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| Authored by Andrew Perna - 13th June, 2005 - 3:16 am
 Ever since the early nineties, children have been taught football by one man. No, he?s not their football coach, uncle, grandfather or even their father. Most, if not all, of his students have never even met the man who introduced them to the gridiron. They have only seen him on television or on the covers of their beloved video games.
The football instructor of this generation is John Madden.
Madden games have spanned countless video games systems and his name has been synonymous with one of the most popular video game franchises in the past two decades. Along with EA Sports, Madden sold over 1 million copies of his Madden NFL 2005 video game in its first week of sale last August. The numbers beat the previous record for sales held by Madden NFL 2004 ? which went on to become the best selling video game of the year.
The game has become part of popular culture in the United States over the last ten years. Many young kids are playing the Madden video game and then becoming interested in the game of football because of it. The Madden series of games has always prided itself on being as close to real life NFL action as possible. Recently, the popular trend has become over-the-top, street-style sports video game play.
Meanwhile, Madden has kept true to both it?s innovate reputation and its realistic game play. A game of Madden still closely resembles an NFL game on a Sunday afternoon, but EA Sports has introduced many new features to satisfy the trend of multiple styles and extravagant game play. Now, along with playing a traditional game of football you can do things like ? Create your own fans, challenge your friends on-line, set the prices for your teams? souvenirs and concessions, and use the new ?hit stick? to lay a huge hit on your opponent.
The game is not only beloved by children and football fans, but among athletes as well. Before Super Bowl XXXIX this past February, several NFL players got together for EA Sports Madden Bowl 2005. Philadelphia Eagles safety, Michael Lewis won the 2005 Championship, ending the Colts? Dwight Freeney?s two year reign as champion.
It?s not just athletes that embrace the influence Madden has had on America?s popular culture. Almost as impressive as the game play and features are the bands that appear on the sound track for the video game. Bands such as Green Day, Hoobastank, Blink 182, Outkast, and Jon Bon Jovi can be heard in recent versions of the game.
We are approaching the summer months which means that the 2006 edition of Madden will be hitting the stores fairly soon. EA Sports has chosen Eagles QB Donovan McNabb to grace the cover of the new version. As fans of the game already know, it will be full of exciting new features and a whole new group of people will be taught the game of football by Mr. Madden.
The summer months also mean that before long, the 2005 version of Madden will be retired into the classic video game vault. However, until the new game hits stores, there is still football to be played.
Ten seconds left, I?m down 6, on their goal-line ? what do you think class? Run or Pass? |
