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.