REVIEW: Madden NFL 12 for iPhone and iPad

XBOX 360 and Playstation 3 owners weren't the only people to get a gift from EA Sports on Tuesday. Owners of iPhones and iPads were able to download the latest from the quintessential football franchise, Madden NFL 12.

Sadly, even after spending $6.99, I didn't have high hopes for the game when it first loaded. More on if the game was worth the money later.

I'll start with the controls. I've played several games on iOS that make good use of the virtual joystick. Madden NFL 12 isn't one of those games. I found it extremely tough to control players with the joystick. It's even more difficult when you have bigger hands like I do.

Calling plays is as easy as you want it to be. You can use the GameFlow feature, which picks the plays for you, or you can select your own plays in basic or advanced mode. Advanced mode is nice, but it can be a little challenging to cycle through all of the plays on a mobile device.

The defensive AI is lackluster at best, even on All Madden. You can torch the defense with relative ease all day long, especially when you use the fantastic hot routes function. I can't think of a better use for the touch screen than hot routes.

One thing that did surprise me was how much you can customize your team during league play. You can trade, cut and even sign players. This is much more than I expected from an iPhone game.

The best part of the game for me was the inclusion of audio from John Madden -- even if the audio sounds like it was taken from Madden '96. I used to love the absurd comments that Madden made, so this was a nice addition.

So what's the bottom line? Madden NFL 12 was fun to pick up and play occasionally, but failed to hold my attention for more than a quarter at a time. At that rate, I don't see myself finishing a season any time soon.

If you have questions about a game, drop me a line on Twitter @blakethenews .