If you’ve ever owned a Bonsai tree you’ll know how it feels playing Madden on the PSP. Patience is the key. Nurturing tenderly, feeding with due care and getting the right temperature all takes time and persistence. Ultimately you are rewarded with something small yet beautiful. Then it dies.

Madden may not be beautiful, in the classical sense, but the franchise has always been the benchmark for others to aspire to. Now it has been drafted onto the PSP, retaining all the key ingredients of its bigger, well-established, brother. All the teams, plays and features are here as well as a few extras.

Graphics are well-polished and when the game hots up, the action doesn’t suffer. However, a fundamental problem that plagues the game (and the sport in general) is the amount of time needed to play just one fixture.

A regular match can last up to an hour and to get the most out of the main Franchise mode you’ll need a few weeks’ holiday to spend building your team and working on plays. Not really ideal for that bus journey to work.

The token mini-games fail to capture the imagination, and the multiplayer modes are all well and good, providing that you can find another person with plenty of time on their hands. Those who are looking for some portable pigskin perfection will be very sadly disappointed.