5 Great Madden Plays to Celebrate the Release of Madden NFL 12

Grab your helmets, because Madden NFL 12 hits shelves today, and you all know what that means: More sick plays and more ridiculous slow-motion glitched-out moments of hilarity. We covered some pretty funny Madden moments back when the lockout ended (check out that list here), and today we’re taking something of a more “wow, that was cool” or “weird” angle.

Scroll on down to see five great Madden plays that I picked based on what I thought was most interesting during a YouTube search. These aren’t The Best Ever given that finding The Best Ever would require the better part of a week of YouTube-scouring, but after a morning spent searching, these were pretty cool to watch. Just don’t flood me with comments about how they’re all playing on Rookie and hacked out. I don’t care.

Please excuse the quality of some of these: Apparently Madden players like to film their games on their cell phones and many have low-grade seizures while doing so.

5. Not Supposed to Bend That Way

Not so much a play as a sickening hit mixed with a bit of an animation glitch, this one reminds is hard to look away from in that morbid, driving-past-a-car-wreck kind of way.

4. He Emerges Victorious

After a botched strip and a ton of broken tackles, somehow this guy pulls out the TD.

3. Can’t Be Stopped

Note: the language in this one makes it NSFW. However, imagining this play being made by a living player kind of makes it awesome.

2. Helluva Hit

One Wii player takes a creative angle after one of his receivers gets knocked into next week. Or six feet under.

1. Well Played, Sir

There’s something hypnotic about the Rube Goldberg style of a play filled with laterals that all happen to go just right.