The Madden NFL football franchise is a video game series that releases annually with updated graphics, rosters, gameplay, and other features to coincide with the real-world football season of the National Football League. Each installment features several modes of play including local head-to-head options, modes where players can control entire franchises, online game modes, and more.
In an effort to improve over the years, several features have been added and removed throughout various installments of the series. While there are various reasons for removals, not every change has been for the best, and many fans would like to see several features returned to the games. Among them, these are the ten popular features we have seen over the years which many of us would like to see return in future installments.
10 Mini Camp and Training Camp
One feature present in Madden NFL 2003 was Mini-Camp mode. This mode placed players in training pads on an empty field where they practiced fundamental football skills just as real players do. This feature was a minor addition at inception but was expanded in 2004 and later iterations.
Mini-Camp mode would eventually give way to things like realistic training camps in Superstar Mode down the line. These features had realistic impacts on player development and helped to augment the experience of the simulation their game modes presented. While current iterations contain skill trainers as play modes, it is an insufficient replacement.
9 Superstar Mode
Superstar Mode was introduced in Madden 06 as a sort of career mode for players who wanted to take a single player through the NFL experience and only control that player throughout the term of their career.
With the introduction of Connected Careers in Madden 13, Superstar Mode was combined with Franchise Mode to create a fully integrated experience. The new mode didn’t offer back the same drafting experience or the same progression from rookie to retirement. Fans of the former experience miss the realism it offered, and it might be worth considering splitting these modes up again.
8 Random Draft Placement
Yes, this was a part of Superstar Mode, but it deserves separate consideration given that it could be implemented into the current connected version of career mode without a full return of Superstar Mode.
We can remember creating new players in Madden 07, taking a very real test and having genetics which determined where our created players would be taken in the draft and by which team. While many fans enjoy the current creation process which allows one to select the team they will play for, many prefer the random placement which allowed them to more fully experience the draft process.
7 Vision Cone
This one isn’t for everyone, but it’s definitely another one which makes the list for pure realism during a playthrough.
As it plays in recent installments, players will take the snap, then they can set their camera to show a variety of angles of the field, with the opportunity to pass to any receiver running any route, anywhere on the field. Not with the vision cone.
This feature required us to move our quarterback’s eyes with the right stick. While we could throw to receivers outside of our cone, it would be horribly inaccurate, leading us to prefer those inside. This mode is a handicap, but it pulled players into the game and we miss it.
6 The Coin Toss
Speaking of immersion, most Madden players are football fans. Most football fans watch football. We notice the small things that go amiss. And what happens at the beginning of every football game? A coin toss, that’s what.
Not in Madden. Aerial footage of the field is shown, then the player selects their formation and commences the game based on previous settings. While the coin mechanics have always been broken, we do miss the immersion afforded by witnessing the coin toss. There is still a bit of footage in the game, but why is it so much to ask that a functional coin toss be added in?
5 Coaching Staff
If you play the current versions of franchise mode, you’ll find that your coach persona is on a constant quest to improve their scouting, offensive playcalling, defensive playcalling, and so forth. While that is a clean and simple package for casual observers, it isn’t close to realistic.
Football teams have multiple coaching assistants and coordinators. Each of these individuals has a different role to play toward making the head coach’s life a little easier. Despite the fact that hiring coordinators was once a fundamental part of the game, it no longer exists, and the omission is a glaring hole that fans ask adamantly to see returned.
4 Team Customization
Last year, this category might have simply referenced the ability to create a custom team, which has been absent from the franchise for some time. No longer the case, as with Madden 20, even the ability to relocate teams has been removed. For years, this was the mechanism players would use to get the logo and uniform designs they desired included into the league. Why relocation was removed is anyone’s guess.
In contrast to other items, including this feature wouldn’t help the realism of the game, but it would appease many longtime fans.
3 Presentations
Past installments of Madden featured voiced-over production packages at certain points throughout the season which felt like Sports Center. They reviewed standings in the league, discussed key events and so forth. At a minimum, they offered at least a graphic showing current standings.
That has all disappeared in recent years. While players can still access the information, many miss having the production package presented to them as an added point of immersion. The worst part is that there isn’t a logical reason why this feature should have been removed during development.
2 Real Draft Classes
This one is tough, but it is sorely missed.
Ever since the NCAA video game franchise fell away, there has been no reliable source to fill this gap. In the past, draft classes in Franchise Mode could be populated with the upcoming draft classes coming from the NCAA rosters. This kept Madden rosters fresh and offered a continuity akin to the real-world draft process.
When the NCAA game franchise ended, so too did the vehicle which drove this continuity. There isn’t an easy way to incorporate a fix for this, but fans would like to see it happen somehow.
1 Longshot
This is probably the least popular item on this list, but it still deserves consideration. Longshot entered the franchise as a story mode where players could progress through the career of a gameshow contestant to enter the NFL and become a star. While many fans didn’t enjoy the mode, it was something different.
With Madden 20, this mode gave way to a story mode within Franchise Mode, known as Face of the Franchise. This game mode essentially combines Longshot into the already bloated combination of features which are interwoven. This constant combining hasn’t benefitted any of the modes impacted, and it shouldn’t continue chipping away at independent play modes.
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