Genre: Sports
Developer: EA Tiburon
Publisher: Electronic Arts

Although it got beat to the texture-filtered "next-gen" market by the phenomenal Visual Concepts Dreamcast title "NFL 2K", the Madden team nailed a blitz right up the middle with this game's visuals: the high triangle count player models look fantastic, and the various stadia have detailed textures. The user interface is razor sharp, clean, feature-rich, and ultra responsive. Why can't the modern Madden titles have UIs this good? The only missed block comes from the player and coach faces, which fall deep into the "uncanny valley" by modern-day standards. All the same, having the resolution to properly render faces at all in a sports game was novel in 2000, so it's appropriate to cut the developers some slack.

This reviewer played against the New York Jets, and the "J-E-T-S JETS JETS JETS" chant rifled out of the speaker like a Brett Favre bullet over the center of the field! Why is it that stadium noises in older sports games "pop" so much better than in contemporary simulations? The game opens with a super corny, turn-of-the-century "Madden 2001 rap song", and it is pure joy. The menu music is also mostly hip-hop, but not the kind of dark, profanity-filled gansta' crap in the modern Madden titles. Pat Summerall is just fine as the play-by-play commentary, but the the titular man himself only throws out occasional remarks absurdly stating the obvious. The "Madden" developers have the most famous color commentator of all time in their huddle, but severely lose out to two paid actors in the "NFL 2Kx" series.

There are some really basic anemities missing from this title, which are not just bog standard by today's standards, but were even available in "NFL 2K1". For starters, there is no way to zoom out and "check the play" on defense: I'm a linebacker in a zone scheme, where am I supposed to stand again? When one audibles on offense, it doesn't show the plays! Why in the world does the player need to hit the X button twice every time he snaps the ball, just to throw a pass? Players often feel sluggish and unresponsive when changing directions. Compared to the hyper-responsive, communicative "NFL 2K1", this game almost feels like it plays itself. On the flip side, this title is loaded with options, including stat tracking per player profile, a fully-featured practice functionality, and an excellent franchise mode.

In a lot of ways Madden NFL 2001 is a far better game than the modern titles in the series: pre-snap stuff like putting receivers in motion is simple to remember and execute, there is just one intuitive passing mode, the presentation is smooth but not ADHD seizure-inducing like today's Madden releases, and the whole experience is navigable via a wonderful user interface. The release is just a few in-game features away from being everything you need, and nothing you don't want. This reviewer vastly prefers the more fun-to-play, gamey-feeling "NFL 2K1"-- but fans of EA's series were undoubtedly pleased by this edition on PlayStation 2 launch day.