EA SPORTS - It's In The Game

MAKING MADDEN GO ON THE HOT NEW PORTABLE
Producer Dishes the Dirt on the Nintendo DS™

There?s been a whole lot of buzz about the newest hand-held console to hit the market, the Nintendo DS™. With dual screens, touch-screen technology and wireless communication, it?s no wonder than consumers gobbled up half a million of the portable units in the first week of sale. Die-hard sports gamers may be wondering how their favorite games like Madden NFL 2005 and Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 2005 will play on the portable console. So we checked in with the game?s Associate Producer Damion Banks to get the nitty gritty details on the DS.

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EA SPORTS: What is the graphic functionality of the DS and how were you able to adapt today's Madden technology to it?

Banks: Madden NFL 2005 for the DS uses Madden N64 as a base. We have incorporated the 3D players and stadium into DS. This is the first handheld sports title that incorporates a 3D game engine.

EA SPORTS: How complete is the DS game compared to a full-console version of Madden?

Banks: Madden DS has a lot of the features that the console version has. It has Play Now, Season, Two Minute Drill, Situation, Practice, Madden Cards, Madden Challenge and Roster modes. The DS also has team specific playbooks for each team.

EA SPORTS: What are the double-screens used for specifically in this game?

Banks: We use the touch screen for a variety of features in game. It is used as the play call screen; you can select your formations and plays using the touch screen. You can call hot routes, audibles, and timeouts using the touch screen while you are at the line of scrimmage.

Not only this but on DS your hot routes and audibles are displayed on screen for you so you don?t have to remember them. You can also pass with the touch screen by touching your receiver on the field radar. The field radar is a display of the field so you can see where all of the players are at all times. The kick meter can also be controlled by the touch screen. All of the features listed here can also be used with normal controls so you are not locked into using the touch screen.

We also take advantage of the touch screen in the interface to display much more information on screen. The interface outside of game does not have any touch screen features per se but it does show much more information to the user.

EA SPORTS: Talk about some of the top Madden NFL 2005 features on the DS. What stands out?

Banks: 3D graphics engine is a first for a handheld football game. The look and feel of this game is light years ahead of any handheld version to date.

Field Radar allows the user to see everyone on the field at all times. You never have the problem of not knowing what is happening on the sidelines like you do in console. This is a great feature that eliminates issues created with current console camera angles. With the radar screen you always know where everyone is.

Play calling, audibles and hot routes on touch screen. These are features that allow you to interact more with the game. Being able to call up your audible plays on screen and see them instead of remembering them is great, not to mention hot route displays as well.

EA SPORTS: How much improvement can you make with Madden on this game system moving forward?

Banks: I think the possibilities are intriguing with the touch screen. We have only scratched the surface with the short amount of time we had to develop Madden DS. We are working on new ways to control the game, new ways to view the game. With the touch screen it allows you to create new types of modes and games. Not only does it have the touch screen we are also looking into ways to incorporate the microphone feature. And don?t forget wireless, we can offer broader wireless features going forward.

EA SPORTS: Anything else about Madden NFL 2005 on the Nintendo DS that you want to talk about?

Banks: We are looking at Madden 2006 as I write this. You can expect a lot more features next year that take advantage of all of the DS hardware.