Madden '94

MADDEN '94

SEGA Genesis

Click HERE for all screenshots.

"He's All Pro tight end. He's big and pretty. Big as a dump truck. Runs like a gazelle. Buy hey. Come across the middle and I send him to another zip code. C.O.D. Next trip through my zone and he'll remember. It's a long season. Stay outta my ZONE!" - Any strong safety, NFL (r)*

*Quote from the back of the Madden ’94 box

While the bad grammar in the opening sentence makes it sound like “any strong safety” is a Russian spy, what really should stand out here is the last bit - this is an NFL strong safety. Madden ’94 is a milestone in the series for a number of reasons. First, it has the NFL license. Second, it includes the option of playing through a 16 game regular NFL season, followed by the playoffs and the Superbowl (yes- THE Superbowl).

The game boasts an astounding 80 teams to choose from (28 NFL teams, 12 All-Time Franchises, 38 Super Bowl Teams, and 2 All-Madden Squads), and features greatly improved graphics and animations. This was clearly a year in which EA decided to invest heavily in their NFL football franchise.

Upon starting up the game, the improved graphics and sound were immediately noticeable. Everything about the presentation is improved- starting with the opening EA Sports logo and the digitized speech (“It’s in the game!”). Even the cheesy animation of Madden is improved. This said, there is one frame where he talks out of the side of his mouth that looks like Madden is telling an off-color joke or using a slur. Asshole.

Madden ’94 has personal meaning for me as it was the first Madden game I ever played. I was 11 years old and my neighbor Brian let me borrow it for a week. I still didn’t watch NFL games on TV at that point, and I had no idea how the game really worked. Brian told me two key things: 1. The Dallas Cowboys were the best team (always be Dallas), and 2. Use the “hail mary” play every time.

Using that strategy as an 11 year old meant I could beat the CPU every time. I won the Superbowl back then with relative ease. But would this simple strategy work with the terrible New England Patriots who were the worst team in the NFL following the ’92 season?

I scrolled through the options screen and chose “New Playoffs” as the Patriots (featuring the new “flying Elvis” logo). (Note: I might start doing full seasons at some point, but for the sake of expediency, I am sticking with Playoffs only for the time being.) The Pats were ranked as “poor” (the lowest ranking) in virtually every phase of the game.

After a splash screen showing the Lombardi Trophy (the prize), I immediately got into the game- Patriots @ Chargers. Once again, I was struck by how much better the presentation was in ’94. The player models are bigger and better defined. Even the coin-toss looks better, with its zoomed in image of realistic looking football players and the referee. The graphics overhaul can be seen everywhere (even the fonts are better).

Once the game got underway, I noticed that the overall speed of the game had also been increased. While it was not lightning fast, it was still faster than the previous three games. This said, the controls had been switched around somewhat. I didn’t have the manual for this game, but I was stunned to find that the “speed-burst” button was missing- now “C” would only do a “hurdle” move and “A” would cause the player to dive straight up in the air (and not forward). I was also baffled by the player numbers on my team- this was supposed to be Drew Bledsoe’s rookie year—why was he wearing #14? There was no #14 QB on New England in 1993! In fact, none of the player numbers matched the rosters that I had.

This player number issue was baffling to me as other teams seemed to have the right numbers (Troy Aikman on Dallas was #8 and Emmitt Smith #22). My best guess is that it had to do with getting an NFL license vs. getting a NFLPA license, but I don’t really know. This lack of consistency basically meant that I had no idea which players I had on my team or who was supposed to be who.

In any case, by halftime, I was still figuring out the controls and was down 7-6. I noted that the crowd was more involved in the game- after big plays, good or bad, there would be a “photo-realistic” depiction of fans cheering or booing. There were also new player animations- including one where a defensive player would take off his helmet and do squat thrusts over a sacked QB’s head. This looked terrible.

Halftime stats were more detailed and in general, the game just felt more polished than in previous years- there were no frame-rate issues on punts.

After I scored a TD in the second half, I was stunned when my XP was blocked by the CPU, leaving me with an awkward 12-7 lead. Some quirks started to show by this point- as was the case in the previous two editions of the game, some players were stacked. The Chargers running backs were unstoppable, for example. Also, some of the new animations just looked awkward. Besides the squat-thrust example mentioned above, some of the tackle animations look bizarre. A tackled player will sometimes tip over like a tower, and will not use his arms to brace for impact. He will just land on his face in the turf.

The rest of my 12-7 game felt like a stalemate UNTIL the last minute or so. The Chargers got the ball back with just under a minute left and no time outs, deep in their own territory. After three incomplete passes, they went for it on 4^th and 10 with a surprise run up the middle. Caught off guard, they picked up the first down and much more, stopping the clock with :01 at my 38 yard line. I decided to blitz with my linebackers while keeping everyone else deep. On the last play of the game, I got heavy pressure and knocked down Chargers QB as he rifled the ball deep down the left sideline and the final gun sounded. My safety dove to make the tackle as the WR hauled in the pass at the 8, but MISSED, and it looked like the receiver was home free. I took control of the closest corner and frantically DOVE to make a game saving tackle. I thought I MISSED, but the WR crumbled at the 1 yard line. I had just barely won 12-7.

My next game was the Pats @ the Dolphins- I decided that I would employ Brian’s old strategy of throwing hail mary after hail mary in order to stay competitive. This strategy was not ideal, but it led to my having a 10-3 halftime lead. For the second straight game, the CPU had horrible clock management skills. Miami had a clear chance to score a field goal before the half that was squandered by bad clock management.

I continued the “bombs away” approach in the second half and realized that if I took control of my WR while the ball was in the air, I could jockey for position and throw the DB out of the way before catching the ball (there is no “offensive pass interference” in the game). I was up 24-3 before Miami tried to mount a comeback. Too little too late- in spite of a safety and a questionable defensive pass interference call against me, Miami came up short, 24-12. They mangled clock management at the end of the 4^th quarter by allowing me to take a ton of time off the clock. I finished the game with 2 yards rushing and 24 points. Brian’s “hail mary” strategy seemed to have worked, even with the lowly Pats.

The AFC Championship game was against the Bills. In the early 1990’s, the Bills were consistently the best team in the AFC (4 consecutive AFC Championships!). Their stats reflected this and it was disheartening to see “excellent” ratings compared against my “poor” ones more or less across the board. I went into the game trying to repeat my deep ball strategy from the Miami game, but was failing miserably in the first half. I simply couldn’t move the ball- running or passing. In contrast, the Bills could do whatever they wanted- especially on the ground. I was down 10-0 at the half, but it should have been worse.

It got worse fast- I started the second half with a fumble. Another questionable pass interference call against me on the Bills drive that followed resulted in my falling behind 17-0. I managed a quick score at the end of the 3^rd quarter, making it 17-7 into the fourth.

Things got weird at this point. The Bills offense- which had been unstoppable- suddenly shut down. All of their runs were lateral and went for no gain. All of their passes were incomplete. I was not complaining, and was able to narrow the score to 17-14 with 1:30 left on the clock. After forcing a 3 and out, I got the ball back on my own 6 yard line with 1:00 left on the clock. Suddenly, my incompetent offense roared to life and I was able to march 94 yards downfield with relative ease to score with :06 left on the clock.

In the end, I overcame a 17 point deficit and 3 turnovers to win the game 21-17. I was relieved, to be sure- I didn’t want to have to start the playoffs over again- but I also couldn’t shake the fact that the CPU seemed to have laid down when I should have lost the game. There is an important lesson here- in Madden ’94 on the SEGA Genesis as well as in life- “Hang in there!”

The “Superbowl” matchup was vs. the Bears- a rematch of Superbowl XX! This was a weird game that involved yet ANOTHER bad pass interference call against me (and subsequent CPU score) - every game I played in Madden ’94 involved at least one major pass interference call against me. When I blocked a punt deep in their endzone, I managed to score a safety and after two field goals, I was up 8-7 at the half.

As I glanced through the halftime stats, I realized that there had been no mention by Madden or anywhere else that this game was the SUPERBOWL. Given that this was the first year that EA had the NFL license (and the right to use the “Superbowl” name/logo), I was surprised at the lack of effort here.

My analysis of the stats led me to believe that I could run the ball against the Bears. I opened the second half by giving this a try and it worked beautifully- a 10 play, 80 yard drive that took over 5 minutes off of the clock and put me on top 15-7. While the Bears threatened to score late in the game, I stopped them four times in a row at the goal line to preserve the win.

I eagerly awaited the picture of the Lombardi trophy with “PATRIOTS” written underneath it, but this moment never came. Instead, I was treated to a cheesy animation showing a generic parade with players driving by in sports cars. This animation repeated itself endlessly and when I finally pressed a button, I was dumped back to the main menu! What happened to the trophy???

I am including the picture of the trophy from the playoff bracket on my trophy gallery on the right column. For evidence that I actually WON it, click HERE .

Ultimately, Madden ’94 marks a huge stride forward in the series. Getting the NFL license, overhauling the graphics and presentation while improving the play selection all add up to the best game yet in the series. This said, it still has issues- the apparent lack of a “speed burst” button is missed and the excessive “pass interference” calls mar the experience. The player speeds are also still a bit sluggish, but this is undoubtedly the best of the first four Madden games.

Madden '93

MADDEN 93

SEGA Genesis

Click HERE for screenshots.

The third version of John Madden football to hit the console market boasted a number of improvements- most notably the introduction of digitized speech from Madden himself while “in-game” and battery-backup (no more convoluted password system). The box (once again, I have the box for the game, but no manual), calls the game “Football’s Greatest Lineup Ever!” and is sure to highlight the addition of 8 “greatest-ever” teams including the ’72 Dolphins and the ’85 Bears--- oops, wait--- still no NFL license in this game, so make that “Miami ’72” and “Chicago ‘85”. With these 8 teams, plus the two “all-madden” teams, the game boasts 38 “pro-teams” to choose from.

As has been the case with the first two Madden games, I don’t have any personal connection to Madden ’93. This was still a bit before the dawn of my football fandom. To me, the biggest improvement to this year’s game from ’92 (besides battery backup) was the addition of new team and player stats that are automatically saved throughout the playoffs. It was neat to track how I was doing throughout the tournament for what would be my final “John Madden Championship Trophy” (the LOMBARDI trophy is introduced in ’94).

In popping in the cartridge and powering up the good ol’ Genesis, a brief screen featuring many EASN (Electronic Arts “Sports Network”) logos spinning around was followed by a terrifying animated image of John Madden. He looks huge and the two frame animation of his mouth chomping up and down made me think he wanted to eat the player (me). Skipping quickly past this screen, I found the menu screen to be an interesting variation on the previous year. Instead of static pictures of two players with color changing jerseys (’92) or no images at all (’91), there are two little windows showing little players running around, making catches, diving, jumping, etc. The jersey color of the little players change depending on which team you are choosing. I found this weirdly charming.

Once again, I jumped right in by choosing “New Playoffs” from the option screen. I was eager to achieve my third John Madden Championship trophy. My matchup was Oakland @ New England – in the snow! 2001 Snow bowl rematch, but in 1993! For the first time in a Madden game, the game actually began with a coin toss. For some reason though, they screwed this up. When the “captains” run onto mid-field to call it in the air, the animation is incredibly choppy and they move like South Park characters. I’m not sure how this happened—the players can run smoothly in-game and there are many more of them. Weird.

As the game got underway, I was immediately struck by the addition of having Madden’s voice interjected in-game. The game was punctuated by frequent digitized speech from the man himself- “He’ll remember THAT number!” after a big hit or “That one didn’t have a chance…” after a bad pass. It could get a little redundant- I think there are only like 6 or 8 comments that he has, but I do think it adds something to the game.

The play-calling system had been improved a little bit (split screen) and I also noticed that the snow actually had a notable impact on the way players ran around. It seemed slippery and players did slide on it. Passing windows are still atrocious, but they refined them a little this year by showing the receiver’s numbers in the window, which can help (a little) in sorting out who is where on the field and whether you are throwing to a back out of the backfield or a wide receiver streaking down the sideline.

I also loved the touchdown music- it features “shredder guitar”, Genesis style, and the only word to describe it is “gnarly”.

A quirk that I noticed was that the game always drops frames on punts. When the screen switches angles from kicker to returner, there is always a laggy gap that lasts about a second when the ball is reaching its apex. Fortunately, this doesn’t impact gameplay very much.

I was up 7-3 at halftime against Oakland (they had scored a cheap field goal in the closing seconds of the half), but I felt ok about the game. My passing attack was horrible (0 yards passing in the first half), but my running back, #32 (Leonard Russell) was quick and effective (RELATIVELY speaking- the game is still pretty damn slow). As mentioned above, the addition of halftime stats was a nice touch, even if they were primitive (basically just info on QB passing).

I got up 14-3 in the third quarter before I was stunned by a 63 yard Oakland TD pass. Down 14-10 with four minutes to go, Oakland surprised me by going for it on 4^th and 10 from deep in their own territory. Given that they had 3 time outs, I thought it was a questionable call. In spite of heavy pressure they converted and ended up scoring on the same drive two minutes later. With less than 2 minutes left, I found myself behind 17-14 and backed up in my own territory. I fumbled the ball on my first play and after forcing them 3 and out, they kicked a field goal to go up 20-14 with :30 left. I completed a deep pass on the next drive, and with :03 left, I heaved the ball into the left corner of the endzone… and it was PICKED OFF.

I lost 20-14.

At first the sting of losing made me depressed. I had just lost 40 minutes of my life that I would never get back. I had lost in Madden ’93 on the SEGA Genesis. What was I doing with my life? While I suppose I could have questioned why I didn’t feel this way earlier (given my recent play-through of Madden ’91 and ’92), I concluded that it was because I hadn’t lost in either of those games. I decided the best thing was to get even with Oakland.

In restarting the playoffs, Oakland was once again the visiting team in New England. This time I showed no mercy and went for the throat from the opening kickoff. Madden’s digitized comments: “AMAZING!”, “WHAT A HIT!!!”, “THAT’S the way to hit ‘em!”, “THAT was a perfect pass!” and “BOOM! He’s on his back!” all sum up my 21-3 revenge beat down.

My next game against Cincinnati was similar- while the buttons weren’t always responsive or did what I intended, I was able to smack down the “Cincinnati pro-team” 21-7. I took note of some of the new player animations for Madden ’93. Most of these are celebratory- players “walk like an Egyptian” and will head-butt each other after a good play.

The next game, New England @ Indianapolis, was more of the same. I overcame the sluggish controls and my atrocious field goal kicker to blank the Jeff George led Colts, 14-0.

My third championship game was fittingly against New York. In looking up the player numbers, it became clear that this squad was based on the ‘92 New York Giants (not the Jets). #15 (Jeff Hostetler) and #27 (Rodney Hampton) were leading the charge, with the support of third down back, #30 (Dave Meggett). The game was set at night and as the players took the field for the opening kickoff, they spun in place and put their hands in the air. I suppose this was to show their enthusiasm for the big game, but instead it just looked like they were all having seizures.

On my first possession, I drove 99 yards and took almost six minutes off the clock to get up 7-0. A pass interference call against #56 (Laurence Taylor) was the key play. When New York got the ball back, it became clear that Rodney Hampton was a “magic” player like Barry Sanders and Ickey Woods had been in Madden ’92. Every time he touched the ball, he would automatically get 6 yards or more. He would literally go THROUGH my defender for +4 yards after contact. Fortunately for me, the CPU did not opt to run it that often with Hampton and instead went with its unreliable passing game and runs with Meggett, who was as bad as Hampton was good. I could routinely stop Meggett for 8 yard losses.

After my terrible field goal kicker shanked a 30 yard field goal before the half, I found myself protecting a weak 7-0 lead at halftime in spite of the fact that I had dominated the game. Midway through the third quarter, disaster struck when I took a shot deep down the right sideline only to have it picked by a Giatns defender and returned 51 yards for the game tying TD.

When I got the ball back with about a minute left in the third, I decided to play it conservatively and rely on the run to control the clock. The drive stalled at the Giant 45 yard line, so on 3^rd and 6 I decided to take a shot deep. As soon as I released the ball, I watched in horror as my receivers collided on their crossing route. While they didn’t fall over, it knocked them off of their intended routes. I got lucky though and the under man came up with the catch intended for the deep man. This 26 yard pickup put me deep into NY territory with just a minute to go. I switched back to the run and managed to score with :18 left on the clock- this put me up 14-7. The drive ended up being 78 yards in total and took over 6 minutes.

New York failed to covert after the kickoff and I held on to the win, which meant my third (and last ever) “John Madden Championship”. In addition to the standard picture of the trophy with “New England” written underneath it, I was also greeted to a special fireworks extravaganza. The spectacle was glorious and well earned. I was champion once again.

Madden '92

"And it's been like that since Madden '92" - Ludacris, Madden 2000 theme

SEGA Genesis

NOTE: Click HERE for screenshots.

John Madden Football '92 is EA's second game in the Madden franchise on the SEGA Genesis. I never played this game growing up, but saw it in the bargain bin at Funcoland for 79 cents in the late 90's (back when Funcoland existed) and I thought it would be interesting to compare to ultra-modern madden games like Madden '99. It then promptly sat on my shelf and then in a box for the next decade. Now, mere days after the release of Madden '11, I am ready to finally turn my attention to Madden '92.

I actually have the box for this one, but no instructions. There was a lot of good information on the box- to begin, there is a giant unattributed quote (I am guessing John Madden) calling the game "The Greatest Play in Football History!" It also was apparently the 1990 game of the year on Genesis according to Game Player's magazine. The game was released in 1991 and is supposed to correlate to the 1991 NFL season, so I'm not sure how that works, but I will trust Game Player's judgment.

The box also boasts better AI ("Get away with your big play ONCE, but go back to it too soon and you'll get stuffed -- BIG TIME."), 29 teams, new formations, more player animations, a new "instant replay" feature, weather options ("wind" is introduced as a factor), QB substitutions, and player injuries. I never saw any injuries in the games that I played, but allegedly an ambulance comes into the field and runs over everything in its path (including players and refs) to get to the player who is down.

After putting the game in and firing up the Genesis, I once again saw the old EA logo and then the title screen with Madden himself. The music is awesome- SO Genesis- it sounds just like music from another popular EA game from that era ROAD RASH.

If you don't do anything, it dumps you to a screen featuring a little talking head of Madden (animated by about three frames on loop) in which text scrolls: "Hey, I did another Genesis football game!" The credits for the development team then scroll down the screen. There is something funny about this because Madden comes off as a dolt without actually speaking.

The menu screen is an improvement over the original- while it still has a similar style, it now includes pictures of football players at the top of the screen and their uniforms change color depending on which teams you choose. Once again, however, the game has no NFL license and so there are no team names or player names or anything like that. HOWEVER, players DO now have numbers that roughly correspond to NFL rosters in 1991 (these rosters are very easy to find with a simple Google search).

The team selection has been expanded to include the 28 pro NFL teams at the time (before Baltimore, Tennessee, Jacksonville, and Carolina had teams) as well as an "All-Madden" squad.

The game options are similar to the first Madden game in that a "regular season" game is really just an "exhibition" whereas the "Playoffs" let you string together games in a single-elimination tournament in the hopes of winning the (now officially named) "John Madden Championship Trophy". Being the competitor that I am, I really wanted another one of these to add to my collection.

I started up a "new playoff" and the first match-up was NE @ Oakland. John Madden provided the pre-game scouting report by telling me that "New England relies on defense to stay in the game." Very helpful, as usual.

The graphics are slightly improved from the previous game, although much is lifted directly. The jersey colors seem to better emulate the colors of the teams they are supposed to represent. Once again, there is no coin toss and the player is immediately launched into the kick-off (visitors always kick first). The kickoff meter is new and improved though and has a little wind meter to help you angle it better. Whenever there is a big play (I guess of 20 yards or more that helps the home team- something like this) a crude 3-frame animation of a crowd cheering will pop up. While this is a nice touch, the stands still appear empty after a field goal- just rows of empty seats.

Players seem a little less sluggish than before, but are still pretty slow by most standards. It can feel like the game is taking place under water at times and the player you are controlling only responds to the buttons you press most of the time (trying to string together a spin move followed by a dive or whatever can be frustrating).

The new instant replay feature is crude, but it basically works. It can only remember the last 5 seconds or so of the previous play, so on big returns the instant replay may only capture the player running from the 10 to the 5 and crossing the goal line while skipping the diving catch he made to get there.

I got a kick out of having the players numbers for the first time. My starting QB was #7 (who is supposed to be Hugh Millen, I think). Before my time, but I enjoyed linking up with #80, Irving Fryar, on 3rd downs.

The A.I. does seem to be improved over the original- I was stunned when the CPU controlled Oakland running back juked me with a spin move. There is also a drive summary after each score, which is a nice touch. Passing windows return and still are awful. The ball spotter is less forgiving than before- if you get hit and dropped, you can't bank on the automatic +3 yards added to the total as was the case before.

In the process of learning all of these quirks, I once again found myself losing to the CPU at half-time in my first game. This time, I was down 10-7. Madden popped up and gave me a tip- "When a run is a must, I want my big guys up in there." Okay...

After the (somewhat pointless) highlights shown from around the league, I launched into the second half. I realized that my linebacker #56 (Hall of Famer Andre Tippett) was notably faster than my other defensive players, so I leaned on him heavily. I shut out Okland in the second half and came away with a 17-10 win.

The next game against Cincinnati was one for the ages- here more quirks began to show up. To begin, some players are totally stacked. #30 on Cincinnati (Ickey Woods) was unstoppable and I was lucky to be up 14-7 at the half. I realized a trick that, while on offense, pressing the dive button ("A") is pretty much a guaranteed additional 6 yards after the run.

The second half began with a string of Ickey runs and after a shootout, the game was tied at the end of regulation 28-28. My first OT experience in the Madden series had no clock- whoever scored first would win. In the course of the game it became evident that there was no way for me to stop Ickey Woods (I hadn't forced a punt all day), so I was aggressive and went for it on 4th and 7 from deep in my own territory. I was able to convert by using the "dive" trick on a run to bring up a new set of downs. The game went a bit nuts at this point. What had been a turnover free game became a free-for-all. I threw a pick. They threw a pick. I ran up the middle (to play it safe) and fumbled the ball over to them. I stuff them three plays in a row and on 4 and 6 they went for it (on my 40 or so). This time THEY use the dive trick and pick up the first down. I thought the game was lost, but then #7 (Boomer Esiason) threw another pick, making it four consecutive turnovers. This time, I was able to return the ball 40+ yards. This put me well into scoring range. I didn't take any chances at this point and booted a short field goal to win 31-28.

Following the field goal, the "final score" screen, which normally just shows the score superimposed over an image of the field, showed little dots (representing fans) storming the field and tearing down the goal posts (no joke). It was a special moment.

The next game was at Miami. This game was far less interesting as I was in control throughout- after getting up 17-0, a late score by Miami did not matter. My 17-7 win put me in another championship game, this time against Detroit, to compete for my second straight "John Madden Championship Trophy".

As the game got underway in Detroit, it immediately became apparent that the Ickey Woods phenomenon of being lightning fast and unstoppable was even more pronounced in #20, Barry Sanders. Regardless of the personnel I had on the field or the defensive formation, every time Sanders touched the ball he seemed to go between 25-70 yards. My best strategy was to keep him off the field by having long drives of my own. This resulted in a 10-10 tie at the half.

It wasn't until this game that I realized that passing controls had been refined a bit from the previous year- if you needed to zip a ball to the receiver quickly, hold the button, if you want to loft it up to him, tap it. This might seem obvious to any current Madden player, but this did not exist in the first game (everything was a lob).

For the second half of the championship, I continued my strategy of trying to keep Sanders off the field at all costs. After trading scores with them, I managed to pull ahead 24-17 with 1:44 to go. The time constraints made the computer opt to finally start passing the ball (a terrible mistake given that Sanders could have scored at will). They managed to get to my 10 yard line nevertheless and stopped the clock with 3 seconds left. With one play left in the game, the quarterback rifled the ball over the middle to the tight-end, who was promptly dropped by my linebacker at the 1. The final gun sounded and I had escaped with my second "John Madden Championship Trophy".

Once again, the reward for winning the championship was lacking. A picture of the trophy flashed in front of the screen (as it had during every playoff game), but this time, "New England" was written underneath it. There was no special music or anything.

In conclusion, Madden '92 improves on the original game in a number of small ways making it a better package on the whole. Players are a bit faster, the computer DOES seem a bit smarter, things seem to work a bit better in general. However, in other ways it seemed less balanced on the whole- the games I almost lost had less to do with the CPU's superior strategy and more to do with the heavily skewed stats in favor of a couple of players. If I were to assign numbers to rate the games, I would say that the first game was a 3.5/10 and this one is 4/10.

John Madden Football ('91)

SEGA GENESIS

The first John Madden Football game on the Sega Genesis was released in 1990. I had never played this game growing up, but I found it at a local shop recently for $1.95 – no manual and no box. After cleaning the cartridge and firing up the Genesis, I was bracing for the worst. I assumed that gameplay would be unbearable and the graphics just awful.

The results were actually a bit more nuanced than this. After the initial splashscreen showing the old (Marble Madness era) Electronic Arts Logo, I was greeted by the John Madden Football themesong and an image of the man himself. Powerful stuff.

After pressing start, the screen turned green and I saw the ugly menu screen. This is probably one of the worst menu screens I have ever seen- solid green background with bright yellow text. No graphics at all. Options were limited- 5 or 15 minute quarters only, along with a choice of a "regular season", "sudden death" or "playoff" game.

"Regular season" is really code for "exhibition" in that it has nothing to do with any part of a larger season- it is just a way to play a full game. "Sudden death" is like a regular season game, except the game ends as soon as someone scores any points. I was most interested in the "playoffs" because I wanted to win the "trophy".

It is important to note that at this stage, Madden was far from acquiring the NFL license. There is no Superbowl to win, there are no team names, nor are their player names. The teams are just listed by city, or in my case, the New England region. There are 16 "regular" teams plus 1 "All Madden" squad. They are as follows:

• Denver


• Houston
  


• Buffalo
  


• Cincinnati
  


• Miami
  


• New England
  


• Kansas City
  


• Pittsburgh
  


• All Madden
  


• San Francisco
  


• Philadelphia
  


• Minnesota
  


• Los Angeles
  


• Atlanta

• New York

• Washington

• Chicago

What about all of the missing cities? Why include "Atlanta", but not "Dallas"? Does "New York" reference the Giants or the Jets? Are these teams actually modeled after their NFL counterparts at all?

Most of these questions remain a mystery, but any hint of correlation between these cities and the NFL teams they fielded in 1990/1 can only be found in the pre-game "scouting reports". From these reports I was able to discern that New England had "good wideouts" and a strong "left side of the offensive line", but an "aging quarterback" (Grogan?) and a terrible d-line. Most importantly, my punting was weak.

The scouting report is the only clue though, as once you actually get in game, players don't have numbers! There is no way to find out if you were throwing to or running the ball with your favorite player because there is no way to identify any of them. They all look identical- the exact same model was used for every player on the field at all times. Some players may be a little faster or slower than others, but that was really the only way I could distinguish any difference at all.

I dove right into the game play of "John Madden Football TM" by starting immediately with the "playoff" option. Round 1 of the tournament featured "Cincinnati @ New England". The game begins in earnest- there is no coin toss (visitors always kick first) and all of a sudden, the ball is kicked off and you have to be ready to return it. My return man was S L O W, but I soon began to realize that everyone on the field was S L O W. This could have just been because "New England" sucked that year, but I think it had more to do with the way the game was programmed. Even things like the kick meter (used for field goals, punts, and kickoffs) crawls at such a slow rate that it is difficult not to max it out every time (also, there is no wind in the game, so don't worry about the elements).

The play calling screen is pretty straightforward- you first chose your "package"- "big" or "fast" or whichever personnel you want on the field. Then you choose the formation ("shotgun", "goal line", etc) before choosing your play ("power sweep left"). As a runner/ball carrier, you can press "A" to dive, "B" to spin, and "C" for a "speed-burst". After a few plays, I learned both that there is no reason to ever stop pounding "C" and that the "strong o-line" mentioned in my scouting report was terrible and the scout needs to be fired.

Passing is a funny affair- this version of Madden uses "passing windows" in which you are given a little "TV" representation of where each of your players are on the field. You press "C" on the controller to snap the ball, "C" to bring up the windows (A, B, C), and then the corresponding "A", "B", or "C" button to throw to the open receiver. The windows are problematic for a number of reasons. To start, they automatically take up 30%+ of the screen when brought up, which makes them big enough to get in the way, but small enough (when split 3-ways as they always are) to make out what is going on around the receiver. In fact, you really have no fucking idea what is going on by looking at a passing window. There is no sense as to how far downfield these guys are or how many defenders are around them beyond the 3 yard radius displayed in the window. The game seems to be somewhat aware of this fact, however, and compensates by making completions VERY easy to accomplish. If I could get the ball anywhere near a receiver, he would catch it 90% of the time before being immediately tackled to the ground.

It took me a little while to get the hang of it, and at the half, I was losing 21-14 to the Bengals—oops- I mean "Cincinnati". At half-time, I was surprised to be treated to some half-time stats. Madden also shared other playoff scores and even showed a few "highlights" from other games (wow!).

I ended up winning this first game 28-21 and began to get a hang for some of the game's quirks. The ball is always spotted very favorably for the offense. It seems like no matter what, you always fall forward a few yards. Be careful on kick-offs- the kick meter will start automatically whether you want it to or not, so don't get up from your chair after a score (there is a pause button however). I also noticed that using the diving tackle ("A") on defense greatly increased the chance that the ball carrier would fumble the ball.

I won my next game against "Miami"- in a pretty uneventful 14-3 game. The one twist came in the 3^rd Quarter when the CPU opted for a questionable fake punt on fourth down deep into his own territory (it didn't work). This game was followed by a game against Buffalo in the SNOW. I didn't really notice any changes in game mechanics in the snow- the field was colored white instead of green though. This did make it difficult to see the hash-marks, so I guess that is worth noting. I saw my first penalty in three games before the half- I was flagged for a (flagrant) pass interference when I dive tackled the receiver long before he got the ball. I won the game handily 28-0.

By this point the sluggish controls were really getting to me. Why was everyone so frickin' slow all the time? There had been virtually no big plays in any of the games I had played- nothing longer than a 30 yard pass. I rarely had to punt the ball and most of my drives would take a number of minutes off of the clock (resulting in relatively low-scoring games). I noticed that while you could occasionally hear a sound effect emulating "crowd noise", there were never shots of the crowd and whenever the stands were visible (after a field goal), they were empty. It was surreal and added to the sense that you were playing a game to an empty stadium in a field located on the moon.

After the "big win" against Buffalo, I was ready for the championship game against Minnesota. I punched in my code (there is no battery backup, so after every playoff win I was awarded with a seven digit code to advance to the next round), and geared up for the action. After a weak 7-0 lead at the half, I ended up winning handily 21-7 and finishing with 8 sacks. Again, this was a game with no big plays whatsoever as all of the players on both teams were too frickin' sluggish and slow to break away from anyone.

What was my reward for winning the "championship"? Well, not much. A picture of the "trophy" was superimposed on top of an image of the field with the final score of the game written over it. I was then unceremoniously dumped to the ugly green menu screen.

CONCLUSION

John Madden Football is what it is. It doesn't hold a ton of value beyond being a novelty item- the limited teams, limited play selection, slow (S L O W) player movement and apparent absence of big plays make the game a bit of a slug by today's standards. But is it fun? Well, kind of. I went in expecting it to be simply dreadful and it was not. I did have fun with it, but by the time I had won my "trophy" I felt done with it and that there was little reason to revisit it ever again.

Boom! Pow! Wap!

John Madden may come off as a big fat idiot, but he has lent his name (and advice) to a series of football video games that has shaped the sports gaming landscape for more than 20 years.

In taking inventory of my game collection, I realized that I had nearly every iteration of Madden on one format or another. With the release of Madden 2011 in a just a few days, I thought it would be interesting (and fun) to play and write about each game in the series to see how the series has evolved over the years. I was able to fill in the few gaps in my collection quite easily given that used Madden games generally cost $1 or $2 (on any system).

Most of these games came out on multiple platforms, but I am sticking with the consoles that I have access to. The breakdown goes something like this:

SEGA GENESIS:

John Madden Football (The Original)

Madden '92

Madden '93

Madden '94

Madden '95

Madden '96

PlayStation 1:

Madden '97

Madden '98

Madden '99

Madden 2000

PlayStation 2:

Madden 2001

Madden 2002

Madden 2003

Madden 2004

Madden 2005

XBOX 360:

Madden 06

Madden 07

Madden 08

Madden 09

Madden 10

My intent is to provide a review of each game from a current viewpoint. I will probably interject some personal memories of the games if I have any and you can also anticipate a strong pro-New England Patriots bias throughout.

Also worth noting is that I don't really have a good way of getting screenshots from the games, so I have been using a crude method of "taking pictures of the TV" with my digital camera. Pretty shoddy, but it is the best I've got at the moment.

Enjoy!