Once you get over the portable 3D graphics, you're left with a pretty average football title, one that isn't up to Madden's standards.
If you're craving a sports fix on your Nintendo DS, then Electronic Arts has got you covered. Madden 2005 for the DS is one of the system's launch titles, promising the first-ever 3D handheld football experience. Well, the game is definitely in 3D, but aside from a nifty wireless head-to-head mode, the game's looks are really all there is to write home about, as the total package falls flat of anything noteworthy.
Let's get the basics out of the way. The available modes for play are the standard Quick Play and Season modes, both self-explanatory, along with Situation and 2-Minute Drill. Situation lets you set up any senario you want, with options for scores, down and distance, time remaining, timeouts left, and anything else you can think up. If you want to recreate "The Drive", you can do that with some tinkering. 2-Minute Drill is a quick thrill, where you try to score as many points as possible in two minutes, and up to ten players can play, one at a time, on a single DS system. While these two modes are nice distractions from the main game, there really should be more modes available to choose from. Then again, this is the first Madden on a new system, so the selection is somewhat expected.
Alright, now to the good stuff. First off, the major selling point of the DS version Madden is the fact that it's the first-ever 3D football game on a handheld. From strictly a polygonal standpoint, the game mirrors that of an early N64 Madden on the field. The players are only as detailed as their basic body size, skin tone and jersey number, so you aren't going to see those familiar faces through the helmets. However, it's really neat seeing a big football field and real-live players on the small screen.
The other awesome thing that the new system allows Madden football to do is allow the player to use the touch screen to call plays, audibles and even pass to recievers. Touch screen playcalling is so easy to do, you'll have a really hard time using the D-Pad and A button to call plays again, even on the consoles. If you get to the line and want to call an audible, touch the screen and bring up the audible plays. The nice thing about this is that you can see what the play you are about to change to is, meaning you can't forget what a play is or not realize what play you just switched to. After the snap, you can pass to a reciever using the shoulder and face buttons (that's up to six buttons, one for each reciever, plus one to QB scramble), or if you're feeling adventurous, you can use the touch screen to throw a pass to whichever player you touch.
The touchscreen passing option is a little clunky, because once you touch the player you want to throw to, you need to put both your hands back in the normal position to control your reciever after the catch anyway. However, since the primary function of the lower screen is a full field radar, showing the position of all offensive and defensive players (with the football X's and O's), using the touchscreen passing option doesn't seem like a bad idea if you can get used to it. Being able to coordinate what you see while in the pocket on the 3D upper screen with where everyone is on the 2D lower screen is quite important.
The reason for this is the start of the problems for Madden '05 on the DS. While you have N64 graphics, you don't have N64 screen resolution. Up close things look great, but as players run downfield, they'll start to pixelate, and they'll eventually blend in a bit with the defenders that are covering them, meaning you'll have to check the field radar to verify just how open they are. The two screens are nice, but you're going to be moving your eyes up and down between them frequently and quickly if you hope to connect with a mid- to long-range bomb. You could make the arguement that this mimics what an NFL QB needs to do, but this is a handheld football game, and it shouldn't take that much eye effort to throw a pass. You'd better get your fair share of running plays in there, which work just fine.
Offense works just fine, once you decide on how to worry about the passing game. The controls for defense, on the other hand, are a little tricky. The D-Pad has a maximum of eight directions, obviously. While there are some people who prefer to play sports games with this limitation (this reviewer included), it's hard to get an exact line on someone you want to tackle, especially if you need to dive for them. This makes it really easy to get scored on, which obviously makes it harder to win games, which eventually leads to frustration. This is why you'll be much better off if you have a human with a DS and another copy of the game around.
Easily, the best part about Madden for the DS is the wireless 2-player mode. All you need is another DS with another Madden game card and you can play some football head-to-head. It's as simple as picking your teams and playing, really. There were no problems at all with setting up a game and playing, except for one hitch: If the connection between you and your playing buddy is lost, there's no way to pick up the game from where you left off. This is not really as big a problem as you might think, since all you'd need to do is get a good signal going to begin with and stay that close together the entire time, but it would have been nice if there was a way to save the game. Still, wireless football is here to stay, and perhaps in the future we'll get support for more than two people (perhaps as many as eight, like in multitap console games).
Even with the wireless head-to-head play, however, Madden 2005 for the DS seems to be missing something. While it's still got that Madden gameplay, the game as a whole seems to be incomplete, like a console game with stripped-down features. The touch screen is used in the basic ways, but so much more could be done with it. Though it's handheld football in 3D, you might want to wait a year or two so EA can polish and improve the game, much like they do with the series after the launch of any new system. Only recommended if you've got a friend with a DS and want to play football with him or her on the go.