The 14th installment of the Madden NFL series, the game features former St. Louis Rams running back Marshall Faulk on the cover.

This edition of Madden was the first to have EA Trax, the Mini Camp mode, and to feature Al Michaels as play-by-play announcer, who took over for Pat Summerall.

The GameCube, PlayStation 2 and Xbox versions received "universal acclaim", while the PC, PlayStation and Game Boy Advance versions received "generally favorable reviews", according to the review aggregation website Metacritic.

[43] Maxim gave it a perfect score twice, once from Ryan Boyce, who said that "The folks at EA Sports... loaded this year's ultrarealistic game up with a slew of new features that include online play, a huge arcade-style training camp, and a nifty play creator that’s so versatile that you can have receivers run pass routes that spell your name";[44] and once from Scott Steinberg, who said that, "Destined for the Hall of Fame, Madden's latest namesake (now in its 13th year) improves upon already stunning graphics and amps game play with faster speed and such fresh gridiron moves as sidearm passing and—wahoo!—gang tackling.

"[45] The Cincinnati Enquirer gave it four-and-a-half stars out of five, saying, "Veteran players will be familiar with the feel of the game they grew up with, but there are certainly enough tweaks and new additions to justify its purchase.