Almost anyone with even a passing interest in American football has heard of the Madden curse - the videogame voodoo by which an unfortunate fate seems to befall many of the players who appear on the front of the game. After featuring on the 2006 box, Philadelphia Eagles Quarterback Donovan McNabb saw his stats drop as he tried to play through a sports hernia, while the next year's choice, Seattle Running Back Shaun Alexander, broke his foot. Then there was this season's selection, the supposedly retired Bret Farve, whose hopes of a dream return were dashed when the milk of human kindness turned sour in Greenbay and he and the Cheesehead nation saw a parting of the curds and the wheys. Lost behind the media's desire to put these strange events into an athletic X-File with the Sports Illustrated cover jinx lies a much more important phenomenon though; almost the exact opposite of a curse, it could be called the Madden blessing, because no matter how good or bad the game is, how many or few improvements it includes, it always sells in huge numbers thanks to the legions of loyal fans suffering from the Farve syndrome of always wanting to come back for more. This, however, is no longer enough for EA; they want a game that will become the people's pigskin. One built for the novices and the hardcore in equal measures, Madden NFL 09 doesn't fully succeed at either end of the spectrum but it's still one of the best games in the series to date.

The first time you load up the game and are greeted by the black background and hot neon colours of a VR grid resembling a grid iron, you might believe that you've accidentally stumbled into Tron 2 and that Jeff Bridges has really let himself go. A quick double take later, however, and you'll realise that it's actually John Madden welcoming you to Madden 09's new training simulator and Madden IQ test. The IQ score is a well thought out concept that enables the game to tailor its difficulty to your exact abilities, initially by getting you to run a series of drills and then by continually dissecting your in-game performance. However, much of its potential to help newcomers find their feet, and act as a further source of one-upmanship amongst seasoned players, is lost due to its lopsided calibration; while the defensive tests are hard, the offensive ones are way too easy, making it far too simple for inexperienced players to end up with an over-inflated level of challenge, completely defeating much of the object.

The best way of getting the game to balance to your abilities therefore remains manually selecting from the preset difficulty options. While such a method may seem too conventional and rudimentary for next gen play, Madden 09 has a powerful one-two punch up its sleeve that allows you to choose the artificial intelligence levels of opponents and then separately decide how involved the play calling will be, with the lowest settings sweeping away many of the confusing permutations of Xs and Os, leaving you just one simple play to run or a handful to choose from, and meaning that you don't need a degree in advanced military tactics just to be able to hand off to your halfback. At the opposite extremity, the inclusion of accurate recreations of the playbooks of every NFL team means that Madden 09's tactical tome is of such a size that it makes Al Saunders' own look like a pee-wee coaching pamphlet. Added to this are a number of options that take the intricately designed schemes of highly paid, professional coaches and allow you to completely remodel them. Some of the choices, such as the ability to hot route wide receivers to change the runs they make, return from previous iterations, whilst others, like the chance to spotlight an opposing receiver so that he's double covered, or instruct your own ones to run smart routes so they don't stop short of the first down marker on third down, show that EA have listened to the 'advice' directed towards them from the fans.

The end result is that Madden 09 plays an extremely tight game of football; possibly the most accurate Madden has even seen. The gameplay still remains slightly off-kilter but the imperfections on both offence and defence mean that the same skewed equilibrium the series has adopted over recent seasons is retained. Defending is still the harder skill to master, something that results from the lack of time you have to read and react to offensive line-ups, especially those of teams who like to call audibles or run the 'hurry up', as well as the ungainliness of the defensive players, which are imprecise to control. At least the defensive backs can still defy gravity to make amazing interception catches, although these aren't as common as they were last year. That isn't to say that it's all touchdown dances and Lambeau leaps on the other side of the ball though, as you can get stuck in animations where the game just won't buy your attempts at play-action, so if you normally use these to set up your Hail Mary plays then you haven't got a prayer. By way of compensation, fullback runs are heavily powered and it's possible to repeatedly use short curl and slant routes to move down the field with minimal risk.

If a play does end in a big bust, chances are you'll be treated to one of the new Backtracks, where colour commentator Cris Collinsworth analyses the film to highlight where things broke down and how this could have been avoided. While Cris' solutions are occasionally questionable, Backtrack is a fantastic high end feature that's especially beneficial to rookies and part of an impressive debut for Collinsworth; one in which he's natural, understandable and entertaining, especially when compared to Tom Hammond, who can't be criticised for the choppy way his play-by-play calls have been put together but can be blamed for his dreary monotone. Another feature receiving its premier in Madden 09 is one that supplements the Backtrack idea by taking it to its most logical, and controversial, conclusion. Known as Rewind, it's a system similar to that of Codemaster's Race Driver GRID, which allows you to completely undo a play and try it again. It's an option that won't sit well with the purists but it's important to note that the opportunities to use it can be limited before a game - or eliminated altogether - and everyone will at least be tempted to use it, particularly when they feel cheated by the CPU and especially as challenging the referee's calls is so uncertain that it's off putting.

The stadium exteriors are shown before every match, for the first time in Madden history; their presence is only a small part of Electronic Arts' exemplary presentation this season, which makes much of Madden 09 feel like a big budget TV production. The generic EA next-generation menus and song mix provide an easy familiarity, while on the field you won't be able to get over the quality of the turf, or the stunning lighting effects, which make sunny day games in Chicago feel like Miami. Player models feature a keen attention to detail with uniforms showing the full effects of rain and snow weather effects, although strangely the ground doesn't appear to cut up. Animations have been worked on to make them more believable and, even under the scrutiny of super-slow motion replays, complex pieces of action regularly look spot on, although there are occasions where thing will happen that don't seem physically possible. Despite this small hiccup, camera angles for field goal attempts have also been redesigned for dramatic entertainment value, and a smile is sure to be raised by the partially interactive touchdown celebrations and referee who looks a bit like a zombified Ed Hochuli.

If you purchased last year's Madden then the game modes here will be something of a disappointment because, while they remain solid, most have received little attention. The main franchise option still lets you take control of a team and deal with the off field business of contract negotiations, free agent signings and scouting draft prospects; as well as playing all your side's matches during the season. Superstar mode is also back and, just like before you create a player who you then take through the draft, training sessions, interviews with the media, hiring and firing agents and a potentially embarrassing IQ test, as well as suiting up every Sunday to try and forge a career that will end up in the hall of fame. The mechanics are simple and while many people will want to play Superstar as a Quarterback, switching to something like a Wide Receiver is the best way to make the experience different enough from standard play. One new feature that has been included is 'Madden Moments', which allows you to replay many of the standout incidents of last season, and while these do provide a welcome change of pace, they're also challenging, with many requiring you to complete a sustained bout of virtually error-free football.

EA claimed they were putting a lot of effort into the multiplayer for Madden 09 but, in terms of the main selling point - the new online leagues - they've seriously under-thrown their target audience. While it is possible to have up to thirty-two people competing, the fewer there are, the less fun you'll have, as you can't add in CPU controlled sides and all the team building skill is removed from the draft because everyone ends up with fantastic players. And that's basically it for new online features in EA's marquee sports title; there's no equivalent to NCAA Football's dynasty mode, or weekly player stats updates like the ones that this year's NBA and FIFA titles will include. As a crumb of multiplayer comfort at least you can now avoid the old self-Spygating problem of showing your opponent what play you're going to run by throwing some bluff alternatives up on the screen.

So we come back to the question of who Madden NFL 09 is for. Well, to virtually steal a quote, "The Madden development team are who we thought they were" - serious American football fans who make titles for likeminded people and who are now trying to provide for newcomers without alienating core gamers - that apparently is what the Wii is for. Yes, the Madden IQ is a miscue, and they've fumbled the online leagues, but Madden 09 is a much more rounded and refined game than 08. It has all the basic components for perfection but can't quite bring them together so, in this respect, it's much more like the 2004 Steelers than the '72 Dolphins. The thing is, if you get this last analogy then you've probably pre-ordered the game anyway...

Reviewed by James Hamblin for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).