Madden NFL 16 Reviews
Madden NFL 16 is a great playing game on the field, and has adequate depth to the modes to keep you busy for a long time to come.
The third iteration of the series on current-gen platforms, Madden NFL 16 continues its growth. There's not a myriad of changes this year, but what has been tweaked is noticeable and makes for a fantastic game of pigskin.
As I have reviewed every Madden game these last few years, I saw systems get more and more complex, making the game feel like it was out of my reach. Madden 16 feels like it is geared around simplicity. None of the systems from other Madden games were taken out, but the core of the game has been shifted toward simple mechanics interacting with other simple mechanics. This is a breath of fresh air to me. It makes Madden NFL 16 a fantastic place to start playing Madden, as well as being different enough to warrant a follow up buy after 15.
If you have a passion for American football, there really is no better replication of the sport this well designed and executed.
More tactical, more rewarding and much more fun
It's tough for an annual sports franchise like Madden to spice things up from year to year, but Madden NFL 16 brings just the right amount of change to make things interesting. Nearly everything it adds works incredibly well, most noticeably in the passing game, while a few other things still need a bit of work. Ultimate Team continues to grow, Draft Champions is the coolest mode ever, and even just a quick game against a friend is still as fun and footbally as Madden has ever been. There's a lot to like on the gridiron this year, and I can only hope that this upward trend continues to grow.
Overall this years Madden make some improvements to what we know already works. MuT needs some work, again, but players quitting is kind of out of their hands. Normally I wouldn’t recommend upgrading from year to year but this year, you should spend the extra money and go for it.
Even with the few, and consequently minor, shortcomings in Madden NFL 16, it is by far the best football game in years. The new additions to the passing and receiving game alone are more than worth the purchase price. These new game mechanics, coupled with the new defensive additions and refinements, bring the game to a level of realism that has never before been reached by the Madden franchise. On top of all of that, Draft Champions looks to be one of the best new game modes added to a sports game in recent years.
Madden NFL 16 is a good transitional entry in the series, introducing promising features that are either incomplete or weighed down by bugs.
All the intangibles, streaky in the clutch
The insistence towards microtransaction-laden Ultimate Team and the new fantasy football-cribbed Draft Champions modes is useless. Throwing, catching, and defending throws have seen some welcomed, long-ignored additions that get a couple yards closer to faithful simulation. You can decide if that's enough.
Despite a wealth of new ideas, some of which really push the franchise forward, a series of bugs make Madden NFL 16 a disappointment.
Madden 16 is what the NFL wants to believe its league is: Clean, friendly, and inspirational. It's not.
The new game of throw and catch alongside modes like Draft Champions makes Madden NFL 16 a great entry in the football franchise.