Madden NFL 15 Wishlist

Jan 30, 2014; New York, NY, USA; A look at the Madden Bowl during Madden Bowl XX final at the USS Intrepid Mandatory. Credit: Joe Camporeale-USA TODAY Sports

As a die-hard NFL fan, there are 3 things that I find myself doing every year. Watching the Super Bowl, drafting a fantasy team, and buying the latest installment of Madden NFL football. The highly popular video game has been around for 25 years and doesn’t figure to go away any time soon.

Throughout it’s 25-year lifespan, Madden has seen many changes. Some thrive and some falter. The addition of the hit stick in Madden 2005 is an example of a gameplay tweak that has thrived. I couldn’t imagine playing Madden without. It’d be awful. Then there are things like QB vision, which almost everybody hated.

EA is pretty good at weeding out the bad features and keeping the good ones. But sometimes, in my opinion, they make the wrong decision and cut good features.

Seeing as how we’re about halfway through Madden 25’s lifespan, I thought it would be a good idea to make a list of features that would make for a better Madden experience. Here are 5 ways that EA could make Madden 15, I assume that’s what it’ll be called, better than it’s predecessor.

1.) Fumble Piles

In my opinion, fumble piles were an awesome addition to the Madden franchise. Was I good at them? Definitely not. My friend, we’ll refer to him as Spencer Queen, would constantly beat me at them. Spencer would win about 95% of the fumble battles, but they were still so fun! It added a level of excitement to the game that is now missing (though I don’t miss getting the achievement for recovering a fumble in the end zone).

2.) Pro Bowl Emblem

This one is a bit tedious, but it’s something that I really, really miss. The Pro Bowl emblem next to a player’s picture on the roster screen was awesome. It allowed the user to scroll through their roster and quickly see who on their team made it to the Pro Bowl. I never actually play the Pro Bowl game in Madden. I just liked how it easy it was to see who on my roster made it.

3.) Position Switches

If you play as much Madden as I do (580 hours between Madden 13 & 25), you begin to tamper with your rosters a bit. You might want to move a corner to wide receiver or maybe an underperforming, scrambling quarterback to halfback. Heck, maybe you want to make Ndamukong Suh the NFL’s next great fullback.

I always had fun making position switches and tinkering with my roster. But in the more recent versions of the game, position switches have become extremely limited. For example, you can move a HB to WR, but not a WR to HB. Actually, you can’t change a wide receiver to ANY position! Is it really that far-fetched to think that a team would use Percy Harvin as a running back? I don’t think so.

4.) Set Fantasy Draft Order

As I mentioned earlier, I play A LOT of Madden. With that being said, I’ve done my fair share of fantasy drafts. I know that being able to set the draft order isn’t exactly realistic or fair to the teams ran by the computer, but it would DEFINITELY be a good feature. I hate starting a fantasy draft with a group of friends only to get the last pick in the draft. Your friends all got a top 10 draft pick, but you got pick 32. I think that most Madden fans would welcome this addition.

5.) Enforce Fair Online Play

My friends and I have our own set of “Madden rules.” The rules are in place to create a balanced and semi-realistic playing field, something that online Madden lacks. Our rules go like this:

• You can’t ALWAYS go for it on 4th down. (Within the red zones and on 4th & 1 is allowed.)
• You can go for it on 4th and 2, but you have to be within 30-yards of an end zone.
• You can go for it on any 4th down within the 2-minute warning or during the 4th quarter.

I thoroughly believe that the rules we use create a better Madden experience. It gets extremely irritating when your opponent is constantly going for it on 4th & a mile. Especially when it’s only the first or second quarter.

Well there you have it, the 5 things that I think would make Madden 15 a better game. What do you think? Are there any features that you would like to see added or removed from the next installation of Madden? Be sure to share your thoughts in the comment section below!

I also want to make it VERY clear that I am in no way trash talking the Madden series. It is one of my favorite games and I just want to help make it better!