PixlBit

Neal probably spent more hours playing Madden than some little gamers have been alive. Why doesn't he do this anymore?

"Games I..." is a series of articles where we look at games we missed, love, hate, or more. In this case, I'm looking at sports games and why I don't play them as much anymore.

With the football season well under way, or more importantly, with the Packers hopefully getting back on track by shutting out the Lions, the sport is on my mind. Now, why am I not as into football video games as I used to be?

A big reason of that might have to do with how I've grown away slightly from sports. When I was younger, I'd spend every NFL Sunday watching whatever games I could. Those Sundays would be capped off with Chris Berman's legendary NFL Primetime show where I learned to refer to NFL players as nicknames such as Michael "He He!" Jackson and Don Beebebebebebebebebe.

While I played lots of football video games for NES, Genesis, and SNES (some Bill Walsh NCAA game, Tecmo Bowl, etc.), I didn't really sink hours and hours into sports games until Madden NFL 99, where they introduced the Franchise mode.

The Franchise mode was a revelation in sports video games as it took the standard season mode and made it more in-depth and a lot longer. It became an absolute joy to take a crappy team and sim through a few years in Franchise, pick up some free agents, draft some talent, and then destroy. Players would improve or decline year-to-year, and old players would sadly retire (except Brett Favre, who I don't think can retire in Madden until 2015 at this point).

My love affair with Franchise mode only began with Madden NFL 99, and really didn't let up until Madden NFL 06. While I was most enamored with the original (played a franchise to the limit), it would soon become a yearly ritual with my brother to get Madden, correct the rosters and rename players, and then fight over who would get to play it.

That changed when I got a GameCube and he got a PlayStation 2. Of course that led to us being in separate rooms shouting things like "DT #90 is Dan Klecko!" Then, the rest of August would be a mess of us playing Madden and swapping stories about it, until he shuffled back off to college and I had to go back to school in September.

The hardcore Madden phase probably ended for me when the Wii came out, but not really because the system came out, but because I was in college and my main Madden-playing friend, my brother, was planning to get married and eventually had a kid (by the way, my niece Haley is adorable).

Since then, I've become a casual Madden player of sorts. Basically, I play the Wii version (ba dum ching!). There is a reason why I gave Madden NFL 10 for Wii a glowing review. It was an arcadey multiplayer-focused Madden game, the kind of Madden game I wanted.

It is weird to think of how much time I spent with Franchise mode now. I sit down with it in Madden games now and it just doesn't hold the same weight it used to. I'd much rather just kick back and play a five-on-five arcade version with my friends, which is why I'm excited to see Madden NFL Arcade hitting XBLA and PSN in December.