Pandora's Box: The Ultimate GameCube Tier List

#31-29: Madden 2005, 06, and 08

Rating: E

Players: 1-4

Price Range: ~$5-20 USD

Sports titles based on football (or American football).

Ah, yes...Madden.

Now, the reason I have all of these lumped up here is because besides different rosters for the various teams, there isn't much that differentiates the Madden games per generation.

And, what's more, they have a career-type mode where you build and manage your team, except these eat up space on the memory card like one would pasta. It's sort of a case that reminds me of Animal Crossing in which Nintendo packages most copies of the game with a memory card because of how massive the game was.

Either way, it isn't something that really interests me.

Also, graphically, the game hasn't aged the best. In fact, it is sometimes laughable as to how stiff and blocky the polygons are.

And, well, there is the fact that it is based on football, or American football to those outside of the States. You see, you have to have at least somewhat of an intimate understanding of the game in order to really get any of the information at all. Even as a person who watches my favorite team each season, I can't even understand any of the offensive and defensive plays you or your opponent can make to overwhelm them, as choosing a selection each Down just appears like a bunch of lines, arrows, and circles.

But I can't deny that the Madden games are a classic multiplayer experience.

While also being a time capsule of people playing in specific teams at the time, it's just a truly stellar time to just hunker down and split all four players amongst the two teams and compete in virtual football. It's just so much fun.

There is even a replay function that lets you watch and rewind how the last play went with a dynamic camera to see everybody colliding and crashing into each other, sometimes in bizarre way, instantly becoming hilarious in its own right.

And besides, this is certainly better than the copy-and-pasted modern day entries flooded with microtransactions that still make billions today.

With an inexpensive price, along with quite a bit of curiosity, the Madden games are definitely childhood favorites, even you could play just one and feel like you've played them all.