Are you a gamer? Do you enjoy playing the Madden video game franchise? Well, then this is the article for you. I have an idea for them that will hopefully intrigue them into bringing back a certain feature they used to have. Would you like to know what that is?

Football is my favorite sport. I’ve been playing Madden back since I was a kid and just gotten my first PS2 (I feel old, who else does?). Among the ones I most enjoyed playing are Madden NFL ’06 – having Donovan McNabb on the cover was really cool since I was a fan of him, and the new QB vision feature that put emphasis on the awareness attribute, and was also dubbed (gaming-wise) “year of the quarterback.” Being a quarterback myself, I love that thought. I also played Madden NFL ’08, but probably put my most hours into Madden NFL ’10. That game was awesome! From there, I’ve played Madden NFL ’12, ’13, 25 – with all of them not really changing much and making me start losing faith in the future of the quality for the Madden gaming franchise. Having said that, the newest installment in the game really pleasantly surprised not only myself, but many others as well. IGN rated it an 8.7/10, which was at least a whole one point higher than they rated it the year before. It was now much easier to progress players on what they call connected career/franchise mode, where it contains player, coach, and owner modes. I mostly play for that particular part, but I’ve also played online and ultimate team. They’re fun, but don’t intrigue me as much as playing through a career and building a team/progressing a player. Madden NFL ’15 also has a new feature called “chew clock” where you can turn it on at the end of games (or right in the middle of them) to automatically work as accelerated clock and have it skip right to 12 seconds on the clock to snap the ball. It really speeds up the end of a game and saves time. Another great feature it has: the best, realistic graphics and presentation that the game has ever seen. It seems – at least for now – Madden is going in the right direction.

So the Madden franchise is definitely an improvement in the game’s series, but what are they going to do for this coming year? So far they haven’t released any new information lately about it. All they’ve said publicly is their release date, which is August 25, 2015. Speculation is that Madden game developers will be releasing more details come May, but who knows if that is true or not. One thing that is true though is the announcement of Joe Montana Football 16, and much like Madden, not much for details is known about the game. The only time Madden’s franchise has been rivaled was back when ESPN NFL 2K5 came out, and is still considered to this day one of the best football games ever made. It knocked Madden NFL 2005‘s price down from the $50-$60 price range to about $29.99. EA then got the exclusive rights for the NFL, and haven’t been in competition since. Yes, games like NFL Head Coach, NFL Head Coach ’09, and All-Pro Football 2K8 (the only 2K game since EA gained their exclusive rights), but none of them even came close to competing with the iconic Madden games. Montana has said that Madden games are like “roster updates,” and his game would change that idea.

Thinking about this new Joe Montana Football 16 game has me really interested in what direction they are going to go and what it is going to be like. He was always one of my biggest inspirations growing up, so I’m really cheering for him to make a great game. I mean, competition only brings out the best in people (and their games), right? I sure hope so in this case! One of the things that came across my mind while pondering about the game was how when I was younger and played the older Madden games, they had all the old classic teams from the past that you could play with, and I always enjoyed that. Of course they didn’t have names, so I would go through and name the players I knew. Also recently, I’m playing a connected franchise as some NFL legends as rookies, and the combination of those thoughts led me to an idea that has been unconscious in my brain for quite a while until now. What if they made a game, or even brought back those classic teams, into their own spin-off game? EA could even include them into their next installment of the Madden franchise if they wanted to. I doubt people are commanding for former legendary teams to be included into Madden NFL ’16 though, sadly.

I used to love watching NFL Films as a kid. I would watch the classic commentary to the NFL Game of the Week (and I’m also a fan of America’s Game) and fall in love with old-school football – whether it be the Colts of the ’60s, Steelers and Cowboys of the ’70s, or the 49ers of the ’80s. With the graphics of the latest Madden and future ones coming, how awesome would it be to play with not only the Hall of Fame player (ex: Warren Moon, John Elway, Walter Payton), but the whole team? For me personally, a dream come true would be able to play with one of those teams in the connected franchise mode and change history. You could make Dan Marino, or even Barry Sanders win a Super Bowl! That is my great Madden idea, and even though the likelihood that it’ll come true is very slim to none, it’s a very entertaining thought. Oh, the joys of “what if?” What are your thoughts? Is this something that you would enjoy to play, or not? Let me know! Thanks for your time, and have a great day gamers!