Let's face it. Portable football games suck. Go ahead - I dare you. Find me a video game for any handheld and I'll give you over 20 reasons within the first minute of our conversation as to why it sucks. It doesn't matter what the platform. NFL Football for the Atari Lynx? Sucks. Play Action Football for the Game Boy Color - terrible. And don't even get me started on the eight gazillion versions of Madden for every portable screen known to mankind. Last year's version of Madden for the PSP started to inch closer to what could be in handheld football action. Yet a horrendous save-corrupting buggy product held it back from possibly breaking the portable pigskin curse. I'm pleased to report that the streak is over.

I can best summarize Madden 2007 for the PSP in this fashion - finally, a handheld football game that doesn't suck.

First of all, there are the basics. Madden 2007 is a beautiful looking handheld game. From the presentation to the animations, this title looks fantastic. You'll often times just sit and marvel that you are actually playing a handheld device. The other element that this game has going for itself graphically is the widescreen format. I am spoiled playing its next-generation counterpart on my 50" widescreen and loving every second of it. Madden 2007 for the PSP happens to look just as good, if not better than the Xbox, PS2 and GameCube versions of the title.

Next, the game is just feature-packed. Franchise-crazed Madden fans will enjoy the ability to take your PS2 info and continue it on the go. The mini-camp drills have been expanded as in the console version and everything translates perfectly to the handheld. Is it wrong to say that all the little players look so cute on the handheld? I prefer the views the PSP presents and just how sharp and crisp it all looks. Which brings me to a few of the issues that creep up on the title. The sidelines have been stripped of everything except for a few benches and water coolers. The decision must have been made in order to remove anything that got in the way of the game's frame rate. And remove them they did. Crowds are painful to look at, stadium accoutrements either don't function properly (see sidleline clocks for an example) or are just simply not there. But ask yourself this question - do you care? Does it matter? Fire up Madden 2007 for the DS and think if we are lucky to be playing as good of a portable football game as we are able to this year. For me, I'm filing this in the "would be nice but perhaps next year" category.

The most plaguing problem I have with Madden for the PSP is the same one I have had since I've started playing it 13 years ago. The commentary is horrible. This has the ability to really distract you from the action. I need something, but not this. Madden for the 360 acknowledges as much, choosing to use the hometown radio announcer instead of the redundant Michales and Madden. This is a good change that can be built upon in future versions. Skip the commentary altogether and save yourself the annoyance.

The bottom line with a game of this type should be, "how does it play..." I'm happy to report that this is an absolute smooth game of football. It feels as if EA Tiburon made sure that the engine just felt exactly right. They nailed it. So much so that some of the little hiccups that are present in the console counterparts made their way in. Running finally feels as fun as it did in Visual Concepts 2K series of football - the benchmark of the ground game which Madden will forever be compared to. The much-talked about "run to daylight" feature is a welcome addition as opposed to the cone of vision which was rightly left behind on the PSP version of Madden. Also new is the Highlight stick, which with some crafty control reconfiguration, has become something that makes the run-after-the-catch something I look forward to.

Some other little issues are that I fumble a lot, too much I think. I'm not sure why that is, or perhaps it's just me. I'm interested if I'm unique in this regard. Some of the animations the players perform seem to get stuck if someone is in the way. And I don't like the way the game has to always access the UMD disc. Blame Sony for this one in poor design. I can't help but think if this game was running off of a memory stick or some type of non-CD based device it would perform better.

All that aside, I can't give Madden 2007 for PSP a perfect score, but it's still a great portable football title. This game just feels right. It's portable football goodness. Did I mention it's portable? Finally, a handheld football game that doesn't suck.

Our Final ScoreExcellent

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