What’s the best version of ‘Madden’?

It’s hard to pick, but the franchise is certainly moving in the right direction.

A lot of people’s favorite video game is the one they played first or the most as a kid. That’s especially true for sports video games, which generally iterate on a formula in such a way that it can be difficult to distinguish between the different versions.

The Madden NFL franchise, which celebrates its 30th anniversary this year, is no exception.

From its roots in strategic play creation to the introduction of a full-fledged story mode in last year’s game, there are features that are usually lauded more than the games themselves. But what if you had to pick the best one?

The case for John Madden Football: The very first Madden game, released for the Apple II, had strategic elements not present in many future iterations of the franchise. The 1989 ports to the Commodore 64 and MS-DOS provided more power, improving the quality of gameplay while keeping the ability to create plays and playbooks from scratch.

The case for Madden NFL 95: While the gameplay of the franchise hit its stride three years prior, improvements came in Madden NFL 95 in the form of the actual NFL and player licenses. The previous year had NFL teams, but no player names or attempts at likenesses. Madden NFL 95 changed that, and was the sports game to play for a long time.

The case for Madden NFL 99: My personal favorite aspect of Madden is the franchise mode, and Madden NFL 99 was the first game to have it. It allowed you to control any of the teams for up to 15 seasons, with realistic NFL schedules, free agency, contract management, and drafting. The drawbacks included things that were rectified in later versions, like the lack of created players or control over multiple teams in the mode.

The case for Madden NFL 2002: This is a big one — it introduced importable draft classes to franchise mode and AI sliders for thorough difficulty/realism tuning. The former is a huge plus for fans of college football; the latter is something that any serious player still adjusts to this day, and it may be the most important feature in any version of the game. It was also the first version to hit the Gamecube and Xbox, and utilized the sixth generation of consoles very well, with impressive visuals to go along with the big features.

The case for Madden NFL 2004: There are people who think this one is the best and that could be for two reasons, one of which is good and one of which is NOT GOOD.

The good: The game introduced owner mode to franchise mode, which allowed the player to set concession and ticket prices, renovate or build new stadiums, or even relocate teams entirely.

The NOT GOOD: Simply because everyone liked picking the Atlanta Falcons and the nigh-unstoppable Michael Vick. He was ridiculously, stupidly good in the game and if your opponent picked the Falcons, you were destined to give up hundreds of rushing yards in addition to hundreds of passing yards to the quarterback. There’s definitely no saltiness on my part here. Nope. Not at all.

The case for Madden NFL 2005: The most controversial of the franchise for many reasons, it’s seriously overlooked how good Madden NFL 2005 actually was. Many didn’t play it because it went up against ESPN NFL 2K5, a $20 football game that was at least on par with that year’s full-priced Madden.

Notably, that was the last version of the ESPN 2K football games, because EA acquired the exclusive NFL license after that. Many have looked back unfavorably on Madden NFL 2005 due to this, and that’s partly understandable given there was a period of mediocre football games in the years after EA acquired the exclusivity.

But it was actually a very good game. Boasting the smoothest gameplay the franchise had ever offered at the time, it also introduced the popular hit stick, one of the bigger mechanical changes in the franchise’s history.

The case for Madden NFL 18: While there were some bad games between ‘05 and last year’s game, the franchise started hitting its stride on the latest generation of consoles, and has only added features on top of it. The Ultimate Team mode was added in earlier games, but it just keeps improving for the most part.

Many of the complaints regarding modern Madden games are about the lack of value in spending $60 every year for iterative upgrades. But if you’ve accepted that, the games keep improving. The biggest knocks against the recent games, other than their iterative nature, has been the general sluggishness of everything OUTSIDE of the gameplay — like slow, awkward tile-based menus, long load times, and generic commentary.

Madden NFL 18 was the very first in the franchise to introduce a fully fledged story mode, dubbed “Longshot.” That mode was flawed in a lot of ways, but was surprisingly competent in a way that made Madden NFL 18 perhaps the most comprehensive all-in-one package you could get.

My Pick: Madden 19

The biggest issue with picking a somewhat older release of Madden is that, for a lot of people, the best football games of the early-aughts were NFL Blitz games. They were simply easier to pick up and play, which is the main reason why Madden has focused on the usability and assistance tools in recent iterations.

I started playing the newest game, Madden NFL 19, and liked it a lot. I also liked the previous year’s game quite a bit and needed more time with this year’s version to make a firm decision.

At this point, I’ve played enough of Madden 19 to call it the best yet.

The newest game plays very well, has most every feature that people care about, and aside from the yearly $60 purchase, Madden just keeps getting better and better.

If you disagree — or if you haven’t had a chance to play the new version yet — y’all can tell me why I’m wrong in the comments (I’m not though)!