Last year, Madden hit the iPhone more than a month after the main title's release. This year EA Sports' mobile version will arrive the same day as the big boys drop for the console, which is Tuesday.
The game, for both the iPad and iPhone/iPod Touch, will also incorporate the Gameflow playcalling mechanic of the main game, and bring back the finger-drawn hot routes from last year's game. There's also something called "Total Defensive Control" that sounds like a big pre-snap adjustment mode to reposition your players for better results.
Multiplayer will be incorporated via update by the time the NFL regular season kicks off in September. It'll be joined by something called "Vintage Voltage Football" which is described as "an innovative throwback to retro-style electric football."
No pricing was detailed in the news release from EA Sports; last year, the game went for around $10, with an $8 sale near launch day. iPhone 4 versions taking advantage of that handset's stronger graphics will probably pay more.
DISCUSSION
either way, it goes to show how good a game made for specific hardware can look, I'm not into games about games but a good example of how an inferior "console" can manage to look contemporary if made around it's specs rather than 'this thing doesn't push enough polygonzzzz'
best example of that, way off topic, was doom 1, damn was I fascinated that this could run on my crappy 486sx 25mhz with what used to be a high-end 4mb of ram and 512k of video memory
optimisation has been lost since last gen and many years ago on PC I believe.
the PSX era used to push some very impressively optimised games making use of all the console had to offer, last time I remember feeling awesome about a PC game was back in the Quake 2 days, running it stock and seeing it run on a voodoo2,
rip voodoo
/end lost rant