Madden 99
Click HERE for screenshots.
SONY Playstation 1
“Hey, you want big-time football? The boom, the doink, the whack? It’s all here! This is MY game!” – John Madden (from introduction)
“Don’t worry about the horse being blind, just load that wagon.” – John Madden (from Super Bowl pregame pep-talk)
Madden ’99 was a banner product in EA’s “year of the cyber athlete” – the year in which all of their major sports franchises went to full 3-d. The game opens with a little video showing athletes jumping around with sensors attached to their bodies against blue and green screens. These motion captured feats are the basis for the player models and animations used in Madden ’99. Unfortunately- much like Madden ’97 – Madden ’99 feels like an unfinished product. EA Sports was breaking down a new boundary in going over to full 3-d and as I struggled through the sluggish controls on the opening menu (that’s right, the MENU screen), I distinctly got the feeling that the kinks hadn’t been worked out yet.
Jumping right into things, I simmed through the regular season and found that my Pats had won the right to host a wildcard matchup against the Seahawks – remember when the Seahawks were in the AFC? Anyway, the pregame nonsense featuring James Brown, Pat Summerall and John Madden are in tact for this game and the game was preceded by the usual vague football clichés (“you have to play hard, but play smart”).
As the game got underway, I was struck (hard) by the horror of the graphics. The hideous graphics are only eclipsed by the choppy and almost unplayable frame rate issues that plague everything – from menus, to the play-calling screen, and ESPECIALLY on-the-field action. This issue was particularly intense as this game vs. the Seahawks was in the snow. Having the snow falling on the screen on top of all these 3d models was clearly too much for the PSX to handle. Nevertheless, I adjusted the camera to “Madden classic” (the default view is WAY too close to the field to see anything), I got set to kick off and the game was underway.
Everything in the game was slow- it reminded me of the earliest Madden games on the Genesis (’91 and 92 in particular). As the Seahawks systematically marched down the field for the score on their opening drive, I grew somewhat detached from the game itself and tried to take in the visuals as some form of bizarre abstract art. The player models are made up of a few boxy polygons. White gashes (“snow”) streaks choppily across the screen. Everything moves in slow motion as players execute pre-programmed motion captured spins, only reacting several seconds after you press the corresponding button. It was like a ballet of horror. The stadium itself is strange and is in pieces. There are 3 or 4 separate chunks of stadium seats around me, and each one just ends abruptly at a 90 degree angle. I would hate to be a fan sitting on the edge of one of those seats as there is no barrier protecting against a deadly plunge. I thought to myself that Madden was quiet and not providing much commentary – the whole game seemed very quiet – and then I realized – EVERYTHING IS QUIET ON THE MOON! HAHAHAHAHA!
Ok. At halftime I was losing 14-0 and it wasn’t even close. I had no idea what I was doing out there and had produced -6 yards of offense all day. I managed a FG and a late score + 2 pt. conversion late, but a Bledsoe pick in the closing seconds ended my chances for a comeback. The 14-11 loss in this dreadful game was insult to injury and I didn’t pick up the controller again for a couple of weeks.
**
When I summoned the courage to return to this experiment, I tried to be more positive. I noted that the 3-d player models DID seem to give the players a better sense of weight. The physics seemed improved by it. These were no longer paper men than could turn on a dime, but were instead boxy chunks that rumbled down the field into one another. Yes, the animations were not great, but at least players didn’t explode like they did in Madden ’97.
In my rematch vs. Seattle
**
I took another week or so off from the game before my third attempt against Warren Moon and the Seahawks. I was angry and annoyed at the slow load times and cruddy menus. The fact that the game took place in the rain was appropriate for my mood.
Bledsoe came out hot and completed his first 10 passes. I raced to a 17-0 lead. They scored a TD with 2 minutes left in the first half, but for some reason opted for the 2-pt conversion (which failed). I went into halftime up 17-6. The second half opened with another impressive drive by me, resulting in a Ben Coates TD and cementing my 24-6 shellacking of the Seahawks. Third time is a charm, I guess.
The divisional round put me in Buffalo
I went with the Prevent defense and put all of my corners deep. Inexplicably, this resulted in the completion of a 60 yard bomb that put them at my 20 yard line with the clock running down. 8 seconds, the wide out passes the ball to the ref, 7 seconds, the players start to line up for the snap, 4 seconds, the players get set, 2 seconds, Rob Johnson snaps the ball and SPIKES it to the ground to stop the clock – but it reads :00! The game is over! I win!
Whatever- I will take it.
The AFC Championship featured the Raiders at New England in the snow. As mentioned above, the game runs slowest and looks the worst in these snow games. By this point, I had noticed that there was an unusually high percentage of tipped passes at the line of scrimmage in this game. On defense, as long as you press the “jump” button when the QB throws the ball – regardless of which player you are controlling – the ball will be batted down about 60% of the time.
Another boring, low scoring game was 6-3 Pats at halftime and ended 20-3 after a pick six late in the fourth quarter by Ty Law to close things out. The Raiders marched down and scored a field goal on their opening drive and were held to 1 first down for the rest of the game. Not the most realistic scenario, but a win is a win in Madden ’99.
The Super Bowl XXXIII matchup featured the Pats vs. the Rams in a preview of the real life Super Bowl XXXVI. This game was far less interesting than the real life game however. I watched the pre-game show and was confused as to why the Vince Lombardi Trophy- which is made of sterling silver- is completely transparent during the pre-game show with James Brown. Was it a trophy or a hologram? Whatever. I was going to win that hunk of glass no matter what.
After another eternal wait for the game to load, the game was underway. Damn this game is ugly. Why did they pick such crappy fonts to show player names under the selected player? It is just barely legible and I am playing the game on a giant television! What would it have looked like on a 19” screen?
Anyway, I scored a rare TD on my opening drive and the rest of the half was typical stagnant Madden ’99. 7-0 at the half. I thought I was going to score again to open the second half, but another holding call wiped out my TD and on the very next play Bledsoe threw a key interception which was run back deep into my territory. The Rams couldn’t move the ball on this drive though (or on any other drive), so they had to settle for a field goal, putting the game at 7-3.
That was really the game. I managed to grind out the clock and ended up scoring again (almost by accident) on the final play of the game. This made the score a deceptive 14-3 final, but 7-3 is far more accurate. In fact, this could have been the tagline for Madden ’99 – “Every game feels like it is 7-3.”
In one final parting shot, the “prize” for winning the game was a Super Bowl championship video, which featured a number of clips showing the Packers hoisting the Super Bowl trophy after their Super Bowl XXXI win and the Broncos doing the same following Super Bowl XXXII. As a Pats fan, this was just insulting. The Packers BEAT the Patriots in Super Bowl XXXI and now I had to watch their celebration all over again? The Broncos THRASHED the Patriots the following season, but I had to watch them celebrate too? Fuck it.
Madden ’99 is garbage.
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