Madden's Skill Trainer Sets the Standard for Tutorial Modes

[RaychelSnr]

One of the biggest challenges facing sports game developers is adding new game mechanics to keep the game fresh while moving towards greater control and realism. The goal is to do all that while keeping the game accessible for the batch of players experiencing the series for the first time.

Anyone who has had a friend who wanted to play a friendly head-to-head matchup but has never played the game knows the struggle. “L2 is the precision modifier,” you try to explain. “There are approximately 42 different skill-move combos you can pull off with it.” Meanwhile, your friend accidentally laterals the ball back to no one in particular on an HB Dive play.

It’s tough to be a newb. But Madden has made the learning curve as soft as possible with its excellent (though not entirely new) Skills Trainer mode, along with a practice mode that boasts some great options that make it so useful you’ll often hear some of the best Madden players in the world frequently refer to it as “The Lab.”

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[scottyp180]

Don't even need to read this article. 100% agree. I don't think I've ever played a game, sports or otherwise, that makes it easy and fun to learn both basic and advanced skills. There is a little something for everyone. Never played the series before? Easily learn the basics skills needed to play and enjoy the game. Are you a more advanced player that struggles on higher difficulties? Learn new strategies for both offense and defense to take your game to the next level.

What's also great is that you learn actual football knowledge as well. You'll learn more about different defense schemes and offensive strategies

[BleedGreen710]

I love the skills trainer and definitely wish other sports game had something similar. for example in nba 2k I dont have much basketball knowledge (more of a football guy) and I could really use a skills trainer like madden's. the alternative is i have to go into practice mode and keep looking at the control configuration and trying to master all the different moves and combos without ever really knowing if im doing them right.

[Retropyro]

Madden definitely deserves credit for the excellent job they've done with Skills Trainer.

[augmental]

I still think it is MUCH easier to block a punt or extra point in the skills trainer than in an actual game, but it is a nice setup that they have in order to learn how to play the game.

[4thQtrStre5S]

Skills TRainer is great; my only improvement I would like to see, at this point, is for practice mode to show the plays art after each play when you use the "Random" play option to practice against.

I use "Random" because it is faster than loading a new play every few snaps..And if I saw the play art after every play during random play selection, I could take note of plays that I liked and go further into practicing with those plays, faster than loading each individual play.

[335TDC]

2K, are you LISTENING?

But I suppose things like defensive rotations have to actually WORK in order to have skills trainers on them...

[BadAssHskr]

I'll have to check it out. I've never even opened it up, which probably explains my 0-4 going on 0-5 start, as im at the half down 21-0.