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Are you ready for some football? If so, can you take your favorite team to the play-offs? Well, cinch up your shoulder pads, slip into your spikes, and strap on your helmet Madden 2002 is available for the Xbox.

As usual, the game features all the hard hitting action that is NFL football. One to four players take control of their favorite team and either play cooperatively or against one another. All 32 teams are available for play- including the expansion Texans.

Different play modes allow the gamer to either play a game immediately, create a tournament, start a custom league, enter practice mode, play situations, practice your two minute drill, or enter the training mode. Each of these modes allows the gamer to hone their skills in a variety of different ways. Gameplay:

Madden 2002 plays like a fast moving NFL game and if you don’t bring your “A” game you’ll take one on the chin.

As usual, when you are on offense you have a number of different formations to select from. Each formation has multiple looks- for example you can have an I form with “Big” as your option. If you want to give the defense something to think about, you can send a man in motion- and you can select whichever player you want.

As the quarterback, you have the option to throw a bullet pass to squeeze the ball through coverage or try to drop a touch pass over the top of the defense. You can also use route based passing, which means you are counting on the receiver running the appropriate route and the QB will pass to the spot the receiver is supposed to be- not where they are currently running.

Defense is much simpler- but harder to actually execute. Basically, you select the defensive scheme- Nickel, 3-4, or 4-3, etc. Once you’ve selected this, you select the player on the line you want to control. Your options now include shifting the defensive line to either side, shifting your linebackers, call an audible, or attempt to pump up the crowd.

One of the best features of this game is the training mode, which allows you to practice each of your plays- but with the added feature of an on-screen tutorial which explains to you what should be happening so that you can see what you should (or should not) be doing.

Longevity:

Thank god for the season mode because this is the only reason to play this game more than a dozen or so times. In fact, you can draft your own league and play it as you’d like. Even with this ability, you might not play this a lot once you have mastered your offense.

Controls:

The controls for Madden are getting more and more complex as the years go on and the consoles get better.

On offense you control either the QB, a RB, or a WR. Each player has different functions that are assigned to a specific button. The QB can throw the ball away, pump fake, or throw the ball to a specific receiver. The RB can sprint, dive, jump (hurdle), spin, juke, or throw a stiff arm. Finally, the WR can dive for a pass, sprint, or jump for a pass.

On defense, you can sprint, dive, jump, attempt to strip the ball, use a spin move, or swat the ball once it has been thrown.

Graphics:

The graphics in Madden 2002 are excellent. You can actually tell who some of the players are from the facial or body features. However, it is also obvious that some players are simply given a body type based on their position (such as under-sized nose tackles). This game is not designed to show off any glitzy graphics…the players, the field, and the stadiums look great.

Sound:

This is the weakest portion of the game because you can only listen to Madden’s inane comments for so long before you want to turn off the game. It’s also amazing how every player is the “best player” at his position.

If you listen closely, though, you will hear some goodies from the public address announcer.

Overall:

While the game is fun, it can be frustrating when you try to pass and can’t get a completion to save your life. Once you figure out how to run you can gain ridiculous amounts of yardage against even the best defenses…so the Madden franchise still needs to work on the AI against the run.

I find this game to be the most fun when you get a few of your friends together and you take the field co-operatively.