Madden NFL 06

Overview

Madden NFL 06 is an American football video game released in 2005. It is the 16th installment of the Madden NFL series from EA Sports, named for color commentator John Madden. It is the first Madden game for the PlayStation Portable and Xbox 360, and it was a launch game for the Xbox 360. Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb is on the cover.

Madden 06 introduced Superstar mode, which lets you create an NFL player and control him from his rookie year to retirement. It is essentially Franchise mode seen through the eyes of that athlete, so you manage a career instead of the team's front office. It also added QB Vision Control, a cone from the quarterback that simulates his field of vision. Passes to a receiver outside the cone lose a lot of accuracy, and the cone's size depends on the quarterback's Awareness rating. Many fans disliked it.

Precision Passing lets you push a direction as you throw to put the ball over the receiver's head, behind him, in front of him or at his knees. The most praised new feature was the highlight stick, an offensive version of the previous year's hit stick: push the right stick forward while running to run over a defender, at the risk of a fumble. Hot routes, playmaker features and franchise features return. The soundtrack used EA Trax and included Avenged Sevenfold, Tech N9ne, Memphis Bleek, Slim Thug, Disturbed, Foo Fighters and Godsmack.

The game has online multiplayer, and the online servers were shut down on 1 September 2007. You can import a created player from Own The City mode in NFL Street 2 into Superstar mode, and draft classes from NCAA Football 06 into Franchise mode. A Madden NFL 06 save file unlocks the Madden Challenge Bus in Burnout Revenge.

The game got very positive to mixed reviews. On Metacritic the Xbox 360 version holds 74 out of 100, against 88 for the PlayStation 2 version and 86 for the Xbox version. Fans and EA developers have called it the lemon of the franchise, partly because of the shift from the Xbox and PlayStation 2 to the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. The Xbox 360 version has neither Al Michaels nor John Madden in the announcing booth. It was the only NFL-licensed football game of 2005, following the 2004 exclusive deal between the NFL, the players' association and Electronic Arts, and it sold more than 6 million copies across platforms.

Official trailer

Madden NFL 06 Xbox 360 Trailer - HD Sizzle Trailer, IGN. Watch on YouTube

Gameplay

Madden NFL 06 - Xbox 360 Gameplay, Gamer Linear. Watch on YouTube

Game details

Genres

Sports, American football

Developer

EA Tiburon

Publisher

EA Sports

Series

Madden NFL

Modes

Single player

Yes

Local multiplayer

2

Online multiplayer

2

Release dates

Editions

Buy this game

Disc IDs

The serial printed on the disc and the case. It tells you which region a copy is from.

Achievements

Achievements11 (1,000G)

1000G possibleYes

Total

11

Gamerscore

1000

100% time

4 to 6 hours

Playthroughs for 1000G

1

Online trophies

0

Online note

TrueAchievements counts no online-only achievements; the main time cost is simming 30 Franchise seasons.

Missable trophies

0

Gamerscore, base game

1000

Grind

• Complete 30 years of Franchise mode (400G)

• Get a First Down Gain a first down in any offline game mode. 20G 95.57% of players
• Score a Touchdown Score a Touchdown in any Offline game mode. 30G 95.37% of players
• Complete an Offline Game Successfully complete an offline game 30G 95.67% of players
• Win a Franchise Game Win a user-controlled Franchise game. 100G 82.85% of players
• Win the Super Bowl Win the Super Bowl with your Franchise team. 100G 68.15% of players
• Complete 30 Years of Franchise Successfully complete 30 years of Franchise mode. 400G 54.13% of players
• Rush for 200 Yards Successfully rush for 200 yards or more. 100G 74.9% of players
• Pass for 350 Yards Successfully pass for over 350 yards or more. 100G 82.44% of players
• Four Sacks in One Game Amass four sacks in one game. 100G 83.12% of players
• Enter History Book Enter any of the history book screens in Franchise mode. 10G 75.3% of players
• Activate RS Card Activate any of the RS cards. 10G 85.6% of players

Space and patches

Space neededPlays from the disc

Update patchTitle update 1

The title updates on record for this game.

Playable today

Playable offline todayPartly

Every offline mode and two-player games on one console still work from the disc. Online play closed in 2007.

Online

Online servers runningNo

Plays offlinePartly

Online games for two players over Xbox Live closed on 1 September 2007. Offline modes still work from the disc.

Services

Service	Status	Shutdown date
Online multiplayer	closed	2007-09-01

Reception

Aggregates

Outlet	Platform	Score	Scale
Metacritic	Xbox 360	74	100

Critics

Outlet	Score	Scale
IGN	8	10
GameSpot	7.4	10
Game Informer	7.75	10
GamePro	4	5
GameSpy	4	5
GameTrailers	7.2	10
GameZone	7.9	10
Electronic Gaming Monthly	7.83	10
Official Xbox Magazine (US)	7	10

Notes for collectors

• It was a launch game for the Xbox 360.
• The QB Vision cone was unpopular and was dropped in Madden NFL 09.
• The Xbox 360 version has neither Al Michaels nor John Madden calling the game.
• It was the only NFL-licensed football game of 2005.
• Donovan McNabb of the Philadelphia Eagles is the cover athlete.
• The Xbox 360 achievement list is short: 11 achievements worth 1,000 gamerscore, and the biggest one is 400 points for 30 years of Franchise mode.

Credits

Publisher

EA Sports

Developer

EA Tiburon

Released

2005-11-15

Age rating

E (Everyone)

Disc ID

454107D2

Region

US

Time to beat

about 13.7 hours

Copies in the shop

• Madden NFL 06 (XBOX 360) CA$14.99