Madden 09 News Post

Reasons to Hate the Madden Mulligan Feature

10:23 PM - May 21, 2008 by RaychelSnr

Wil McCombs returns from his long hiatus to give us another article, this time discussing why he hates (and why you should also hate) the Madden Mulligan feature. Check out his article here.

Quote:


	"A while back, I brought to light the debate of restarting your console mid-game, to avoid the agony of defeat. While the feedback of said article was largely not in favor of such an activity, I have a sneaking suspicion that last year�s Madden/NCAA turnover system led to an all-time high in in-game restarts."

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Member Comments

# 1 hq3000 @ 05/21/08 10:40 PM

Great article, it definitely seems EA's approach is in the wrong direction. I have honestly never heard of a do-over system like this. Its a bit silly that something like this needs to be implemented to a game but I'm sure they have some asinine reasoning to it. We'll see if this game is good but I'm starting to doubt I'll buy another Madden again. And thats a sad feeling because its the only game I have bought since I was little.

# 2 Pared @ 05/21/08 10:48 PM

Madden is no longer Madden. It's a "fun little sports game that everyone can play!!!"

There's Mario, and then there's Madden. Pretty much EA's pipe dream in a nutshell.

And we can't do anything about it. Grin and bear it b/c there's nothing you can do. Either adapt or get out.

# 3 Trevytrev11 @ 05/21/08 10:49 PM

This is probably the worst feature added to a sports game since MLB 2K added "Slamzone"

One of the beauties of sports in general is being the Monday Morning Quarterback and second guessing a coaches play calling, substitution, etc.

This takes all of that away. Run up the middle 4th and 1 and get stuffed...just hit rewind and punt it.

Think the safty blitz will catch the opponent blind sided and get an easy sack only to have your blitz picked up and have the QB hit the open WR for a 80 Yard TD? Just rewind and stick to your cover 2.

Sports is all about reacting quickily and exactly to what your opponent does. It's reacting to no-huddle offense. It's rotating properly on defense to cover the open man on the wing. It's looking fastball and reacting to a curveball. This is the beauty of sports and EA is ruining it.

# 4 JBucc @ 05/21/08 10:50 PM

Good lord quit being a bunch of crybabies. If you don't like it turn the damn thing off. EA doesn't have a gun to your head forcing you to rewind.

# 5 K_GUN @ 05/21/08 10:52 PM

like slamzone, just ignore it

online?....why would u even play a guy like that anyway?

take ownership

# 6 countryboy @ 05/21/08 10:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JBucc


	Good lord quit being a bunch of crybabies. If you don't like it turn the damn thing off. EA doesn't have a gun to your head forcing you to rewind.

well, this is bound to get something started.

# 7 countryboy @ 05/21/08 10:57 PM

Why to hate the mulligan feature. Because mulligans are for golf, not for football.

Also, when I read about it, it made me cry.

# 8 countryboy @ 05/21/08 10:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wsu_gb23


	Why would EA even waste their time with this feature? It's supposed to be a sim-game! There is no rewinding.... dumb feature!

for casual gamers. I think its meant to be a "teaching tool".

# 9 Pared @ 05/21/08 11:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by K_GUN


	like slamzone, just ignore it online?....why would u even play a guy like that anyway? take ownership

That doesn't justify slamzone. That was complete trash. A joke of a feature in a baseball game. And you couldn't turn it off online.

I agree though... just turn the thing off. It's not available online so just get over it already. It's no different than setting your subs to manual.

OMG why would the have subs on auto by default! Game killer! C'mon guys.

# 10 BezO @ 05/21/08 11:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by countryboy


	for casual gamers. I think its meant to be a "teaching tool".

If this is the reason, they could've stuck to football ways of teaching.

The telestrater was a great idea. That should kick in after every interception, fumble, touchdown, ect.

They could've made pick-the-defense-after-an-interception more realistic. Cut scene with coach & QB, clipboard, diagram, blurb from coach, so on.

Improve practice mode with pre-snap & post-play blurbs from coach... when to use the play, the play's goal, scenarios, ect.

An EA rep confirmed what most of us knew for a while. Their developers have specialties. Gameplay, presentation, interface, ect. Whoever worked on Rewind could have spent time on the above features instead and kept the learning FOOTBALL related. I don't understand why EA looks outside of football for ideas so often.

# 11 Pared @ 05/21/08 11:26 PM

While I agree with you, it makes sense in two ways:

1) It's easier to implement than every single possible telestrator scenario
2) It's more interactive where the player can actually play the game, not watch it.

# 12 LingeringRegime @ 05/21/08 11:27 PM

Best article ever written on this site. I hope you don't get gamespotted for it.

# 13 Shadymamba @ 05/21/08 11:51 PM

Do Over??? Done with madden i cant believe they would even implement some stupid bullsh** like this wow!

# 14 Scott @ 05/21/08 11:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by young_bucs_fan


	Do Over??? Done with madden i cant believe they would even implement some stupid bullsh* like this wow!*

Yeah I mean its not like you can disable it or anything.

# 15 Pared @ 05/21/08 11:57 PM

Scott, that should have been the entire article lol:

Reasons to Hate the Madden Mulligan Feature by Wil McCombs:

Yeah I mean its not like you can disable it or anything.

# 16 Scott @ 05/21/08 11:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pared


	Scott, that should have been the entire article lol: Reasons to Hate the Madden Mulligan Feature by Wil McCombs: Yeah I mean its not like you can disable it or anything.

Exactly

oh well Pared, let haters hate.

# 17 Vikes1 @ 05/22/08 12:48 AM

While I'm sure not pleased about dev time being spent on this feature, but I won't let this thing ruin me looking forward to Aug 12. I can sure understand for the "Madden purest", this feature could be kind of considered embarrassing that it's just there...if it's used or not. Bringing more people into the Madden fold is cool, but I'm just not too sure a feature like this is of really any value to nearly anyone.

As we all know this thing can be shut off, so it's not the end of the world. But ya...it does kinda grind my gears that the Madden team decided this feature was of greater priority, than a feature that could have been a benefit to all...like In-game saves, as many have said. But there is one good thing about this though...at least I know the first thing I'll do with Madden '09'...shut this dopey feature off.

# 18 ezekiel55 @ 05/22/08 01:10 AM

For those of you who say just turn it off, you have to look at the point of the article...This is the direction Madden will be going towards in the future, the casual fans.

Do we want that?...I dont think so.

# 19 DLaren @ 05/22/08 01:56 AM

I can't think of a single reason to hate the "Mulligan" feature and I'm almost sure that I'll be using it to correct blown calls. There are times when a player catches a ball near the sideline and he's actually out-of-bounds, but even when you challenge the call the refs still let the play stand.

If the "Challenge System" still has those kind of quirks where obvious incomplete passes aren't over-turned, I'll just "rewind" that play for either the CPU or myself and do it over.

...Seems fair to me...

# 20 Hoos @ 05/22/08 02:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by zekey55


	For those of you who say just turn it off, you have to look at the point of the article...This is the direction Madden will be going towards in the future, the casual fans. Do we want that?...I dont think so.

That was the main point of the article that I came away with as well. It's great that this option can be shut off and is not available online, but if it's there as speculated to be a band-aid for a carry over problem from last year then shame on EA!!!

Spend your damn time and money to ACTUALLY FIX a problem EA!!!

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