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.