The Video Game Critic

There's only one way to properly review a series of games like this, and that's back-to-back-to-back.  My friend Eric was recently in town and that's exactly what we did with the SNES Madden series.

I updated the reviews up to '95, and the rest are brand new.  I hope you enjoy these, and I hope they get you psyched up for the football season!

Comments are encouraged!

It's funny you should review these, considering I purchased all these except 98 last week

Oh my, that's an awful lot of "Madden."  And just when we thought we got rid of the guy by him retiring this season.

Why didn't you guys review/replay the Genesis "Madden" games?  The SNES versions are OK (more color and detail) but Genesis is where "Madden" made it's name on consoles in the 16-bit era.  Those Genny 'Madden' engines were just smoking-fast, tight with the controller and had decent (though unspectacular) graphics that got you into an NFL football mindset.  Cleaner audio and better color were the only aspects in which SNES "Madden" beat its Genesis counterparts, IMHO.  And this from someone that became his college dorm's darling in 1994/1995 when I bought a 3DO with EA's "Madden" game included.  Between "Madden" and Crystal Dynamics' "Slam & Jam '95" my dorm room was packed every night with friends and hangers-on just itching to play the most realistic-looking football/basketball games they had ever seen in their lives (circa '95).  

Whoa, good job. i've never seen you post so many at once. I guess the series really did improve over time.

It's still surprising that the games kept comming out as late as 1997, though.

Thanks for the feedback so far.  I agree that the Genesis was really the definitive series, but I hadn't reviewed many of these SNES games so I had to take care of that first.

I will try to do a similar thing with the Genesis Maddens in the upcoming weeks.

Give us a quick preview--what's your favorite 16-bit Madden ever? My vote goes for 93 on the Genesis.

[QUOTE=Chaser]Give us a quick preview--what's your favorite 16-bit Madden ever? My vote goes for 93 on the Genesis.
[/QUOTE]

To be honest, I don't remember.  I will have to go back and re-evaluate them all.

"lifes to be over."

Should be "lives".

Trivia question - Madden is currently always one year ahead of the 'real world' NFL season (for instance, Madden '09 came out at the beginning of the '08 NFL season).  Were the Madden games always one year up on the NFL season, and if not at what point did it jump forward 1 year?
Sudz

This is probably my favorite review set of all time. In it, you can see the story of a series evolving, from the difficulties of simply representing 22 sprites on the field at full speed, to the failed experiment with increasing the detail on the grass. Your reviews offer an insight into classic game design that's hard to find anywhere else.

Good show.

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