NFL 18'', shared the cover of ''Madden NFL 22'', released after both men appeared in Super Bowl LV, which Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers won. |
| 12 | |
| 13 | ''Madden NFL 18'' introduces a full story mode, named ''Longshot'', which focuses on two fictional players - childhood friends Devin Wade, quarterback, and Colton "Colt" Cruise, wide receiver - from the town of Mathis, Texas (though the town's appearance in-game is largely InNameOnly) and their struggles involved with trying to play for the NFL. This mode received a sequel, ''Longshot: Homecoming'' in ''Madden NFL 19'', which separates the two characters into different plots. |
| 14 | ---- |
| 15 | !!The series in general contains examples of: |
| 16 | * ActorAllusion: The players are often given their own signature dance moves to do after they score a TD or record a sack. Examples include Charles Woodson doing his famous Heisman pose, Jared Allen "lassoing" the QB, Santonio Holmes flying around like a Jet, Tebowing, etc. ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'' even mocked this with a sketch about Eli Manning trying and utterly failing to develop one in motion capture. |
| 17 | * AfterActionReport: Very common with the series. Some are simple, taking the form of faux-newspaper reports or blog entries following a team's season as if it were real, reporting on performances, injuries, off-season moves, and the like. Others take on more of a narrative element, with highly unrealistic and outright impossible scenarios unfolding. |
| 18 | * AIBreaker: |
| 19 | ** Quite a few offensive plays can be used infinitely and the AI will never catch on. Exactly which plays vary from year to year as the AI is tweaked, but there has yet to be an iteration of the game that doesn't include at least a few of these. |
| 20 | ** For several iterations in the mid-2000s, it was possible to take manual control of defensive linemen before the snap and align/stack them in ways which break the offense's blocking AI, creating unblockable blitzes. ''Madden 08'' attempted to {{nerf}} this by moving these players back to their original position once you switch manual control away from them. However, players continue to find creative ways to make it happen, known in the metagaming community as "Nano-blitzing". |
| 21 | ** In the iterations in the late-2000s through ''11'', the Wildcat formation included numerous easily abusable "Option" plays. For example, the RB could be motioned out wide, leaving only the "QB" in the backfield. However, if the play called was an option, that "QB" could pitch it to the RB out wide as if he were in the backfield with the QB, turning the play into a lightning-fast, unerringly accurate screen pass for easy yardage. These plays were removed starting with ''12''. |
| 22 | ** ''Madden 18'' took this to the next level with the Gun Monster playbook. This set of plays involves lining up only three offensive linemen in the center with the tackles lined up next to the wide receivers. The problem? The AI responds to this play by spreading out its front seven to cover the groups of three, resulting in an easy run up the middle every single time. (In real life, as the tackles aren't eligible receivers, the defense won't bother to cover them.) EA eventually nerfed this playbook in response. |
| 23 | ** On Left or Right directed kickoff returns, the blocker closest to the sideline will simply run out of bounds as they are dropping back, then charge up the sideline ignoring the coverage team. Online players will often direct kicks to the corner of the field to bait the AI into doing this. |
| 24 | ** Starting with ''Madden 20'', EA began to add coaching adjustments to attempt to mitigate AI-breaking plays. They allow players to manually set the depth of zone coverages, whether to overplay the QB or HB on option plays, whether to attept to break on the ball for an interception or punch it out, etc. |
| 25 | * AnnouncerChatter: Well, it ''is'' named for one. The commentary teams have changed over the years, with Madden 17 taking a new route - two commentators who live near the studio and come in weekly during the season to update the commentary to match what is happening in the real NFL. |
| 26 | * AnnualTitle: Although ''John Madden Football'' began as a PC game in 1988, it wasn't until the 1990 Sega Genesis version that it became an annual series. Specifically with ''John Madden Football '92'' on the Genesis console, which was the first game with the year on the title. Since then, it has been an annual title without pause. |
| 27 | * ArmyOfTheAges: Many iterations through the mid-2000s included "historic" rosters for each team with the best players in franchise history up to that point represented. It was quite satisfying to roll over the competition with a team of every elite legend from the team's history, which could stretch back for a century in some cases. However, as their likeness was being used without compensation, some of these former players sued and EA stopped including these teams around 2008-09. |
| 28 | * ArtifactTitle: The ''Madden NFL'' series no longer has anything to do with John Madden since his 2009 retirement and 2021 death. He continued to lend his likeness for [[TheCameo cameos]] after 2009, most notably as an InkSuitActor as the coach of ''Madden 13''[='s=] Canton Greats all-star team. |
| 29 | * ArtificialStupidity: There's been good amount over the history of the franchise. A few particular examples: |
| 30 | ** The QB Kneel (the "Victory Formation") has two running backs stand next to the QB so that in the event he fumbles, they can quickly dive on the ball and retain possession. However, the AI gives these guys blocking assignments, so that when the ball is snapped, they quickly run to the sides to block edge rushers. That's right: On a play where their entire role is to stand still, the AI still goofs it up. |
| 31 | ** In the [=PS2/Xbox=] era (roughly ''01'' to ''06''), AI controlled teams in Franchise Mode would hold on to players like they were made of diamond-encrusted gold, and free agency would mean slim pickings all around. They apparently overcompensated in the next generation because, starting with ''07''[='s=] Franchise Mode, there exists a phenomenon that can only be called "Roster Musical Chairs". This has continued to swing back and forth between the extremes in the iterations since, EA having apparently never figured out how to make it realistic. |
| 32 | ** Signing free agents in Franchise Mode is chock full of AI stupidity as well. For example, you are given the option to re-sign soon-to-be free agents from your own team before they hit full fledged free agency. One option for keeping them is to use the "Franchise Tag," which prevents the player from reaching free agency by forcing a 1-year, fully guaranteed contract onto him (which is equal to the average salary of the top 5 players at that position or 120% of the player's previous years salary, whichever is higher.) It is actually possible to get the player to agree to a 1 year contract for significantly less money than the Franchise Tag would be worth, something a player worth tagging in real life would NEVER agree to. (They would much rather have the fully guaranteed franchise tag contract or the massive amount of guaranteed money they'd get for signing a long-term deal with a new team.) |
| 33 | ** The newspaper feature present from ''05'' to ''08'' had predictions for the next game. However, who is picked to win seemed to be pretty much random. It would usually be the home team, no matter who they were playing. It would occasionally make hilarious claims like describing a team that is still undefeated 3/4 of the way through the season as being "in shambles". |
| 34 | ** The in-game NFL Draft has historically only allowed limited (and often impractical) means of evaluating potential draftees. As such, the player can ask the AI for advice on which players to draft. Occasionally, the advice can result in a gem, but most of the time, the AI will recommend a punter or kicker. Even in the first round, and even if the team already has the best punter and kicker in the league. (The reason for this seems to be that the computer advises you to take the highest rated player available, regardless of position. Since kicker and punter prospects with ratings in the 80+ range last longer in the draft that similarly rated players at other positions, the odds are good that unless you're picking in the top 5-10 picks of the first round, a kicker/punter will be the highest rated player available.) |
| 35 | ** The AI for the computer controlled teams is equally inept at drafting. A common occurrence is that a team will take a highly touted QB prospect in the first round because it is seen as a need. However, even the highest rated rookie [=QBs=] tend to be below league average and require careful development to improve. Naturally, the rookie QB performs poorly, doesn't get much rating progression... and the position is ''still'' seen as a need in the next draft, where the CPU takes another QB prospect and the process repeats itself. It isn't uncommon in enthusiast forums to see screenshots where a CPU has five first-round [=QBs=] on its roster with none of them progressing. This can happen with other positions as well, but tends to be less drastic. |
| 36 | ** In several of the [=PS2/Xbox=]-era games and the 2014 mobile game, if the AI calls a QB kneel down, the player can respond by calling a field goal block. The AI will then (often, but not always) call an audible to a pass play. This can backfire on them if the receiver drops the ball, or catches it out of bounds. If this happens, the player will save a timeout or a chunk of time that would have otherwise been wasted, since an incomplete pass stops the clock. Be careful, though, since if the AI's receiver catches the pass they will likely score a touchdown. Worth trying if the AI can run out the clock or you are losing by only 1 point (since a touchdown would put the AI up by 8, which is still one possession.) |
| 37 | ** In ''13'', a bug in the AI's play selection leads to teams making brainlock decisions in crunch time. More than one AI team has driven down the field in the final seconds, only to run the ball up the middle on the final play rather than kick the game-winning field goal or throw a Hail Mary. |
| 38 | ** ''22'' has an "Assistant GM" in franchise mode who will ping you with roster management "advice". Most of it is outright terrible, such as releasing your league MVP starting QB simply because his contract only has one year left, performance be damned. Worse, moves can be made directly from the Assistant GM screen with the cursor defaulting to "Yes", so an accidental click can ruin your team (or at least send you scrambling back to your last save). It returns in ''23'' with some additional features, such as recommending that you bench certain poorly performing players. This wouldn't be too bad, except that what qualifies as "poorly performing" may include your elite starting QB in the midst of an MVP season just because the team suffered its first loss. Once again, the cursor defaults to agreeing with the Assistant GM, which can create a multitude of issues within your franchise from benching a star player. |
| 39 | ** In ''23'', AI controlled teams in franchise mode will sometimes refuse to pay their elite quarterbacks (Justin Herbert, Lamar Jackson, etc., who typically get long-term deals in the $300+ million range) and allow them to hit free agency... where other teams will ''also'' balk at that price and not sign them, all while the player doesn't budge on his desired compensation. Apparently, in most cases, it is because a deal of that magnitude would put the team over the salary cap. In real life, other players would be released or have their contracts adjusted to fit the quarterback's deal. The fact that all of this happens really kills any realism in franchise mode. After a few seasons, the very best quarterbacks will sit on the free agency list (unless the human player signs them) while far lesser quarterback start throughout the league. |
| 40 | * ArtisticLicenseSports: |
| 41 | ** Averted initially by John Madden himself. He refused to put his name on the game (then a protoype featuring 6-9 players on the field due to technical limitations) until game hardware advanced enough to have the correct number of players on the field per team (11). |
| 42 | ** Given that the game is licensed by the NFL and intended in every way to be a simulation of real-life football, it generally does a good job of avoiding this trope, at least for the football games themselves. Franchise mode, however, deviates significantly from real-life NFL rules. Listing every example would require its own page, but some particularly notable ones include: a 53-man roster limit at all times (NFL teams have a 90 man roster limit in the offseason), no practice squads (a 10 man group of players who can practice with the team but is barred from participating in the games unless called up to the active roster first) until ''17'', no customization of player or coach contracts (all contracts are back-loaded, guaranteed money is evenly spread throughout, there are no incentives, etc.), the coaching staff is generally limited to the head coach and coordinators only, etc. etc. |
| 43 | ** Crossing over with ArtisticLicenseStatistics, players are typically unrealistically productive. Since ''Madden'' is meant to be played with 5-7 minute quarters (rather than 15 as in real-life), this means that gamers are running between 50-70% as many plays as a real NFL contest. Yet many expect to produce as many points or exciting moments, while somehow maintaining realistic results on a per-play basis. This is mathematically impossible. EA chooses the former, ''heavily'' slanting the game in favor of the offense. |
| 44 | ** If two teams are tied for a playoff berth at the end of the season, ''Madden'' can on occasion screw up the tiebreaker rules and award the playoff berth to the wrong team. It's right a vast majority of the time, but more than one player has RageQuit their online franchise when they got screwed this way. To a degree, this is forgivable as it is a rare scenario and the NFL rules for breaking ties are complicated, [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Football_League_playoffs#Breaking_ties with no fewer than 12 criteria for doing so]]. (#2 on the Conference tiebreak side is where ''Madden'' usually screws up, going to #3 even if one team has the head-to-head advantage over the other two.) However, it isn't completely consistent between different iterations of ''Madden'' either, so you never know what will happen if your team ends the season tied with another team. |
| 45 | ** ''Madden'' has never implemented the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_catch_kick Fair Catch Kick]] rule, which allows a team that makes a fair catch to attempt an uncontested field goal from that spot. Admittedly, it's a rarely invoked rule, so the developers may not have thought it necessary; given John Madden's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awJottxfqeg personal like of the rule]], however, it may have been a nice inclusion. |
| 46 | * AscendedGlitch: After a video that showed a glitch that featured Cleveland Browns linebacker Christian Kirksey reduced to 1'2" in size went viral, and said linebacker tweeted it, [[http://www.easports.com/madden-nfl/news/2014/ultimate-team-tiny-titan EA made him part of an Ultimate Team Weekly Challenge.]] |
| 47 | * AscendedMeme: |
| 48 | ** ''12'' includes an achievement called "Put Da Team On My Back" for scoring a 99 yard touchdown with Greg Jennings. Broken leg optional. |
| 49 | ** Gus Johnson's commentary track also includes his (in)famous line "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLqGDuLnVUw He's got 'gettin' away from the cops' speed!]]" |
| 50 | ** Several fans like to use image editing programs to replace the cover with their own creation, spotlighting their favorite player. When Brett Favre [[TenMinuteRetirement un-retired]] and returned to the Jets in the year he was the cover athlete, EA released their own Photoshop job of Favre in a Jets jersey for players to use instead. |
| 51 | ** ''Madden 21'' added the "Hall of Very Good" as a Legacy rank, paralleling sports talk commentary about players who were just-not-quite-good-enough to make the Hall of Fame. |
| 52 | ** After years of complaints that Creator/TomBrady retired in the game far sooner than in real life (usually after the first season played in Franchise mode), they severely reduced the threshold to make him retire. Many players reported seeing Brady hanging around in their franchises into his ''late 50s'' |
| 53 | * AwesomeButImpractical: Many plays in the playbook take too long to develop or rely on trickery that doesn't fool the AI, so they never get used. Examples include reverses, double reverses, reverse passes...basically anything more "tricky" than a play-action or a draw. |
| 54 | * BlackComedy: Detailed under WorstAid below, but in the older versions, the ambulance drivers have...SkewedPriorities at best. |
| 55 | * BorrowingFromTheSisterSeries: Following its success in EA sister series ''VideoGame/FIFASoccer'', the divisive, microtransaction-loaded "Ultimate Team" was brought over to ''Madden'' in ''11''. |
| 56 | * {{Bowdlerise}}: Madden's soundtrack usually consists of rap and heavy-rock songs, most of which usually contain a lot of profanity that cannot be used in an E-rated game. Thus, some songs are heavily edited with many deleted lines, leaving a lot of awkward pauses, most notably in ''09''[='s=] use of Music/HollywoodUndead's "Undead". |
| 57 | * BrandX: Not ''Madden'' itself, but it caused this to occur with any other pro football video games after EA landed the NFL's exclusive license. ''Madden''[='s=] various competitors, especially the ''2K'' series, were left scrambling to make up new leagues, new teams, and fill them with players. ''2K''[='s=] last gasp came with ''All-Pro Football 2K8'' as a SpiritualSuccessor, featuring the fictional "All-Pro League" (or APL). Since EA's exclusivity deal only covered ''active'' players, Visual Concepts instead secured the rights to over 240 retired football players to fill its rosters with. However, it still wasn't enough to compete with the ''Madden'' juggernaut. |
| 58 | * BreakingTheFourthWall: |
| 59 | ** LampshadedTrope. In ''13'' and onward, there are fake Twitter feeds from real ESPN analysts in career mode. If a player has a truly absurd performance, one of them may tweet something about it being "straight out of a video game" and hashtag it #fourthwall. |
| 60 | ** After a successful field goal, the stadium Jumbotrons will sometimes show an animation incorporating the video game's kicking meter. |
| 61 | ** The announcer commentary in Superstar KO mode doesn't pretend it's anything but a video game. |
| 62 | * BribingYourWayToVictory: A couple of ways: |
| 63 | ** Madden Ultimate Team mode essentially turns team creation into a collectible card game, with all the pros and cons that entails. |
| 64 | ** Several editions of the game allow the player to unlock various "tokens" (for various achievements) which - if used strategically and correctly - could virtually ensure victory for a player before the first snap. Most of these were rather routine (e.g., disabling a pass-receiver's abilities, giving the team a generous spot when near a first down, holding teams to three downs per series, etc.), but a few of the more inventive have included such things as unlimited challenges, which could then be used in combination with another token that would allow favorable verdicts each time. |
| 65 | ** The Xbox 360 version of ''13'' has an achievement for calling an audible with the Kinect add-on, which is of course a separate purchase. |
| 66 | ** Coach Glass was an add-on app available for the Xbox One which gave you a great deal of information about your opponent's tendencies mid-game, but it required a tablet to use. |
| 67 | * TheCameo: In ''11'', the Super Bowl-winning team will be shown presenting their jersey to UsefulNotes/BarackObama. Amusingly, this cutscene plays no matter how many years you play your franchise for. |
| 68 | * CapcomSequelStagnation: A common criticism of the series. Most iterations change very little from the previous, save for updating the rosters. The developers do try to add new modes and features, but ultimately, a game emulating a real life sport can only add so much while still being faithful. |
| 69 | * CharacterCustomization: |
| 70 | ** Prior to starting up Franchise Mode, you are free to edit the existing players and rosters to your liking. |
| 71 | ** Ever since ''95'', you can create your own custom players or add your favorite players that were left out of the game for one reason or another while editing their name, appearance, ratings, and college. |
| 72 | ** ''06'' introduces "Superstar Mode", devoted specifically to that custom player's career. |
| 73 | * ColdOpen: Possibly the first ever for a Sports Game franchise - Upon first launching ''Madden 15'', the player will be dropped into the NFC Championship game as Cam Newton and the Panthers, with one last chance to score a TD on the Seattle Seahawks and go to the Super Bowl. When a similar scenario happened in the real NFL that year (Cam Newton's Panthers played in Seattle in the Divisional round), the Madden team included a reference to it in the loading screens. This was continued in ''Madden 16'' and onward, with a different scenario each year. |
| 74 | * CompetitiveMultiplayer: Naturally. Being able to play against your friends (initially on the same console with two controllers and later online) is one of the big selling points of the game. |
| 75 | * TheComputerIsACheatingBastard: |
| 76 | ** The AI players will often react to things they shouldn't be able to see, meaning many plays which rely on that deception don't work in the game the way they should in real life. |
| 77 | ** In an Inversion, the player, by default, gets to see things from 20 or 30 feet above the action, allowing a much wider field of view than what a player at field level gets to see. Some players, as a form of SelfImposedChallenge, will switch to a first-person view of the player they are manually controlling, similar to how it would be in real life. It is notably much more challenging. |
| 78 | ** [[https://www.youtube.com/user/versuz2 This YouTuber]] has several examples in which the AI cheats in Madden 2010 - to varying degrees (from "mind reading" AI to "magic trick" ball recovery). |
| 79 | ** On the higher difficulty levels, the computer will have almost always have called a play that is specifically designed to counter whatever you just called. |
| 80 | ** Players don't suffer many injuries in played games, but if you decide that there are a few games on the schedule that you don't want to bother with and let the computer simulate them, your roster will start to look like a hospital ward. It is possible to invert the trope, however, if you play out all your own team's games. |
| 81 | ** If the AI challenges a play, they will win 9 times out of 10. If the player challenges a play, they will lose 9 times out of 10. The latter half of this could theoretically be attributed to terrible camera angles when they are reviewing the plays. Sometimes you are watching the play happen from 50 yards away. Of course, this doesn't really explain anything because it's a video game. This is especially evident when you go back and watch the instant replays after-the-fact, and they can clearly show that the player was NOT down before the fumble occurred. |
| 82 | * CreatorProvincialism: The game is developed by the EA subsidiary Tiburon, which is based in Florida. There have been complaints dating back decades that the players for the three Florida-based NFL teams receive higher ratings than their performances suggest. (This was even more evident in the ''VideoGame/NCAAFootball'' sister series regarding Florida's major universities.) |
| 83 | * CrutchCharacter: Usually, there will be a few players who, for whatever reason (age, injury concerns, off-the-field concerns,) were not signed by a team in RealLife but are available in ''Madden'' as free agents in franchise mode. Usually these players still have relatively high overalls (80+) compared to those you can typically find as free agents in-season in franchise mode, so signing them will give your team an extra boost. However, if the player is older he may retire after only 1 season or, if not, will see his physical stats deteriorate as he ages. If he is oft-injured, he may not play many games for you before getting hurt. This was much more common in the late-90s/early 2000s ''Madden'' games as they lacked the ability to receive roster updates via the internet. More recent games (from ''06'' onward) will receive roster updates throughout the year to clear out players like this, but it still happens occasionally. |
| 84 | * DaddySystem: Was released for at least one in every iteration through ''Madden 17''. |
| 85 | * DamnYouMuscleMemory: Changes to the functions of certain buttons are common year-to-year. |
| 86 | ** A particularly prominent example happened when going from ''05'' to ''06'' on the [=PS2=]. R1 was "juke right" and L1 was "juke left" in ''05'', but these were moved to the right stick for ''06''. Come ''07'', this change stuck and even removed the option of reassigning the function in the settings, forcing players to adapt. |
| 87 | ** The controls for audibles and hot routes have been reassigned several times throughout the years. This is particularly painful, as players may need to hustle through several of them prior to the snap. |
| 88 | ** ''Madden 21'' replaced the "precision modifier," a button used to aggressively juke defenders with a dedicated TrashTalk button. This led more than one player to attempt a move but instead insult the opposing player and immediately get rocked for a fumble. |
| 89 | * DarkHorseVictory: |
| 90 | ** Naturally, it is possible for a skilled player to guide a team with no realistic chance of winning the Super Bowl in real life to the title in-game. If you win a Super Bowl as the [[ButtMonkey Cleveland Browns]] in the games from late 2010s to early 2020s (during which the Browns had one of the worst stretches in NFL history), the in-game commentary brings this up. |
| 91 | ** In a meta example, EA and ESPN hosted a tournament to see which NFL player would grace the ''Madden 2012'' cover. The best player from each team was chosen for the bracket, and the fans voted each round. Such big names as Aaron Rodgers, Adrian Peterson, Hines Ward, and Drew Brees fell by the wayside. The controversial Michael Vick made the finals, but he lost to... Peyton Hillis of the Cleveland Browns. Making him only the second ''Madden'' cover boy from a team that didn't make the playoffs the previous year. (The first? Vince Young, who had just won Rookie of the Year the previous year.) To be fair, many fans admitted to voting for players they didn't like, so that their guy would avoid the Madden Curse. |
| 92 | * DeathByAmbulance: The infamous "ambulance" feature for injured players in the 90s iterations. Any players in its path would be run over and pushed offscreen. |
| 93 | * DeathOrGloryAttack: Patrick Mahomes' and Josh Allen's "Bazooka" ability. It raises the throwing distance to nearly the length of the field, but even the fastest player in the game (who at the time was conveniently on Mahomes' team) still takes several seconds to run that far. It will either be a moon shot for a touchdown or a massive sack. |
| 94 | * DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment: In the newspaper feature, there will occasionally be an article with the title of something like "Giants at 6-2" and the entire article will be a single sentence restating this information. |
| 95 | * DevelopersForesight: While the ColdOpen of ''Madden 16'' puts you in control of the Steelers at 1st and goal needing a touchdown to secure victory (and heavily encouraging the player to throw to WR Antonio Brown), it is completely possible to [[OffTheRails fail to score]], and the game's ending will change to reflect that. |
| 96 | * DiscOneNuke: When one of the CrutchCharacter free agents is a particularly good player. Some notable examples: |
| 97 | ** After Steve Young's and Barry Sanders' relatively surprising retirements, EA left them in the game as free agents, available for any team to sign. There's nothing like adding Hall of Fame players with ratings in the 90s to nuke the competition. |
| 98 | ** In more recent games with online roster updates available, these types of players are usually removed, but instances still occur. (Like Brett Favre in 2008 "[[TenMinuteRetirement retiring]]" from the Packers, only to then sign with the Jets. As that year's ''Madden'' games had already shipped, Favre, who was on the cover of the game, was made available as a free agent until the first roster update.) |
| 99 | ** Blackballed quarterback Colin Kaepernick was added as a free agent in ''Madden 21'', more than 4 years after last playing in the NFL. With an 81 overall, he was the top-rated free agent QB and more highly rated than ''half'' of the league's starting quarterbacks. |
| 100 | * DoWellButNotPerfect: |
| 101 | ** The in-game officials are programmed to make mistakes on occasion to allow for coach's challenges. |
| 102 | ** In Franchise Mode, if your team wins three Super Bowls in a row (unprecedented in reality), your head coach will retire and you'll be forced to promote an assistant coach or hire a free agent, both options likely resulting in a lesser coach in terms of ratings. The only other reason a coach will retire is due to age (with the odds increasing the older he gets and a [[RandomNumberGod RNG roll]] at the start of the offseason determining it), but a Super Bowl three-peat will ensure this. |
| 103 | ** In ''Madden 2004'', a single player cannot accumulate more than 1023 rushing yards (more than three times the actual NFL record) in a single game; any more would wrap around to -1024 due to an overflow error. With a good team, a good playbook, and a good working knowledge of AI behavior, the player might need to cut a run short and make a substitution to avoid wrecking his star running back's statistics. |
| 104 | ** Starting with the iterations in the late '10s, many players have complained that the star QB of their undefeated team who set multiple NFL single-season records would [[CrackDefeat lose out on]] awards like league MVP to players with far lesser performances. In an attempt to discourage [[AIBreaker AI abuse]], it seems that the game penalizes these players for their unrealistically good performances. Doing ''realistically'' well is fine, but don't do ''too'' well. |
| 105 | * DraftingMechanic: |
| 106 | ** In Franchise mode, a simulation of the NFL Draft is one of the offseason events. Barring a few years where you could import draft classes from the ''VideoGame/NCAAFootball'' sister series, the draft classes are made up of randomly generated CPU players. It mostly plays out like the real thing, with one difference being that it only has the seven rounds of standard picks, not including compensatory picks. |
| 107 | ** An option before starting up in Franchise mode is to hold a "Fantasy Draft" which allows you to draft your team in a fantasy football style. Every player in the league is added to the draft pool and the CPU selects for the other 31 teams. The result is a major shakeup of rosters across the league. |
| 108 | * DumpStat: |
| 109 | ** Counterintuitively, many ''Madden'' players prefer their quarterback's Awareness rating to be as ''low'' as possible despite it having one of the biggest impacts on their overall rating. While Awareness plays a major part in how well players perform when not actively controlled, it is largely irrelevant with the human player in control. On offense, the quarterback will almost always be controlled by the human until they've passed the ball, meaning that the throwing ability and athleticism ratings will be far more important. With a lower Awareness, quarterbacks will be cheaper to trade for, cheaper to re-sign to new contracts, and go lower in fantasy drafts. Naturally, this makes raw-but-physically talented rookie [=QBs=] very popular as they will have low Awareness due to their lack of experience, but in the hands of the human player, will be able to perform just as well as similarly talented players but higher overall players. However, with success comes ratings progression, especially Awareness, so after a few seasons, even the lowest Awareness [=QBs=] will see it maxed out. In an inverse of the trade scenario above, you can trade your now-elite QB for a plethora of draft picks and other players, then select a new raw rookie to start the process over again. Note that this does ''not'' apply for simulating games. |
| 110 | ** DoubleSubverted with Awareness during the infamous "Vision Cone" era from ''06'' to ''08''. Attempting to give meaning to Awareness for [=QBs=], EA implemented a highlighted cone extending outward from the [=QB's=] face and they could only accurately pass to receivers within that cone. [=QBs=] with higher Awareness had a bigger cone, with the very best of that era (Brady, Peyton, Favre, etc.) having cones that covered most of the field. Unfortunately, players quickly discovered that a smaller cone could be used to "look off" defenders (as in pointing the cone away from your intended target), causing defenders to shift their coverage in that direction, leaving your intended target wide open. With a little practice, the player could simply move the cone at the last second to complete easy deep passes. Players with high Awareness and thus large cones, could not be used in this way, once again reinforcing Awareness as a Dump Stat. |
| 111 | * DynamicDifficulty: The game adjusts the computer's skill of certain mechanics (running, passing, etc.) after every game, depending on how well or poorly the player performed in those areas. Particularly apparent in ''09'' and ''12'', though it has gotten smoother as the series has progressed. |
| 112 | * EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: |
| 113 | ** The series did not obtain the NFL license until ''Madden NFL '94''. The NFLPA didn't sign on until ''Madden '95'' (no real players were featured before then), and no coaches' names other than Madden himself were featured until ''Madden 2001'', when EA obtained the NFL Coaches' Association license. |
| 114 | ** John Madden himself appeared on the covers, usually alone, until ''01''. Since then, players have been featured exclusively, save for ''23'', the first game released after his death. |
| 115 | * AnEntrepreneurIsYou: Franchise mode includes aspects of running an NFL franchise outside of the football games themselves, including roster building, signing coaches and a training staff, setting vendor prices at your stadium, and possibly even relocating the team. |
| 116 | * FakeShemp: Bill Belichick is not a member of the NFL Coaches Association, and so in every game after Madden 2002 he's been replaced in game as Patriots coach by a generic looking guy who vaguely looks like him. |
| 117 | * FalseCameraEffects: ''10'' included an AFL throwback mode to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the league. One of the effects was to layer film grain and a sepia filter to mimic a TV broadcast from the 1960s. |
| 118 | * FrothyMugsOfWater: In owner mode, the user can set concession prices for every product a stadium sells, except beer. |
| 119 | * GamblersFallacy: Common when it comes to each game's opening ''coin flip'' of all things. It isn't unusual to see posts in enthusiast forums boasting of lengthy coin flip winning streaks or complaining about long coin flip losing streaks, especially when it comes to online games (and thus, against other people). Oddly enough, it has been proven that ''Madden'' coin tosses are indeed deterministic. |
| 120 | * GameBreakingBug: |
| 121 | ** In the games from the mid-2000s at least through ''08'' for the PC version, players would sometimes start to disappear from rosters mid-season without explanation. The more seasons you went into Franchise Mode, the more likely it was to occur. Enthusiast forums encouraged making a separate save file at the start of every season and, if you encountered the bug, to go back to that file. It was unfortunate to lose a season, but it was better than losing the entire franchise. |
| 122 | ** ''Madden 06'' in particular had a nasty bug which would break Franchise Mode and even corrupt players' saved data. |
| 123 | ** ''Madden 07'' for PC [[note]]also ''Madden 08'', but only in Superstar mode[[/note]] has an absurd bug involving clock management. In between plays, you can zoom out to see more of the field. This is often done after long passes, to see if the players are back to the line of scrimmage. However, when the camera is zoomed out, ''the clock will stop''. So if you're down late in a game, you can attempt long passes over and over again, and if you can't get out of bounds, all you have to do is zoom out the camera, and not need to use up a timeout or spike the ball. |
| 124 | ** ''Madden 16'' shipped with major glitches in franchise mode that caused some players' ratings to plummet during the season, while others started exploding, even going over 100 in some cases. The bug was so prominent that the game developers were going to enthusiast forums to tell people not to start those game modes until they were patched. |
| 125 | ** In individual career mode for ''Madden 20'', the game would sometimes begin assigning the player goals that did not correspond to the position they played (i.e. passing touchdowns for a defensive player). The player would naturally fail these goals week after week until they were cut from their team. |
| 126 | ** An unknown bug in the EA Servers caused ''Madden 20'' online franchise mode to be inaccessible for several days, in the middle of the NFL season. |
| 127 | ** ''Madden 21'' shipped with multiple game breaking bugs, most notable of which being one that would fail to load the field lines - making it impossible to tell where the sidelines, end zone, or line to gain were. |
| 128 | ** ''Madden 22'' had two significant bugs: |
| 129 | *** One caused star players' morale to freefall between games, causing Super Star players like Khalil Mack to retire if they failed to get a sack in even a single game. |
| 130 | *** The second related to the "Progressive Fatigue" system, which would cause players to get more tired during the season if they practiced too frequently. The AI coaches would drive all their starters to exhaust by practicing like a DrillSergeantNasty, which meant by December the majority of AI teams were down to their backups. |
| 131 | ** ''23'' had numerous upon launch. |
| 132 | *** Connected Franchise has an issue where games played sometimes register as 0-0 ties regardless of the result. |
| 133 | *** Disconnects in any online mode far surpass the post-launch totals of previous iterations. Any "overlays" (Steam, [=GeForce=], Origin, etc.) seem to instantly crash the game. |
| 134 | *** In franchise mode, the game would sometimes fail to remove the art assets used for cutscenes, meaning that the team's draft room, coaches' office, etc. would appear at the 50 yard line in the middle of the stadium and obstruct the player's view. |
| 135 | *** "Face of the Frachise" mode, despite receiving heavy push from EA in prerelease marketing, has a nasty bug that can break the save after any given season, even the first. The only free agency offer is from "NFL" and must be accepted to continue, after which the game either crashes back to the title screen or your player is forced to retire. |
| 136 | *** A bug struck Online Franchise from December 28-29 (during many players' holiday vacations) which caused nearly 60% of those who logged in to permanently corrupt their save files. EA's official solution was to start over. |
| 137 | *** In franchise mode for ''23'', the Salary Cap would continue to rise year over year at roughly the same rate as real life. However, AI logic from players' contract demands and AI teams' offers never climbed to match. Meaning that franchise gets progressively easier over time as human players can easily outbid CPU teams for all their best free agents while the CPU keeps itself to 2022 budgets. |
| 138 | ** Roster updates frequently mislabel player injuries, meaning they can be held out far longer than in real life. For example, Bills cornerback Tredavious White returned to play in October of the 2022 season, but the roster listed him as lost for the year. On the flip side, Deshaun Watson served an 11-game suspension, but rosters have no mechanic for suspensions, forcing players to alter his stats to make him unplayable in order to maintain realistic outcomes. |
| 139 | * GameplayAndStorySegregation: The "Face of the Franchise" mode in ''Madden 21'' has a rather blatant example during the NCAA portion. No matter how well you play, even if you throw 10 TD passes per game and beat every opponent by scores which would set records in real life, the coach ''will'' decide to name your backup/rival/competitor for the position Tommy Matthews as the starter. Your options at that point are to switch positions to RB/WR or to declare early for the NFL Draft, where you are rated as a 3rd round prospect (again, no matter how well you played). |
| 140 | * GameMod: |
| 141 | ** For the PC version, which was discontinued for 10 years after ''Madden 08''. A team of dedicated modders continues to release reasonably accurate roster updates, complete with player portraits and coaching staff changes, every year so that they and their PC-playing brethren can continue to enjoy the game. They've even released mods to keep the game up to date with NFL rule changes, like moving kickoffs to the 35-yard line and extra point kick attempts to the 15-yard line. |
| 142 | ** ''Madden 19'' has brought the game back to PC and, like previous versions, has quickly formed a dedicated modding community which offers everything from minor gameplay tweaks to graphics improvements to full blown overhauls (such as converting the game into an updated version of EA's discontinued ''NCAA Football'' series). |
| 143 | * GodModders: Extremely common in tournament and online play. The most famous example being "Joke" fielding a team[[note]]The tourney allowed players to customize a team using a fictional salary cap[[/note]] in the 2020 Madden Bowl with 8 offensive lineman, two Hall of Fame talents in the backfield[[note]]Franco Harris at FB and Gale Sayers at HB[[/note]], and ''punter'' Tress Way as his QB. After he won the tournament ''without attempting a single pass'', the game was reported even in national media like ''USA Today'' and ''The Washington Post''. |
| 144 | * GuideDangIt: |
| 145 | ** The game manual frequently leaves out very useful information. For example, did you know you can audible to an onside kick on kickoffs? Don't worry if not, because it isn't mentioned anywhere in the manual. |
| 146 | ** The manual (prior to ''06'') also doesn't say how to scramble anywhere, instead phrasing the ability as "toggle on/off WR icons". When written in that way, [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin it sounds like they just mean turn off the icons underneath your receivers.]] |
| 147 | ** "Playmaker" controls were introduced to great fanfare in ''04'', allowing a player on offense to essentially control two players at once. However, there has been minimal or no mention of them in any official documentation, even though they remain in the game. |
| 148 | ** Coaches have attributes just like players. These are only visible during the brief period between seasons in Franchise mode when you can fire/hire coaches. Exactly how these attributes impact the team remains unknown, though there is plenty of speculation. Does a head coach with a 95 rating in "Offense" make his team's offense perform better than a head coach with a 75 rating? Does it merely impact progression of players on that side of the ball? What about even more nebulous attributes like "Knowledge" or "Work Ethic"? Players have been left scratching their heads for years regarding the meaning and impact of these attributes. The only easily observable impact they seem to have is that, the higher they are across the board, the more expensive the coach is to re-sign. |
| 149 | ** Ratings will sometimes be added or altered from year to year without a clear explanation of what they do, or how they affect other ratings. For example, "Awareness" vs. "Play Recognition", "Route Running" vs. "Agility", or any of the '''five''' run-blocking attributes: "Run Block Rating", "Impact Blocking", "Run Block Power", "Run Block Footwork", or "Lead Blocking". |
| 150 | ** While the game includes a Skills Trainer, it is extremely rudimentary with respect to more complicated offensive and defensive concepts. For example, defenses with similar names (Cover 3 Sky vs. Cover 3 Mable, etc) can behave very differently on the field as the game tries to replicate the real defensive decision-making behind the scenes. On the playcall screen, they look nearly identical. There is no information in-game on how these advanced concepts operate. |
| 151 | *** ''Madden 23'' inverts this, as the game ships with many of the advanced AI logic turned off by default, hiding defensive pattern matching (a fundamental strategy) behind a coaching audible that must be toggled on ''each game.'' There is almost no indication that this is necessary. |
| 152 | ** Online play includes underlying game changes (known as "Exploit Management") to counteract unbalanced strategies. For example: |
| 153 | *** In ''21'', Quarterbacks who scramble will suffer a significantly increased stamina loss and chance to fumble. This despite the three of the last cover athletes (Lamar Jackson and Patrick Mahomes x2) being among the most effective scramblers of all time. |
| 154 | *** In ''22'', coming out in a pass defense with 6-7 defensive backs vs a heavy run play will result in your defensive line being pancaked automatically. |
| 155 | * HarderThanHard: The "All-Madden" difficulty. Not only will the opposing AI suddenly become dangerously competent, but your own players will suddenly become much more incompetent. Try not to RageQuit when your franchise QB is intercepted by a poorly-rated defender making a borderline physically impossible grab or when your elite tackling-machine linebacker gets trucked by a 3rd string running back. |
| 156 | * HeartbeatSoundtrack: Used during [[DownToTheLastPlay game-winning field goal attempts]] to amplify the drama of the moment. |
| 157 | * HelloInsertNameHere: |
| 158 | ** In the iterations that allow for creating a new team or relocating one while changing the name, you are free to enter any name you wish. However, the announcers will not say the name of the team, referring to them generically as "the home team" or "the visiting team". Averted in a few cases where they recorded commentary for a selection of fictional team nicknames (such as "Sharks" or "Rhinos"), which would then be called as appropriate should you name your created team accordingly. The stock logos you could select from do hint at what names might be recognized. |
| 159 | ** Created players may be called by their jersey number, their position, or their last name if it's common (Smith, Johnson, etc.) or commentary exists for that name. (For example, if you create a player named "John Brady", the announcers may actually say "Brady" since they have commentary recorded for Tom Brady.) |
| 160 | * HolidayMode: |
| 161 | ** The game will update throughout the year with appropriate decorations. October gives you breast cancer month ribbons and pink-wearing crowds, the holidays put Christmas lights on the scoreboard, etc. It can get a little outlandish during Breast Cancer Awareness Month, where a user-created coach will be shown wearing an all-pink business suit. |
| 162 | ** More directly, both this game and ''NCAA Football'' at one point had a partnership with the Weather Channel wherein the game would simulate the actual current weather at each stadium. |
| 163 | ** Madden Ultimate Team has themed sets that release around the various holidays, such as "Most Feared" players around Halloween. |
| 164 | * HomingBoulders: It was common in the early generations of the series for passes, kicks, or even tacklers to travel in unusual, possibly unnatural ways to ensure the calculated result. Naturally, this has improved over the years with improvements in technology, but it is still possible to see examples where, for example, a tackle initiated from the side of the ball carrier inexplicably drives the ball carrier backwards by several yards. |
| 165 | * ImpossiblyTackyClothes: Madden allows players to mix-and-match a team's uniform elements. Considering some teams have radically changed their colors over franchise history, this can lead to some horrendously ugly combinations. ''Madden 25'' even includes ESPN.com columnist/blogger Paul Lukas to mock you if you do this. |
| 166 | * InCaseYouForgotWhoWroteIt: A somewhat unusual case with John Madden himself. Madden did much more than simply lend his name to the series, in fact, the game was not initially conceived as a realistic football simulation at all. Madden refused to put his name on it until this became the case. The franchise as it exists is very much his concept instead of the original developers', so it's fitting that it's named after him. |
| 167 | * InformedAttribute: One of the issues the series has struggled with since its inception is the relationship between a quarterback's stated attributes and actual quarterback play. Over the years, specific abilities have become more discernable and differentiated (Michael Vick was faster than Tom Brady, Patrick Mahomes could throw the ball farther than Chad Pennington could, etc), but the core issue is that the player always controls the quarterback, and so QB performance is fundamentally about player skill instead of the quarterback's in-game ratings. This is particularly true when it comes to the mental side of the position -- Tom Brady scores incredibly highly on traits like "awareness," but that doesn't actually impact how the player controls Brady in the game, and if the player doesn't recognize defenses or make good decisions, nothing about Brady's skillset will change that. A skilled player controlling a crummy quarterback can have much better outcomes than a lesser player controlling a Hall of Famer. The series has tried various things to close this gap (the QB Vision Cone being the most prominent), but without much success. |
| 168 | * InformedFlaw: Seattle linebacker Shaquem Griffin was born with a birth defect that eventually required amputating his left hand. While his visual model reflects this, in gameplay he behaves as if he still has it. |
| 169 | * InterfaceScrew: In ''Madden 22'', the Seahawks' stadium bonus causes the lines on their opponents' plays to inaccurately become erratically jagged or wavy on 3rd and 4th down. |
| 170 | * InkSuitActor: The players and coaches, obviously. ''13'' adds polygon versions of CBS announcers Jim Nantz and Phil Simms, along with John Madden himself. ''20'' introduces Superstar KO, including as coaches celebrities like Lil' Yachty and Music/DJKhaled, as well as Jennifer Welters, the first female coaching intern in NFL history. See also "Lethal Joke Character" below. It is a RunningGag each year that at least one player will go viral complaining about their digital representation (in ''23'', it was Jets WR Braxton Berrios). |
| 171 | * JokeCharacter: |
| 172 | ** Long Snappers in general. In the real NFL, long-snapping (for field goals and punts) is considered so specialized that there are many players who spend their entire careers doing nothing else -- they don't get paid all that well, but coaches recognize them as ''incredibly'' valuable players, and a long snapper getting hurt is a coach's worst nightmare. In Madden, every snap is the same, whether it's taken on offense or on a punt, so a team's starting center handles long snapping duties with absolutely no drama (again, in the real world centers don't get within a mile of long snapping). This means that long snappers are completely superfluous, and they are generally so bad in every other stat that they are immediately cut by the vast majority of teams, and nearly all will be out of the league by season 2 or 3. |
| 173 | ** For ''18'', film director Rawson Marshall Thurber (whose credits include ''Film/DodgeballATrueUnderdogStory'', ''Film/WereTheMillers'', and ''Film/{{Skyscraper}}'') won a charity auction to be added into the game as a player. He is the Combine QB in the ''Longshot'' mode and a free agent rookie QB in franchise mode. With an initial rating of 56, he's five points lower than any other QB in the game. However, that hasn't stopped people from signing him and trying to develop him into a star. Youtuber RBT even made [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0MTJEcT2KW0&ab_channel=RBT a video]] where his Thurber-led team won multiple Super Bowls. |
| 174 | * LethalJokeCharacter: |
| 175 | ** Brian Finneran from ''04'' was coming off [[http://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/F/FinnBr00.htm his only noteworthy season]], but happened to share the roster with Michael Vick, that year's cover athlete who was nearly unstoppable in-game. Throwing unerringly accurate laser beam passes from Vick to Finneran in that year's edition was so easy that Finneran has come to be considered a ''Madden'' legend, and he appears in the ''Madden 25'' and ''16'' "Ultimate Team" mode with a completely absurd 95 OVR rating. |
| 176 | ** Superstar KO mode includes numerous celebrities as extremely good players. For example, Music/SnoopDogg is a wide receiver with elite speed and agility. |
| 177 | ** Playable characters in "The Yard", a backyard-style mode in ''Madden 21'', include three [[UsefulNotes/NationalBasketballAssociation NBA]] players—two-time league MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo and his brothers Thanasis and Kostas. |
| 178 | ** In ''22'', EA introduced "Campus Legends" mode, which allows for head-to-head matchups of all-star teams from colleges like Texas, Oregon, LSU, Alabama, etc. Because EA does not have likeness rights to all the previous college players, they dropped in a number current NFL players (whose rights they do have due to the NFLPA contract), then buffed them to unrealistic levels so they could play alongside the historic elite. Examples include Nebraska's Lamar Jackson (not the one you're thinking of), Michigan State's Taybor Pepper (a career long-snapper made into a starting Tight End), and Florida linebacker Jachai Polite (who was cut by the Jets before playing a single game). |
| 179 | * LoadingScreen: The various iterations of the game have treated this differently over the years. Some include extra tidbits of information and/or reminders of the controls on the loading screen. Some just show images of different players. ''10'' includes outright ''advertisements'' in their loading screens, particularly for Snickers. |
| 180 | * LuckBasedMission: The "Madden Moments" feature in various iterations (and its spiritual successor in Ultimate Team solos) challenges you to replicate some of the greatest feats in football history. Of course, the reason they were memorable in the first place is because they were so ridiculously improbable. Some of the more notable examples: |
| 181 | ** One of the most infamous is ''02''[='s=] recreation of the Heidi Game from 1968, which is ''pretty much impossible''. You control the Oakland Raiders, down by ten points to the New York Jets - the team that would go on to win that year's Super Bowl - with only 1:05 left on the clock. [[note]]In the real game, the Raiders were only trailing by three points, but at the time there was no way to code in any scenario other than "win the game" so the score was altered to compensate.[[/note]] Fortunately, you have all three timeouts. Still, you have 65 seconds to score twice and grab an onside kick. NintendoHard doesn't even come close to describing it. |
| 182 | ** Also impossible is the final game in the Great Games series, which featured the Atlanta Falcons' 30 - 27 overtime win in the 1998 NFC Championship game against the Minnesota Vikings. You have to stop future Hall of Fame kicker Morten Andersen from making a rather routine 38-yard field goal. Good luck blocking it - even lowering the AI's ability to kick field goals doesn't help. |
| 183 | ** Another is bringing the Indianapolis Colts back from a 31 - 17 deficit against the New Orleans Saints in ''11'' in a recreation of the final minutes of Super Bowl XLIV. You have the ball, 4th and goal from the 5-yard line, two timeouts and 50 seconds to work with. Have fun. (Unlike the two above entries, the Colts failed to do this in real life, making it all the more impressive if you are able to pull it off.) |
| 184 | ** EA lost the ability to re-create historic teams due to a lawsuit, which means that these scenarios are now often run against the current version of the team, rather than the historic one. In situations where the real-life team has significantly declined, this actually makes it easier. |
| 185 | * MadLibsDialogue: The in-game commentary. It was painfully obvious in the earlier generations of the game, where drastic changes in tone and inflection were common, for example: "The '''GIANTS''' have the ball '''First''' and '''TEN''' from the TWENTY yard-line." As the years have gone on and technology has progressed (allowing storage of more recorded lines), this has become much more seamless. The commentary huge array of options and can handle not only unrealistic scenarios, but also provide team- and player-specific storylines over the course of a season. (Examples include historical tidbits about the '72 Dolphins or '07 Patriots if a team is undefeated deep into the regular season or they may mention the real-life holder of a record if a player is close to breaking it.) They will even condemn overly violent tackles and string together enough clichés that it's now a remarkable simulation of the real thing. |
| 186 | * MadeOfPlasticine: |
| 187 | ** Poor, poor Bob Sanders. After several years of season-ending injuries in Real Life, the Colts safety and former Defensive Player of the Year was given a "Durability" rating in the 40s. When he appeared in the ''Madden 11'' demo, it was rare for him to finish the game even with quarters shortened to two minutes. |
| 188 | ** This can be the case for the randomly generated players in the in-game draft classes. Unfortunately, unlike real life where NFL teams get full injury histories on incoming college players, this rating is hidden in many iterations of the game. As such, the college stud you think you just drafted may be massively injury prone. |
| 189 | * MaleGaze: Previous iterations included TV-style bumpers for halftime and the quarter breaks. These showed the traditional cheesecake shots of the cheerleaders. |
| 190 | * MiracleRally: Naturally, given that the game is a simulation of a real life sport in which these happen all the time. The game even tracks "4th Quarter Comebacks" as a stat for quarterbacks and "Game Winning Kicks" as a stat for kickers in relation to this trope. Crosses over (sometimes painfully so) with RubberBandAI when computer opponents suddenly become unstoppable juggernauts in order to make one of these happen against you. |
| 191 | * MissionPackSequel: The criticism that each new year is "just a roster update" essentially boils down to this. The developers actually do try to add new modes and gameplay features each year; how this criticism is received is inversely related to how well that year's new features were received. |
| 192 | * ModularDifficulty: Most of the games do have standard DifficultyLevels, but allow for the adjustments of individual settings for both the human-controlled team and the AI. Examples include penalty frequency, kicking/punting success, non-human controlled player AI skills (catching, tackling, blocking, etc.), and many more. Each year, many ''Madden'' players even share the settings that they've found to produce the most realistic and/or challenging (without being overly frustrating) with the community. |
| 193 | * MotionCapture: Brought into the series with ''Madden 1994'' and used ever since, getting more advanced over time. |
| 194 | * MultiPlatform: One of the biggest multi-platform sellers of the 21st century. From ''2001'' to ''17'', it was multi-generation as well, as every ''Madden'' in that span was released for both the current consoles and at least one DaddySystem. |
| 195 | * MultipleEndings: ''16'' has a ColdOpen which introduces some of the new gameplay elements for that iteration in a scenario with Arizona and Pittsburgh in the Super Bowl. This one includes a branching storyline. |
| 196 | * MusclesAreMeaningless: To the great chagrin of the hardcore community, height and weight matter very little with regard to how well players block or shed blocks - only the ratings matter. This was shown when one player shrank an entire offensive line to 5'6", 150 lbs[[note]]The typical offensive lineman will be at least 8" taller and at least twice that weight[[/note]] and they still blocked as effectively as before. |
| 197 | * MyRulesAreNotYourRules: The AI can do things the player is prevented from doing. Most notably, they can audible in the Wildcat formation. |
| 198 | * {{Nerf}}: There are almost always some from year to year that try to correct imbalance issues from the previous years. To note a few prominent examples: |
| 199 | ** The Wildcat formation was nerfed in ''12'' by removing the easily-abusable option plays from it. |
| 200 | ** The QB Vision Cone, added for ''06'', was an attempt at a nerf, but backfired ''spectacularly''. The tiny vision cone for Quarterbacks with a low "Awareness" could actually be used to "look off" defenders, causing them to adjust their coverage to the wrong receiver. Elite Quarterbacks with high Awareness, such as Creator/PeytonManning and Creator/TomBrady, aren't able to do this. (The cone was removed for the seventh-generation release of ''Madden 09''.) |
| 201 | ** A number of near-game breaker level plays have gone from abused to impractical over the years. One example was the nigh-unstoppable "play action" plays in the early-mid 2000s. Safeties, even those with maxed out awareness, would almost always bite on the play fake. This left the receiver one-on-one with the cornerback deep down the field. Racking up NFL records in points and passing yards, even on higher difficulty settings, was not unheard of when abusing this play. The effectiveness of these plays has been significantly toned down over the years, while those identified as still game-breaking frequently get nerfed via in-season patches. |
| 202 | ** Starting with ''08'', to stop players from manually breaking the AI to create unblockable blitzes, defenders will automatically return to their designated spot in the formation if the player moves them and then switches control to another defender pre-snap. |
| 203 | ** Quarterbacks are deliberately slowed down behind the line of scrimmage (below what their ratings would otherwise allow for) to improve the effectiveness of pass rushers, and to avoid unrealistically productive scrambling. In ''Madden 20'', this is negated by the superstar ability "Escape Artist." In ''Madden 23'' they in turn Nerfed "Escape Artist" by elevating it to an X-factor ability which must be earned, and giving it to one player - Kyler Murray. |
| 204 | * NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: Madden draft classes are usually randomly generated, but from ''10'' to ''Madden 25'', they were specifically created. This leads some to notice similarities between the athletes you can draft and real college players whose names they cannot legally use. A few of these are also {{Shout Out}}s to the ''NFL Head Coach'' series some of the programmers worked on as well. |
| 205 | * NoIndoorVoice: Gus Johnson in the iterations he announced, just like real life. |
| 206 | * OddballInTheSeries: ''Madden Football 64'' and ''Madden NFL '94'' are notable for having incomplete licensing, when games before ''[='=]94'' lack both the NFL and NFLPA licenses and the main games from ''[='=]95'' onwards have both: |
| 207 | ** ''64'' lacks the NFL license but does have the NFLPA license. As a result, the game features fictitious teams with real-life players. |
| 208 | ** ''[='=]94'' has the NFL license but not the NFLPA license, so it can use real team names, colors, and symbols, but not real player names or likenesses, only using their player numbers. |
| 209 | * OddlyNamedSequel2ElectricBoogaloo: Downplayed but extant. The series started in 1988 as simply ''John Madden Football''. ''John Madden Football II'' then came out in 1990. Starting in 1991, the game instead added the upcoming year to the title, so ''John Madden Football 1992''. In 1993, the title was changed to ''Madden NFL 94'', dropping the "19" from the title. 1997 saw the release of two titles - the standard ''Madden NFL 97'' as well as ''[[SuperTitle64Advance Madden Football 64]]'', which was released on the N64. ''Madden NFL 2000'' started added the first two numbers of the year back in, which would continue until they were dropped again for ''Madden NFL 06''. In 2013, the game was released as ''Madden NFL 25'' instead, celebrating the series 25th anniversary. (Which leads to the question of what the 2024 version of the game will be called.) |
| 210 | * OldSaveBonus: |
| 211 | ** Most versions (prior to ''13'', which removed the feature due to legal issues, but interestingly including the seventh-generation release of ''25'') allow you to import rookies from the corresponding ''NCAA Football'' title. |
| 212 | ** ''Madden 09'' lets you import plays from that year's ''NFL Head Coach'' title. |
| 213 | ** Having a ''Madden 06'' save file on [=PS2/Xbox=] would allow one to unlock the "Madden Challenge Bus" in ''VideoGame/BurnoutRevenge''. (The 360 version simply makes you watch a ''Madden 06'' trailer.) |
| 214 | ** Speaking of ''Madden 06'', completing "Own The City" in ''[[VideoGame/EASportsStreet NFL Street 2]]'' allows you to import the custom character used for that mode to the former game. |
| 215 | * OneStatToRuleThemAll: Although it varies by just how much it rules in the game from year to year, Speed has been the most important stat throughout the history of the series. It is common for speedy but otherwise mediocre players in real life to become elite superstars in the game itself due to the emphasis placed on speed. There are a few reasons for this: First, these "speed merchants" often block, tackle, and/or break tackles far better than their real life counterparts which eliminates their greatest weaknesses. Second, because passes are usually targeted to hit a player in the chest, it can be surprisingly difficult to run one of the most common plays in football - throw it high to the slow-but-tall receiver or tight end and let him use his size/reach to out-jump the defender to catch the pass. |
| 216 | * PopularityPower: |
| 217 | ** Related to CreatorProvincialism, more popular players are often given a ratings boost regardless of whether it was deserved. In reality, Marshawn Lynch retired after an ineffectual 2018 season with the Oakland Raiders. When he signed with the Seattle Seahawks in December 2019 to much fanfare, he was added to ''Madden 20'' with a higher rating than he had in ''Madden 19'', despite an increase in the ratings spread and his nearly full year off. Further, aging superstars do not nearly regress as much year over year despite evidence of real-life physical decline. |
| 218 | ** Colin Kaepernick, after nearly four years as a free agent quarterback black-balled by the league for his once controversial protest of kneeling during the national anthem, was added back to the game in ''Madden 21'' as a free agent. With an overall rating of 81, he was the highest rated free agent QB and better than half the starting quarterbacks in the league. While he was once a high-performing player, his final year in the league was rather mediocre and his four-year absence likely should have resulted in a lower rating, but his popularity with the fanbase ensured that it was raised. |
| 219 | ** On the flip side, unpopular players can be held back, Inverting the trope. Tyreek Hill never received any special abilities in ''Madden 20'' due to his involvement in ugly domestic abuse incidents, while Myles Garrett had his removed after a violent on-field fight. |
| 220 | ** Once technological advances made it possible, EA has given large temporary rating bumps to players who are in the news. Superstar Luke Kuechly was pushed to a 99 Overall after he emotionally announced his retirement, and Kicker Justin Tucker was bumped to 99 (a 12 point jump) after breaking the NFL record for longest field goal. |
| 221 | * ProductPlacement: An enormous amount, which seems to grow by the year. To note some prominent examples: |
| 222 | ** "Patrick Chewing" is available as a draftable rookie in ''Madden 10''; basketball player Patrick Ewing appears in Snickers commercials with that name, and Snickers is a major advertiser in the ''10'' edition. ''11'' takes it even further by having product placement in their achievements. |
| 223 | ** Leon Sandcastle was Deion Sanders' alter ego in a SuperBowlSpecial ad for the 2013 Super Bowl. Within a month, he had been added to Ultimate Team as a playable character. |
| 224 | ** Owner mode takes this further. Instead of setting the price of "hats" at the stadium gift shop, the user sets the price of "New Era 59Fifty Fitted hats." Instead of "T-Shirts", they are "Nike Dri-Fit T-Shirts" and so on. |
| 225 | * RageQuit: |
| 226 | ** So you picked the game up with only a cursory knowledge of football? I hope you like seeing the other team merrily intercept your passes and carry them for touchdowns with [[GuideDangIt no help from the game on how to stop them.]] |
| 227 | ** You may want to pick up a few extra controllers if you plan to play on the [[HarderThanHard All-Madden]] difficulty, where RubberBandAI is in full effect. Have fun as poorly rated defenders intercept your elite franchise QB and 3rd string running backs bowl over your elite linebacker who has a maxed out "Tackle" rating. |
| 228 | * RandomlyGeneratedLoot: The in-game [[DraftingMechanic draft classes]] are made up of randomly generated players to add to your team. Everything from their names to their height/weight to their attributes are randomly created. They qualify as "loot" in the sense that they are valuable resources to add to your team. |
| 229 | * RevenueEnhancingDevices: Starting with ''Madden 2010'', the series has begun selling things like One-Time Stat Boosts and vintage uniforms that used to be free rewards for in-game success. |
| 230 | * RubberBandAI: |
| 231 | ** One of the more shining examples in modern gaming. Creator/BillSimmons of ESPN coined the term "No F***ing Way game" for the times when the computer makes an unbelievable MiracleRally while your own players become inept clods. It is often accused of featuring an "AI catch-up mode", in which opposing teams inexplicably become drastically more potent in the final minutes of a close game, often to the point where preventing them from completing long bombs and scoring touchdowns seems like an impossible task (sometimes called "Robo QB"), even when the AI controlled team showed absolutely nothing in the earlier portions of the game to indicate that they were capable of this. In most cases, the AI level of rubberbanding is directly related to the difficulty level. On the easiest difficulty level, the AI doesn't rubberband at all: the same tactics, the same plays, over and over. As difficulty level goes up, so does the degree of rubberbanding: on the highest difficulty level, as soon as the player reaches anything approaching a lead, the AI responds aggressively - players for the human-controlled team become utterly inept, well below what their rating would justify, while players for the computer-controlled team become unstoppable juggernauts far beyond what their ratings would justify. Furthermore, the rubberbanding does ''not'' work in the opposite direction, however. The AI just goes back to the normal difficulty. |
| 232 | ** Inverted beginning with ''Madden 22'', where a team who jumps out to an early lead will have "Momentum," providing stat and other bonuses and making it substantially harder for the trailing team to mount a comeback. |
| 233 | * RunDontWalk: Players run as fast as their Speed rating allows by default, with a button press option of a short-area, temporary speed burst on top of it. This can actually be detrimental as there is no easy method for slowing down while maintaining a straight path, such as in situation where your ball carrier is waiting for blockers to open up a hole to run through. |
| 234 | * ScriptBreaking: Creator/JonBois of sbnation.com once had a weekly series called "Breaking Madden", wherein he created wildly unrealistic scenarios to see how the AI handled it. Examples include bizarre player creation settings (5'0" 400 lb. QB "BEEFTANK"), roster settings (a team of all Tom Bradys), unusual play calling (only punts and fake punts) to get the CPU "clearly so fed up with [the] silly adjustments that it stopped trying to create a realistic simulation". The results: lopsided scores and hilarious [=GIFs=] of players hit in the head by balls, giving piggyback rides, leaving for Gatorade mid-play, and even having their head spin (vertically). At times, the game didn't know what to do with the absurdly overpowered humans he created, including one scenario where punter Pat [=McAfee=] was made so absurdly strong that he would have ''booted the opening kickoff out of the stadium if he hadn't hit the invisible sky wall.'' |
| 235 | * SeriousBusiness: |
| 236 | ** Every year when the Madden ratings are released, expect at least one real NFL player to publicly gripe about their ratings. This was even mocked in old commercials. Sometimes it can get downright insulting. Take [=DeMarcus=] Ware, who showed up in ''Madden 08'' with a single-digit "Intelligence" rating on a 0-99 scale. On the flip side, when a player is awarded a 99 Overall Rating, EA Sports presents them a "99 Club" plaque in person. |
| 237 | ** In 2023, Dallas Cowboys guard Zack Martin referenced his 99 Overall rating (announced that same day) when he demanded a new contract from the Cowboys and threatened to hold out of training camp. |
| 238 | * ShoutOut: |
| 239 | ** One of the sponsors you can get for your team in Franchise Mode is the "[[Series/TheOfficeUS Michael Scarn Paper Company]]", Michael Scarn being Michael Scott's "[[HerCodeNameWasMarySue Marty Stu]]" character. |
| 240 | ** The "Midway Monster" Achievement in ''09'' is a reference to ''Mutant League Football''. |
| 241 | ** After years upon years of complaints that it was nearly impossible to block field goals, ''17'' includes a mechanic to help you do this. Accomplishing it gives the achievement "[[Literature/MobyDick The White Whale]]." |
| 242 | ** As part of a cross-promotion with Creator/{{Nickelodeon}} to coincide with the channel's first broadcast of an NFL playoff game, EA added ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarepants''-inspired clothing items and a Bikini Bottom field to "The Yard" mode. Nick's second broadcast saw the addition of ''WesternAnimation/{{Rugrats}}''- and ''Franchise/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles''-inspired items. |
| 243 | ** In ''22'', Bo Jackson was featured in a cross-promotional marketing campaign with Nike and given the in-game ability "Bo Knows." The name references a famous Nike late 80's ad campaign. Though not explicitly mentioned, Jackson is called a "Video Game Legend" due to being wildly overpowered in the game ''VideoGame/TecmoBowl'' |
| 244 | * SimulationGame: The series goes to great lengths to be as realistic as possible. In fact, with a decently high degree of accuracy, the game is used to predict final records, playoff appearances, and even the result of the Super Bowl each year. |
| 245 | * SkillGateCharacters: Every iteration of the game usually has at least one team which beginner players can use to defeat AI competition rather easily. This team usually has a skilled QB, at least one stud WR, and a [[OneStatToRuleThemAll speedy]] defense. (Any Colts or Broncos team under Peyton Manning frequently fit the bill.) However, skilled players could usually easily defeat the unskilled players using these superior teams quite easily, even when using far less talented teams themselves thanks to their superior knowledge of the game. |
| 246 | * SmallNameBigEgo: In franchise mode, "Ego" is a hidden stat which will affect the way a player behaves, such as taking a hit to his morale if he's not getting a lot of playing time or holding out for more money in the offseason. A high Ego for big name but hard-to-handle players like Terrell Owens or Chad Johnson made sense. It makes less sense, however, for a low-rated CPU generated player you drafted in the 7th round to have a hugely inflated Ego, to the point where it hurts the morale of the entire team if the lousy backup center isn't getting the playing time he wants. |
| 247 | * SoLastSeason: Happens in RealLife because of this franchise. The used games market value for ''Madden'' titles runs like clockwork as people rush to trade in last-year's release in anticipation of the new year's release. The quantity of old titles drives their price down ''very'' consistently, and a store which does not carefully police the number of titles they take in will find their shelves crowded with almost unsellable old ''Madden'' games. |
| 248 | * SoLongAndThanksForAllTheGear: Starting with ''Madden 25'', players would earn XP each week you sent them into practice mode. That XP could be used on traits which would provide an immediate bonus, or to invest in a player long-term by using extremely expensive development upgrades. This, of course, deferred their on-field improvement until later. However, the game also included a mechanic whereby players could become so "insulted" by your contract offer (even if it was exactly what they asked for!) that they flatly refuse to sign with you and take all your expensive development to another team. |
| 249 | * SportsGame: One of the most popular and best-selling in the history of video games. |
| 250 | * SuperTitle64Advance: The first N64 edition of the game was called ''Madden Football 64''. |
| 251 | * SweetPollyOliver: ''Madden 12'' includes some of the staffers as {{Joke Character}}s, including women. In-gameplay, the women are completely indistinguishable from the men, unlike fellow EA franchise ''VideoGame/NHLHockey'' |
| 252 | * TakeThat: |
| 253 | ** Used frequently by Achievements. The ''Madden 2010'' Achievements mostly involve abusing a real player, and the titles of them are usually at that player's expense. For example, the Achievement for forcing a fumble from former stockboy Kurt Warner is "Go Bag Some Groceries." |
| 254 | ** They also included a TakeThat to themselves in ''Madden 2011''. In ''10'', if you scored an unbelievable amount of points, you would receive a message saying to stop scoring before you 'break' the game. The achievement unlocked for beating another team by at least 59 points in ''11'' is named "Did I Break It?" [[note]]59 points was the largest margin of victory in the 2009 NFL season: Patriots over Titans, Week 6.[[/note]] |
| 255 | ** Another TakeThat is against the Pro Bowl, the NFL's utterly meaningless all-star game. You get an achievement called "Thanks for Coming" just for playing it. |
| 256 | ** In ''Madden 25'', they introduced the concept of a "Legacy Score", which would track your character's success as a player, coach, or owner. Achieving a score of 2, which basically requires failing so hard that they boot you off the team as a rookie, earns you the "Blaine Gabbert Legacy Award". |
| 257 | ** Following several viral videos where Tom Brady was seen searching for a high-five that he did not get, ''Madden 20'' included a cutscene for Brady (and only Brady) where he is left hanging by a teammate after a touchdown. Brady himself responded, claiming that Madden was upset because he supposedly broke their curse as the ''Madden 18'' cover athlete. |
| 258 | ** A subtle one: The game includes Momentum Factors which are unique for each team. For Washington and San Francisco, it provides a penalty to away team players trying to change direction. Washington and San Francisco are notorious in the NFL for having poorly-maintained field quality. |
| 259 | * TookALevelInBadass: Any player who was initially rated poorly (usually because they were a rookie) who is then bumped up due to dominant real life play. Some of the more prominent specific examples are below: |
| 260 | ** Richard Sherman who went from being the worst-rated player in ''Madden 12'' to being the highest-rated (and cover athlete) in ''Madden 15''. |
| 261 | ** This can even happen over the course of a single season, as it did with Alvin Kamara. He went from a 76 rating in ''Madden 18'' to an 88 in ''Madden 19'' after a Rookie of the Year campaign. |
| 262 | ** Another single-season example is Lamar Jackson. He went from a 76 rating at the launch of ''Madden 20'' to a 93 by the playoffs, complete with the designation "Superstar X-Factor" after playing well enough to win MVP.[[note]]He received two particularly gigantic bumps after demolishing the previous year's Super Bowl teams, the New England Patriots and Los Angeles Rams.[[/note]] |
| 263 | * UnintentionallyUnwinnable: In Ultimate Team mode, if you play exceptionally poorly or quit a lot of games, you can run out of players (who are limited to a certain number of games) and be unable to replace them with fresh ones. It is possible to [[BribingYourWayToVictory spend real money]] to get out of this situation. %% Keep this trope listed as Unintentionally Unwinnable, as EA has not stated that they did this intentionally. |
| 264 | * {{Unperson}}: |
| 265 | ** Occasionally when an athlete has found himself in legal trouble, he'll get totally removed from the game until he's reinstated. This most notably happened to Michael Vick[[note]]dogfighting arrest and prison time[[/note]] and Ray Rice[[note]]domestic violence case[[/note]]. In ''Madden 20'', Tyreek Hill[[note]]domestic violence accusations[[/note]] has not been given a superstar ability despite the ratings justifying it, for the same reason. In ''Madden 22'', EA deleted Jon Gruden's likeness after he resigned from the Raiders due to a history of offensive emails. |
| 266 | ** Starting with ''15'', the free agent listing only shows you the top 30 or so free agents at a position by rating, or the top 100 overall at any position. If a player below that threshold gets cut, they are effectively [[PermanentlyMissableContent lost]] to the user because no means exist to locate them and sign them. |
| 267 | ** Colin Kaepernick's name was blanked out of the lyrics of a rap track on the ''Madden'' soundtrack, supposedly due to a misunderstanding about the rights to his likeness. After an outcry, EA apologized and added it back. |
| 268 | * VictoryPose: Various iterations have included certain the signature poses and dances of certain players, which they perform after scoring, getting a sack, picking up a first down, etc. |
| 269 | * VideoGameCrueltyPotential: Averted if you make a dive at a CPU player who's crossing the goal line, the CPU player turns invincible and your player just bounces off of him, the intent being to stop people from invoking this trope by trying to hit players as revenge for the touchdown. |
| 270 | * VideoGameDelegationPenalty: |
| 271 | ** This is especially prominent when playing defense. On offense, under most circumstances, you control whichever player has the ball. The other players will run their routes or block as designed, with their attributes (especially "Awareness") playing into how well they do these things. On defense, however, you can take control of any player. The ones you aren't controlling can almost certainly be expected to perform worse than they would under your control. One of the most prominent examples occurs when the opposing QB rolls out of the pocket. Pursuing defenders have the option of either going for the QB (at which point the QB will try to pass the ball), or dropping back in coverage (at which point the QB will try to run with the ball). This is a desirable situation in real life for the offense, as it forces the defenders to choose and should leave one of the options open. However, in the game, if you are not controlling the closest pursuing defender, expect to see him get indecisive and hover in between, leaving ''both'' the pass and the run wide open. This can even happen with defenders who have maxed out Awareness. |
| 272 | ** In Franchise Mode, you may choose to skip over offseason events such as the free agent signing period and the draft. Do so at your own risk, as the AI may decide to, for example, sign multiple expensive free agents at one position leaving you without enough cap space to fill other needs. It may draft players at positions where you already have excellent players and good depth, meaning those players won't even see the field while leaving gaping holes at other positions on your roster. It may allow a young stud to leave via free agency while re-signing an aging player with decreasing stats to a multi-year extension. |
| 273 | * VisualPun: The cover of Madden 22 includes both Tom Brady and Patrick Mahomes. The [=PS4=] / Xbox One versions have Brady holding the ball, aka the prior generation's elite QB. Meanwhile the Series X / [=PS5=] have Mahomes holding it, aka the next generation's elite QB. |
| 274 | * WhatTheHellPlayer: Trading or releasing an "NFL Icon" or a "Locker Room Leader" will cause team morale to drop dramatically and can negatively impact fan attendance. Players are not above asking for their ''own'' ways out; some will even call you out in the paper for it. |
| 275 | * WorstAid: |
| 276 | ** In the older versions, when a player was severely injured, an [[DeathByAmbulance ambulance]] would come out onto the field to help them and in doing so it would [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_138p6uzhUk clobber all the players in its path]]. |
| 277 | ** In the more recent games, injured players will get up and hobble off the field regardless of the injury suffered. This includes knee, hip, and back injuries so severe they ''end the player's career.'' |
| 278 | * YouHaveResearchedBreathing: Most "Superstar" abilities - special abilities reserved for the most elite players in the NFL - allow those players to go above and beyond other players, typically involving use of their exception physical attributes. However, one group of those abilities is "Route Apprentice", which allows a receiver additional hot routes. The routes added are nothing special and any player can run them if the play is called in the huddle. Indeed, being able to understand hot route calls from a quarterback would be expected of any veteran player, not just the elite. |
| 279 | |
| 280 | !!''Longshot'' and ''Longshot: Homecoming'' in ''Madden 18/19'' feature examples of: |
| 281 | * ArtisticLicenseMilitary: In ''Longshot'', Devin Wade convinces the TV show following him to do an episode with his old Army unit at a base in "Dubai." There are no US military bases in Dubai, and the only base in the UAE at all is an Air Force installation. |
| 282 | * TheCameo: Key players, like Tom Brady, Deshaun Watson, and Antonio Brown (in ''Homecoming'') get minor speaking parts. The cast of ''Good Morning Football'' appears on some scripted segments about the mode's characters. |
| 283 | * MediumBlending: The mode features motion-capture for the cutscenes, but any screen footage (TV shows, including the fictional segments of the real-world ''Good Morning Football'' talk show recorded for the game, and some characters' cell phones in video call) are shot fully in live action. |
| 284 | * SaveOurTeam: A major subplot in ''Homecoming'', as a result of the town being devastated by Hurricane Harvey. Because of the hurricane, the team and its infrastructure had been left in a dilapidated state thanks to poor funding. Amidst this, members of the city council are actively proposing a merger with a rival school, believing they could acquire more resources doing so. |
| 285 | * WhereAreTheyNowEpilogue: At the end of ''Homecoming''. [[spoiler:Devin continues to play for the Texans, and Colt happily continues coaching for the Bullfrogs. Even the minor characters get in on this: for example, coach Earl Cotes decides to move to Mathis to help out the Bullfrogs, and Guzman starts a fund to aid others to incorporate their business.]] |
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