Madden NFL 10

Did You Know?

• EA Sports released Madden NFL Arcade as a downloadable title on November 24, a five-on-five arcade style football game similar to NFL Blitz, featuring all 32 NFL teams and stadiums.
• Madden NFL Arcade includes 13 Game Changers similar to NFL Street's Game Breakers, which players can gain before every play and use immediately or retain.
• Madden NFL 10 received a score of 86.51% on GameRankings and 85 out of 100 on Metacritic for the Xbox 360 version.

New features

Madden NFL 10 introduced several new features, mostly for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions. The PRO-TAK animation system lets up to nine players join a tackle, with the ability to steer tackles, a more realistic pocket around the quarterback from a new blocking system, and QB avoidance moves. The Fight for the Fumble feature, available on Xbox 360, PS3, PS2, and PSP, creates a fumble pile-up where players must quickly press a sequence of on-screen buttons to recover the ball.

Player ratings were re-scaled to make differences between athletes more noticeable, with new categories like Throw Accuracy (deep, medium, short) and Throw on the Run. Sim Style Gameplay slows the game speed for a more lifelike feel. Player Momentum improves acceleration, deceleration, planting, and turning. Quarterback Improvements include layered blending, new QB ratings, and more realistic dropback animations.

WR/DB Interaction enhances route running and coverage. The PSP-exclusive Play Designer lets users create custom plays and formations and upload them to a PlayStation 3. Procedural Awareness allows each player to track the ball with head, eyes, neck, and shoulder movements. Depth of Field boosts visual quality and broadcast realism.

The new Injury System delays showing injury status and severity for suspense, displays new animations with trainers and injury carts, and reduces ratings for players who continue while injured, with a risk of re-injury. The Extra Point is a weekly franchise mode wrap-up show hosted by Fran Charles and Alex Flanagan. The Halftime/Postgame Show recaps stats and highlights with Alex Flanagan. Super Bowl Presentation features the United States Air Force Thunderbirds and the National Anthem, plus Super Bowl patches on jerseys and team-specific endzones, sidelines, and midfield logos.

Cutscenes include pre- and post-play moments with camera angles like coaches on the sidelines and quarterbacks on the phone. The PSP, PS2, and Wii versions replaced announcers Al Michaels and John Madden with Tom Hammond and Cris Collinsworth.

Cover

For the first time, two players appear on the Madden NFL 10 cover: Pittsburgh's Troy Polamalu and Arizona's Larry Fitzgerald, both of whom played in Super Bowl XLIII. The Wii edition includes several Cardinals players in the background. During the season-opening game against the Tennessee Titans, Polamalu sprained his MCL while blocking a field goal attempt, sidelining him for most of the year. This injury was seen as evidence of the ongoing Madden Curse. Fitzgerald, however, posted a career-high 13 touchdowns and earned a Pro Bowl selection.

AFL Legacy Pack

Released on September 24 as downloadable content for Xbox Live Marketplace and PlayStation Network, the AFL Legacy Pack celebrates the 50th Anniversary of the American Football League. It includes throwback uniforms for eight teams, a classic AFL film grain broadcast camera, orange AFL-style referee uniforms, and old-school team logos on the field. The pack also provides new AFL-specific Madden Moments and achievements totaling 150 points, and this mode has been met with much approval.

Madden Ultimate Team

Madden Ultimate Team, or MUT, was released on January 7, 2010. Users build a team by purchasing player packs with coins earned from winning games or scoring touchdowns, or with real money through PlayStation Network or Xbox Live accounts. This mode received negative feedback regarding Player Contracts attached to each Player Card. Purchased cards have a 10-match contract that decreases by one per game, even if disconnected. Replenishing a contract requires a contract card bought with coins, making it difficult to keep a good team in contract without spending real money. It is possible to have few coins and not enough players to play the mode unless one spends real money on contract cards or new packs.