Madden NFL 10 by Electronic Arts

Madden NFL 10 by Electronic Arts is an iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad that brings you as close as you can get to Madden football with a mobile device. Madden NFL 10 has graphics that are on PlayStation 2 and the Xbox's level. The game runs rather smoothly and there is only small lags when changing quarters, pausing, and penalties. Madden NFL 10 is best played using two hands, since the screen has it displayed horizontally. I have found the best way to control your player during game play is using your index finger, the d-pad section is a little to small for thumb use. John Madden does the commentary for in game play but it's more or less repetitive, he only says i couple things that is annoying. You also have the ablilty to play music while playing your game from itunes, and play against a friend who has the game on their iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad via bluetooth. The amount of battery consumption is actually pretty good, one default game only consumes 30% of battery life.

The Different game mode features are Play Now, Season, and Playoffs. Compared to a console version of Madden NFL, with this version for the iPhone the difficulty is Normal or hard, the quarter lengths is only 3min, 5min, or 7min. When starting a Play Now game the first step is choosing your team, and your opponents team, simply slide or scroll up and down to see the different football teams. Uniforms can be chosen from this menu as well. After your teams has been selected it only takes a couple of seconds to load, the introduction of the game is made and the coin toss is initiated by the away team. After the side of defense has been selected post coin toss, the screen that comes up next and after each play will be the play book menu. Slide left to right to view the plays, to select one you simply tap on the play, if it is not in the center highlighted you can tap once on the play and tab again when it has finished moving to the selection area. When kicking off you can adjust the angle and direction of the kick by moving the gray arrow in the middle, and to kick the ball you simply swipe your finger down on the bar to the right and back up. The swipe down is for how much power behind the kick and up is accuracy based on you line. Also in the play book menu you can choose the plays by formation or by play type. Timeouts, the time clock, the position of the ball and the wind direction is displayed here as well.

When running a play you control your player with a touch d-pad which can be positioned on the left or the right side of the screen. If in standard on the right side you have 3 primary buttons, speed boost, player changer, and a hit button which is what i like to call it. The hit button puts everything into slow motion for a brief period of time, when this button is pressed another set of buttons is place in this area which allows to do things like spin, jump, and tackle. Audibles can be called during the play you cannot choose them though. The Last down side to this app is if you have not play a Madden Football game or a Technical one learning how to use the teams, players and teams will be a little difficult. All and all this game is worth the buy for on the run football.