MADDEN NFL 11 – Does it live up to the Madden name?
by Antonio Wells
Jun 29, 2011 11:04 AM –
Install
Get the most authentic NFL game on Android! MADDEN NFL 11 feels so real you’ll need to tape your fingers!
Price: $7.99
Tested on: Xperia PLAY
Content Rating: Everyone
Pros & Cons:
Pros
- It’s Madden on Android… well to better rephrase- play full football games on Android!
- Play a quick exhibition game or play the full season mode to the Super Bowl!
- A wealth of defensive and offensive plays to choose from!
- All 32 NFL teams to choose from!
- Trade, sign and release players in Season mode!
- Detailed stats of all kinds on players and teams!
Cons
- Granted it does have 3D graphics, however, it did not live up to expectations.
- Repetitive commentary from legendary John Madden.
- Sound jerks and scrobbles at times.
- Selecting plays are glitchy at times.
- Player rosters need some 2011 updating for a game labeled “2011″ season.
Features:
MADDEN NFL 11 brings NFL Football excitement from the game console franchise to Android powered smartphones. I had extremely high hopes for this game, played on the near-full button controller of the Xperia PLAY “PlayStation” phone, however, was left with huge expectations disappointment. If you’re like me, then you’ve been playing Madden since the 90′s and are keen to its evolution of the years. Granted the game does have its pros, the cons outweighed them in this case… lets get into the review.
MADDEN NFL 11 features two main game play modes; Play Now for quick games without season commitment and Season, obviously your goal is to pick your team and play all the way to the Super Bowl and bring home Lombardi’s trophy. To get started you choose your team, in this review I opted for Season over Play Now mode. The game will start by giving an aerial fly-through of the stadium you’ll be battling in, which is a 3D graphical debacle as it is not impressive at all; especially looking at the crowd. There are plenty of games we’ve reviewed that show an impressive 3D fly-through, namely Let’s Golf 2, Asphalt 6 or Guerrilla Bob.
After the coin toss you’re ready to kick or receive. Kicking, punting and field goal kicking have a unique technique which can make it more challenging as you have to swipe down, then swiftly back up in as straight of a line as you can to produce a long & accurate kick.
Just like any sporting games there is a slight learning curve for offensive and defensive moves once the ball is in your hands. I personally would have desired a tutorial screen to get the gist of controls versus relying to on-screen buttons to prompt me in-game. Worse, the button configuration on the Xperia PLAY are not the same as playing on PlayStation 3. There are no stiff-arms. The most annoying button was “O”, which put the game in slow motion, but some may like this feature I just found it distracting to gameplay. Below is a button legend to help you out for those with an Xperia PLAY:
Defense:
- Triangle to Sprint Faster
- O for Slow Motion
- X to Swat at Pass
- (Before the snap) Square to Audible Switch Plays, (After the snap) Square to Dive Tackle
- L to Switch Player
- R to Push
Offense:
- Triangle to Sprint Faster
- O for Slow Motion
- X to Swat at Pass
- Square to Dive Tackle
- L to Hurdle Left
- R to Hurdle Right
Aside from pure football fun, you can dig into the rosters for stats on players and teams. Or if you’re feeling like a GM, get your trade on, sign a new player, or release a player. Maybe this will help solve the issue of the game not having a complete 2011 NFL roster, as a commenter in Google’s Android Market wrote, “Its 2011 why is LT and Cromarte still playing for the Chargers ?”
As many complaints as I may have expressed, once you look past it all there is some good football gameplay here. You can choose from more than 300 plays on offense/defense; such as Hail Mary’s, run plays, reverses, QB sneaks, FG/punts along with fakes, QB sacks, and more!
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Madden NFL 11 in Game Play 1
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Madden NFL 11 in Game Play 2
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Madden NFL 11 in Game Play 3
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Madden NFL 11 in Game Play 4
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Madden NFL 11 in Game Play 5
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Madden NFL 11 in Game Play 6
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Madden NFL 11 in Game Play 7
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Madden NFL 11 in Game Play 8
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Madden NFL 11 Aerial View of Routes
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Madden NFL 11 Coin Toss
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Madden NFL 11 Punting
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Madden NFL 11 Field Goal Kick
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Madden NFL 11 Touchdown
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Madden NFL 11 Extra Point Kick Good!
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Madden NFL 11 Picking Plays
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Madden NFL 11 Picking Plays 2
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Madden NFL 11 Picking Defense Plays
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Madden NFL 11 Picking Punt Plays
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Madden NFL 11 Splash Screen
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Madden NFL 11 Main Menu
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Madden NFL 11 Season
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Madden NFL 11 Rosters
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Madden NFL 11 Pause Game Menu
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Madden NFL 11 Options
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Madden NFL 11 Trade Players
Fun Factor:
MADDEN NFL 11 holds a certain level of fun if you can work past all its caveats. It will definitely hold the attention of football gamers as it is one of the few fully featured football games on the market; not limited to juke moves like Backbreaker Football. Plus the Play Now mode is nice for those quick games you want to play without commitments to the season mode.
Addictive:
For die hard football fans and gamers the season mode can be addictive. It keeps you coming back when trying to win the Super Bowl and opponent team skills get difficult as you progress.
Graphics:
EA should be ashamed of themselves with the light level of 3D graphics put into this game. I personally would have preferred them to block out lower end Android devices not capable of higher end 3D graphics than to release this. 
Accelerometer, Vibration & Sound:
The sound quality in this game was a disrespect to the Madden franchise too. You can clearly hear the crowd roaring loop, it was not continuous so you don’t notice it. Worse, the commentators would often repeat sayings which becomes annoying. One of the highlights of playing Madden is the wealth of clever quotes he’ll utter… not in this one. There were even times where the audio jerked and scrobbled to play, weird.
Tags:
3D,
3D Games,
Android App,
Android Apps,
Android Game,
AndroidTapp.com App Review,
Football Games,
MADDEN NFL 11
Categorised in: Arcade & Action, Sports
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