Parents' Guide to

Madden NFL 06

By Aaron Lazenby, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 8+

Football champ looks great on handheld.

Game PSP 2005
Madden NFL 06 Poster Image

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this game.

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What’s It About?

MADDEN NFL 06 is much like the installments that preceded it. Players manage almost every aspect of an NFL game in a perfect synthesis of coaching and player control. Players select plays, throw passes, run the ball, tackle opponents, kick field goals, and manage the game clock.


Teams reflect off-season roster changes, and there's an option for downloading updates. But the bread and butter of the game is the multi-season franchise mode in which players manage their favorite teams through training camp, pre-season games, the 16-game regular season -- and hopefully the playoffs and Super Bowl. This is a football junkie's dream: Players develop young talent, tinker with their lineups, practice critical plays and then unleash their franchise on opponents.

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say Not yet rated
Kids say (3):

What's most impressive about this EA installment is its strong move to a handheld system. Graphics are crisp enough to compete with console versions. The massive amount of player information and match-up analysis seems impossible for a small-screen system to handle. And yet, Madden NFL 06 delivers -- mostly.


The game suffers from some technical hiccups. Players experience a long pause any time a game-changing animation is initiated (like during a turnover or score); load times are long and loading screen images are often broken; and when players are in franchise mode, the game occasionally shuts down your PSP at the end of then game. EA has published a work-around, but this is still annoying. Overall, this is a great extension of the successful franchise into portable gaming.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • Families can talk about football's appeal. Are you into it for the brutish hits, the big personalities, or -- as this game emphasizes -- the complex strategy? Do you think your viewpoint is the same as or different from most football fans? Did the game's intellectual focus change your opinion of the sport?

Game Details

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