When you haven’t watched a full NFL season in like two years, you start to lose that energy. In this case, I get a little nostalgic. The Patriots and Rams meet in the Super Bowl tonight and what better way to take of advantage of all the attention then to dig up an epic battle from the past. It’s ESPN NFL 2k5 versus Madden NFL 2005 all over again.

Here’s the short story…this was the last time that Madden had any real competition in the consumer market. After this year, EA secured the exclusive license to make NFL football video games. This was also the year when 2K Sports aggressively priced their game at 19.99 retail. This move then forced Madden to drop the price of Madden 05 to 29.99 retail. The pettiness was epic for video game sports fans, but it all came to an abrupt end.

In 2019, Madden is still the only choice if you want to play a new NFL game. So let’s go back in time and enjoy old school teams and gameplay.  Both games are being played on a PS2 emulator for PC. Both games are running at 60fps but Madden has glitches with its stadium. Nevertheless, the gameplay is there. Both games play out, and end dramatically different.

Enjoy!

ESPN NFL 2K5 “Patriots vs. Rams”

Madden NFL 2005 “Rams vs. Patriots”