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Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Madden 11 for iPhone Preview

Is it wrong that the iPhone version of Madden 11 is the one that I'm most looking forward to?

Maybe. Maybe not... either way, here's a look at the upcoming footballer for the phone that plays games better than it receives calls- I keed, I keed...









The game is looking really good as you can see, better than 10 which was a great title in it's own right. With the launch (presumably) right around the corner though there are few lingering questions still left unanswered-


  • The new Gameflow system is supposed to streamline the playcalling by presenting only plays relevant to any given situation. Honestly this sounds like a re-branded Madden's pick from all the previous games. You remember- you're too lazy can't think of a play at the moment, you choose to let the Santa Claus of football call it for you... you go three and out.
  • One thing that looks like it was left off the table is the new dual stick control system. I haven't seen any shots of the iPhone title using it, although I should mention that the above screens show only the passing game and the play creation features.
  • Online 3 on 3 team play is a biggie for this years home versions of Madden. This will be very interesting to see what they do for the iPhone. I have to imagine there won't be any support at all for it since you'd probably need to be able to converse with your teammates. There's really no way to do that on the iPhone without accessing the cellular feature of the device and that would use minutes. No thanks. Still it might be possible if you can send (using the game app itself) pre-typed messages back and forth.

So we'll see what makes it and what doesn't, I haven't really heard all that much about the game for portables, but I really am most excited about the iPhone version. Since I got my 4 I've been playing a lot more games on it than on either Sony's or Nintendo's consoles.

Maybe Nintendo was right after all when they described Apple as their number one competitor over Sony in the portable market.

Madden 11 launches for the home and portable markets on August 10th. The mobile version should be available for download right around then.