Metacritic Games

Madden NFL 2002 (Xbox)

The industry football standard returns featuring the Houston Texans, new player face and body technology, the ability to create your own team with custom helmets, uniforms, and stadiums, and a new training mode that let's you learn from Madden, the master himself.

EA Sports
Sports
Players: 8
E (Everyone)
Developer: Electronic Arts - Tiburon
Released November 15, 2001

Overall Metascore

This is a weighted, normalized average of all individual scores given by critics, on a scale of 0 (worst) to 100 (best).

90 / 100

Critic Reviews

100	Hot Games The extensive Franchise Mode (which includes this year’s Houston Texans) is the best in any football game ever, and the Madden Cards once again hype the game’s replayability.
100	Next Generation Magazine Simply a further refinement of last year’s excellent PS2 effort. [Jan 2002, p.36]
100	GamePro If anything, character visuals look slightly sharper with brighter colors than the PS2 game's, and the post-play highlights are still cool.
95	Sports Gaming Network The great AI, realistic QB decisions, incredible off season, and improved graphics makes this the football game of choice.
95	Game Informer Forget about hating the controller and you'll light 'em up. [Nov 2001, p.121]
90	All Game Guide With its bevy of options, realistic AI, and stellar presentation, Madden NFL 2002 wins the brass ring of football design for the second year in a row.
90	GameSpy Simply the best action football game available for any system.
90	GameZone Control and sound issues aside, this is the best version of Madden 2002 available.
90	Electronic Gaming Monthly There has never been a computer opponent that is this cunning. It even plays smarter than most of my buddies, and perhaps more importantly, it doesn’t whine after a loss. [Dec 2001, p.250]
90	Official Xbox Magazine A classic. [Dec 2001]
86	IGN A solid football game, but there's no hiding from the fact that it wasn't specifically built to take advantage of the Xbox's capabilities. Because of this, I can't shake the feeling that this game isn't all that it could've been.
86	GameSpot Slightly better-looking than its PS2 and GameCube counterparts, but that's it. Aside from a few graphical enhancements, the game is a virtual carbon copy of the PS2 and GameCube versions.
85	Operation Sports What's missing is fun, while Madden plays the closest representation of football (still a ways to go), it needs to interject the passion of the NFL into the game.
76	Team Xbox The visuals, although not up to the Xbox’s standards are good. The gameplay is only hindered by the button placement on the Xbox controller and that is not EA’s fault.
70	Xbox Nation Magazine Seems that the payers are a bit sluggish this time around..., and you never seem to be in quite as tight control as you’d like to be. [Jan 2002, p.84]
65	GameShark [It] blow chunks. It's bland, it's repetitive, it's looked the same since it went to PS2 the first time around.