We have all heard it, most of us have said it, and many of us truly believe it. Madden 16 definitely has its fair share of flaws, as do most games from this generation, but is saying Madden 16 sucks really a fair statement? When you are in the middle of a game and a guy gets an aggressive catch over your 99 overall cornerback or runs a setup that forces your deep zone to play like a yellow and scores in one play it sure seems like it is.
That being said, ask yourself this, could it be that the spread of information now is just so viral that the game seems worse than it really is because everyone knows everything for the most part? There are three main things now that contribute to spreading information at an insane rate of speed that could easily be the REAL reason that so many people believe Madden 16 sucks.
- PREVIOUS PLAY
Starting in Madden 15 Electronic Arts incorporated a feature at the end of each play called “previous play”.  This feature essential tells your opponent what you ran, and how many adjustments you made to it. That means that just simply by playing the game you are contributing to the spread of information. We have all been there, absolutely dominating our opponent and then before you know it he starts running the exact same plays that you are using. Granted in most cases your opponent will be running it wrong on the fly, but with just a little bit of research or watching the recording that the game systems so courteously record for you now, the guy you just played now has access to your entire scheme.
The argument made for this feature by many simulation purists is that in real football there are coaches in the booth taking pictures of what the opposing team on both sides of the ball. That is very factual, the difference however is that in real life the play art doesn’t magically appear on the pictures for those analyzing them, they have to use their knowledge and their eyes to decipher what is taking place. This is something that the user should be able to do with their own eyes as a play is taking place. The truth is however that only a very small percentage of the Madden community can look at something with no play art and know exactly what is happening. Previous play reduces the skill gap more than any other feature of the game because it takes the requirement of having a deep knowledge of the game as a skill set and throws it right out of the window.
- TWITCH STREAMS
Twitch has soared in popularity over the last year and a half or so in the Madden community, starting in the later part of the Madden 15 season and really growing exponentially through Madden 16. Generation four gaming systems played a huge role in this because no longer does streaming require an extra few hundred dollar investment for equipment as it did in years past. Now you can just click a button on your controller or start an app from your dashboard and your stream is live.
This really affected the way that information was spread regarding Madden because many streamers buy eBooks and then stream to their viewers. So the content that was sold to one person, now is being broadcasted to ten, twenty, even hundreds of people. There are not many streamers out there that turn previous play off, and most will flash their playart several times before the snap of the ball. This provides the people in the stream with not only the base play, but each and every required adjustment. Then they go play some games with the setups and before you know it another group of people have the setup from the previous play feature. It’s a snowball effect of information.
- YOUTUBE
YouTube has been around for a while now, and really is getting to the point of market saturation from a tips perspective. YouTube is the least relevant reason for spread of information generally however because of that saturation. Typically you will have to wade through a dozen or so worthless “tips” to find one gem.
Those gems are there however, and it does contribute to the spread of information. In the old days of Madden there were also plenty of gems to be found on YouTube, more in fact because you didn’t have to go through too much worthless information to find relevance. The biggest difference between then and now is that there used to be somewhat of a code between YouTubers, with the exception of a few, not to repeat information and to not post anything too game breaking on the open market. None of that exists anymore, everyone just regurgitates the next man’s video and they will post anything they can in search of that almighty view.
The video above was comprised of blitzes that were posted on YouTube during the Madden 12 and Madden 13 seasons. As you can see from the video there was screaming gap pressure from pretty much any formation you wanted to run. Picking up those blitzes wasn’t as easy as just blocking a runningback or sliding your line a certain direction. Hell, we didn’t even have working slide protection back then. Those weren’t even anywhere near as glitchy as the stuff you could do in Madden 11, here is a short list of some of the Madden 11 heat that would make your head spin;
One man contain blitz from 1-5-5
This blitz was from the Nickel 1-5-5 (now known as Nickel Psycho) and the setup was as simple as globally zoning your linebackers then placing your left of screen OLB on a contain (we had individual contains available then) and moving him to the right of screen edge.
InstaSwim A-Gap
This was a glitch in the game where you could drop 10 in coverage and just manually user your DT. You would stand him up in front of the guard’s inside shoulder. At the snap of the ball you would hit the swim move button (one of the top buttons) and he would instantly be passed the guard heading to the QB.
QB Spy Blitz/No Assignment Blitz
The QB Spy Blitz was from 46 Normal and it was basically done by placing a LB on a spy and standing him in the right A-Gap, at the snap of the ball he would turbo through untouched. The No Assignment Blitz was done from 3-4 with plays like “Double X Bracket” or “Double Z”, you would then show blitz and one defender in the left B-Gap would no longer have an assignment on the playart and at the snap he would scream through the B-Gap.
There were many more that year but those were some of the glitchiest. Now let’s take a look at offense from Madden 11!
Canoe
The “Canoe” was a setup that could be done from a few formations but most popular from Singleback Bunch. You would place your solo WR on the short side of the field and put him on a slant out. Then you would motion another player towards him and this would force the CB guarding the WR to slide away from the WR. At the snap of the ball the WR would get a free release and in about a second his slant out would bounce off the sideline and torch the coverage deep.
Ghost Routes
On Madden 11 there were unbumpable “ghost routes” everywhere. They were probably most popular from the West Coast playbook in the Near and Far formations, however they were everywhere. Any C-Route could be turned into an unbumpable snap throw against man simply by motioning it one step, and on the flip side any angled hitch route could be turned into a snap throw to the outside against zone. The biggest kicker with this was that in Madden 11 (and Madden 12) there was no way to disguise your coverage because the outside cornerbacks would perform involuntary movement that would tell the offense EXACTLY what coverage you were running pre-snap.
Rocket Catching
When the term Rocket Catch is used today it is generally for marketing/search result purposes. Fact is that nothing like the true Rocket Catching from back in the old days exists currently today. On Madden 11 (it was even worse in some previous Madden’s) you could Rocket Catch any outside breaking route by swiveling the stick in a half circle back towards the QB. This generally resulted in the cornerback being several yards away from the WR with a snowball’s chance in hell at making a play on the ball. If aggressive catching is deemed a 50/50 ball, true Rocket Catching was more like a 90/10 in favor of the offense. The only real chance of stopping it was if the user on offense made a mistake.
After reading all of that I am sure some of you are reliving the glory days. Others are probably hearing this information for the first time.
Now for just a minute imagine that information back then spread at the same rate that it does today. Could you play Madden if you had to deal with everything listed above on an every other game basis? Probably not.
Its funny that when you ask Madden players what their favorite Madden of all time was many will revert back to Madden 11 or Madden 12, some seasoned veterans would go back even further. But dig deep and truly ask yourself was it because the game was really better, or just because you were in the small group that knew most of the good exploits.
Madden 16 is miles ahead of previous versions in terms of being a good game, it certainly isn’t perfect, but it’s flaws are much more prevalent because of the viral spread of information. What do you think? Let us know in the comments.
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