Gameplay: Special Teams
While it may not be as significant as the offensive and defensive gameplay, the kicking game is still important to a solid football package. This year, both games have their ups and downs when it comes to kicking the pigskin.
ESPN
ESPN NFL 2K5 is pretty much untouched when it comes to its kicking game. It still uses the same love-it-or-hate-it moving arrow kick meter, and trying to return a punt or kickoff for better-than-average yardage is still quite tough, thanks to the congestion that tends to culminate on the field. The one thing you might notice is a slight improvement when it comes to the subtle differences between kickers' abilities (based on ratings). Other than this, it's basically the same setup.
Madden
Madden NFL 2005 features a new-ish kick meter, and it's similar to the love-it-or-hate-it meter in ESPN. It's basically a three-button-press meter, where you start off by pressing the button once to send the meter upward. You then hit the button again to peak the meter for kick strength. Once that's done, the meter will go back down, and you'll want to try to hit the bottom peak for accuracy. The timing of it is rougher, depending on the kick's difficulty and your kicker's skill, and it can be a royal pain if the difficulty is high or your kicker just sucks. As far as kick and punt returns go, the field during punt returns and kick returns seems a little less thick in terms of player congestion, and blocking seems more effective than it was in the past. It actually is possible to break a big one now and then.
Which is better?
While we generally prefer the less-crammed field Madden presents you with when returning punts and kicks, we just aren't sold on that new kick meter. It's a little too snappy and random for our tastes, as far as its timing goes. ESPN's just feels more-solid and time-tested. Ultimately, being able to kick properly is more of a dire need than being able to return kicks more realistically.
Winner: ESPN NFL 2K5
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