It's in the Game: Madden NFL

Nostalgic look back at the challenges at bringing a game to market that would dominate the cultural zeitgeist at the cross-section of gaming and sport.

To see where the technology started to where it is now and how the madden brand has exploded is quite a story. Should be incredibly interesting to any football fan who dabbled in video games during the sega/nintendo era - or who is a bit younger and can see the history of the iconic game they are playing today.

Yet, the evolution of the madden brand via technology and the sport should be compelling for anyone who enjoys the growth and maturation of a successful consumer product.

I have seen the criticism of this documentary, calling it an advertisement for the game and it makes me wonder if they even watched the full series.

The one thing that the documentary does that I didn't think they would do is criticize themselves. Everything from the failing to release Madden 96 to the death of their competition causing incompetence in the company to harsh looks in the mirror of their current state versus what they once was. I thought it was absolutely on the nose.

The documentary breaking into two parts was an interesting move. The lead up to the release of Madden 25 and the history of Madden made me in ways wish to see more of the history of Madden.

The history parts are by far the best parts of the documentary as you see all the innovations that lead to Madden being a household name. Not only do you get to see what Madden meant to the devs, but also to football culture.

A real treat for anyone who grew up playing Madden.

Despite a lot of harsh criticism of the documentary I've been seeing, the film presents a lot of interesting perspectives and even those you wouldn't expect to see in a doc of this sort.

It's clear the team behind the project carry the same amount of love and support that fans have for the game and its long history. As someebody who constantly grew up surrounded by this series of games, I found this to be an interesting look behind the curtain that made me appreciate the games even more and want to boot up my old console and toss in the last Madden game I bought.

An overall enjoyable and informative watch that I would recommend to any fan of the game.

It's In The Game is a documentary that is a bit unconventional. It isn't the "comprehensive Madden history lesson" many may be expecting, and the first episode comes off perhaps a little "b-movie schmaltzy". But if you continue through the remaining three installments, you may see your enjoyment of it grow as mine did!

For a very basic overview, It's In The Game uses a two-pronged structure:

-Roughly one half of each episode is devoted to the current Madden developers trying to get the '25 version ready for launch--from the initial planning to player scans to game AI and everything in-between, viewers are given a look at how the current EA group puts together a Madden game.

-The other half of each episode flashes back to previous iterations of the Madden franchise, such as John Madden's initial involvement, the battles with Sony's 2K series, and the whole operation really exploding in the mid-2000s thanks to Michael Vick's electric involvement.

Coming into this episodic doc, I had expected more of a straight history. While It's In The Game doesn't take quite that approach, it does cover most of the big topics (just not game-by-game, so to speak). I was especially fascinated to see how the direct competition with the 2K games really sharpened Madden from 2004-2006. Of course, seeing Coach Madden's direct input in the early days was also wonderful--his earnest (if not outright maniacal) insistence on realism really shaped the franchise into the behemoth it ultimately became.

At first, the "current day" material was my least favorite part of this doc. But as the curtain gets pulled back on just how big of an operation the whole thing is, I found myself really enjoying those segments too! Some will call it a "hack job" or an ad for the latest Madden, and it could always be interpreted in that sense--but I never got the feeling it was outrightly configured in that way. The current Madden devs seem very forthright about the negative nature that the games are sometimes perceived in.

About the only criticism I can levy at this doc is that it does skip over some of Madden's "leaner years" where everyone could see that some laurels were being rested on. But considering the length that would have added to this project and the effect it would have had on EA's overall involvement, I didn't view that omission as a project-sinker.

Overall, I really enjoyed It's In The Game for simultaneously showing Madden football's past and present operations. The first episode: 8/10 stars. The next two: 9/10 stars. The finale: the full 10/10. This one gets better as it goes along, to be sure!

It's a well made an interesting documentary. The initial episodes about the creation of the game are very interesting and it appears that people really cared about what they were building. However, when it gets into the competing games of the time it seriously suffers from only having 1 point of view. Saying that Madden was by far the better game on the market and the "closest thing to being on the field" was why the NFL wanted an exclusive agreement is a complete lie. Simply put EA just paid a huge sum to have a monopoly on the competition.

This is definitely worth a watch but take what you hear with a huge shovel of salt.