Pros: Great graphics & sound, huge play selection list
Cons: Madden can get repetitive

I recently just picked up a Playstation 1, figuring I'd take advantage of the price drop off now that the PS2 is out. While browsing through Half.com I saw someone selling Madden NFL 2000 for only $10 so I figured I might as well. I love football games and had heard good things about the Madden series. In addition, I just respect Madden as far as football goes and hoped he wouldn't put his name on a shoddy product. Well, it was a good hunch because this game is awesome.

First off the graphics and sounds are just incredible. I've seen the commercials for Madden 2001 and while the graphics are no where near as insane as that, they are still pretty impressive. You can actually even tell the differences between the players just by their size and build. Also, during the game itself, I was impressed at how well the graphics held up without actually slowing down the game. Also, they have they nice flashy graphics that include scanned images of the players and Madden which are very realistic, but that's not what you play against. The sounds really add to the game as well. Throughout you hear the crunch of the hits, the roar or boos of the crowd and the play by play announcing by Madden and Somerall. It's scary to say, but you do actually feel like you're watching the game on television.

What I was most impressed by was the game play. On both offense and defense you have a massive range of plays to choose from and run. On offense, the selection is almost dizzying when you first start playing. It takes a while to get a real feel for the plays that each team and player is better at. Also, the flexibility once you choose a play is amazing. For instance if you choose a four wide receiver set, it's up to you to pick what receiver to pass to while the play is going on. It takes a while to get used to actually reading the field (yes you actually have to really read the defense out there!) to figure out who is really open and when to unload the pass, but once you start getting the knack for it, it really steps the game play up.

Now, I'll admit I haven't played these kind of games in a while, but the ones I played, the running back was always sort of a bogus option. They were almost always an all or nothing kind of option and it was tough to pull it off realistically. Well, this game blows that out of the water. You can use the running backs for exactly what they are really used for. If you want, you can actually game play, trying to use ball control and get nice 4 or 5 yard gains per run while eating up the clock. Once again, there's a wide range of plays you can choose from for the running back and each running back excels at different plays. (Curtis Martin is a god though)

There are also a ton of nice little perks in this. The game is actually played in the real stadiums out there. Being a Jet fan I got a huge kick out of my first touchdown in the Meadowlands when the crowd suddenly starting cheering "J-E-T-S Jets! Jets! Jets!". Also, the instant replay feature is pretty cool for the really good plays. As far as the teams you can play, you have the normal standard teams from 1999 as well as the last few Super Bowl teams, the Pro-Bowl teams and also the All Madden Teams which is nice to play against. Finally there's a nice "grudge match" feature that allows you to immediately replay the team you just played (probably lost too). Saves you a bit of time.

There really aren't a lot of negatives with this. One thing that is sort of weird is that when you kick field goals, the Playstation sort of hangs for a while before it announces if the kick was good or not. Not sure if that is my system or the game but it's the only time it happens. Also, it would have been nice if they had a little bigger of a selection for Madden's quips. After a while, he gets a little repetitive in the announcing. Otherwise this is an amazing game and I will most certainly by Madden 2001.