It's a wonder game reviewers even bother reviewing Madden NFL games. It's the industry's longest running series; these days it's the only official NFL game available; it invariably offers something old, something new, something borrowed, something, uh, with a blue jersey; it sells itself.

So it follows that Madden NFL 09 is all that, the new iteration of exclusively-licensed football as slick, as deep and fastidious as you could want, and as visually polished as you'd expect (you'd expect a lot considering the PS3's graphical muscle, and the game certainly delivers). But it's not perfect, which is fair enough, because there's always next year's version to tout as "improved" (already underway at EA's studios, no doubt).

09 adds a "Madden Test" where your skills are measured and scored as your "Madden IQ." Apparently, this allows the game's difficulty to be automatically adjusted to the user's skill level, but really just seems to mean diehard Maddenites will see more inexplicable fumbles, botched passing plays and suspiciously-clairvoyant opponents while those said same computer controlled opponents will give neophytes a lot of slack.

09 also adds a "rewind" feature that lets you try any play over again, Mulligans on the gridiron, which, again, is a pretty cool for newbies, cheating by Madden fan standards... but there it is, a newbie-friendlier Madden.