Madden 09 get you close to realistic NFL action ... but maybe not this close.

Armchair quarterbacks rejoice! Madden Day — an unofficial national holiday for diehard football fanatics and crazed gamers — has finally arrived and could cause electric bills to spike, worker productivity to plummet and romantic relationships to go on hiatus for the next few weeks or so.

And if you’re one of the millions of Americans who suffer from the debilitating disorder known as Maddenitis, you were probably awake until the wee hours — if you slept at all — after picking up “Madden 09” when it was released at midnight.

Hey, Madden Day only comes around once a year. That’s what we have sick days for, right?

EA Sports released the 20th anniversary edition of the longest-running franchise in sports video games today, and more than 20 Baltimore-area GameStop stores opened at midnight to accommodate the demands of loyal Madden followers. GameStop planned giveaways for customers expected to line up to buy the game as early as 10 p.m.

“There has been a really good buzz,” said Craig Gosnell, GameStop’s district manager for the Baltimore/Northeast market, on Monday night. “Madden is our biggest title every year.”

The Baltimore-Washington market has been GameStop’s highest-selling market for “Madden” in the past two years, Gosnell said, and also ranks first in pre-release reservations.

But will “Madden 09” (EA Sports, for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, $59.99; Wii, $49.99; PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable, $39.99; Nintendo DS, $29.99) be worth the wait for the gamers who waited in line to get their hands on the game earlier this morning?

EA has always delivered new features in each installment, but this year the company is going long, stuffing nearly a dozen fresh game modes and gimmicks into the package.

“This year is a really good year for ‘Madden,’” said Gosnell. “The game is selling itself.”

Many of the new features in “Madden 09” are geared toward helping the novice. You start off with the Madden Test, which gauges your skill in passing, running, pass defense and run defense, then adjusts the game’s difficulty to your strengths and weaknesses. Each time you play a game, your skill level is adjusted according to your performance. If you’re weak in one area, there’s a virtual trainer who can help beef up your skills.

A few more in-game features let you learn from your mistakes. Instead of getting fired up over a bad play, you can hit the rewind button and try the play again. Or you can watch a backtrack video, in which the game shows how a botched play could’ve been salvaged.

In Franchise Rivalry games against division rivals, the pressure is ratcheted up and everything becomes a little more difficult. (Difficulty also gets ramped up in the playoffs and Super Bowl.) For the truly hardcore, the front office mode lets you take charge of every aspect of the football organization, from salaries to scouting. The most celebrated addition to this year’s “Madden” is online leagues, which allow up to 32 competitors to create their own league, draft or trade players and schedule games in the order they like. The new online leagues are dominating the “Madden 09” buzz on video game message boards, with posters looking for other serious gamers to join their online league.

Recently unretired quarterback Brett Favre was named the “Madden 09” cover boy in April, and he’s shown on the cover in his Green Bay Packers uniform — even though he was traded to the New York Jets last week. Publisher Electronic Arts said it was releasing a downloadable update before the start of the regular season to make Favre a Jet in the game, as well as new cover art.

The post-game recap: “Madden 09” looks better than ever, with high-definition graphics that come awfully close to the level of a network broadcast. If you’re a hardcore “Madden” fan, you probably have the game already. If you’re a “Madden” newcomer, it’s time to get off the sidelines and get in the game.

{Matt Vensel, b, and AP}

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