Game Play: (6/10): The game play in Madden ’94 is unfortunately more of the same with some great new options. I’ll start with the good things first, You now have a season mode that actually counts, you now can guild a team though 16 games into the playoffs and maybe if you are good to the Super Bowl. The controls are very responsive if you press for you guy to spin he will spin instantly. The player’s animations make the game look more realistic. The playbook is much improved over earlier Madden games (I’ll go into that more in the options area). As far as the bad, the CPU players are still dumb. You can still run the same play over and over with the same results. Some other things bother me are the CPU players can jump over the line for a 5 yard game, still too hard to pass and too easy to run, smaller players still run through the best defenders way too often, no player names still just numbers. Even though the game play is still to easy I still find it a lot of fun by far the better then any Madden made before ’94. The reason for the lower score was because they didn’t change the game play enough just added more options. As with all prior Madden’s the best way to play them is to grab a friend or three because you can now play 1-4 players if you have a four-way play adapter. Options: (9 of 10): This is where the folks at Madden really improved the game. As mentioned earlier you now have a season complete with the playoffs to play through. The season also will keep track of your win, losses, ties, points scored, and points against on you battery making no need for passwords. I was however disappointed that it didn’t keep your players stats, Madden ’93 started to keep player stats but only keep them for your QB. I was hoping they would improve upon that and keep all the key stats. You also can’t sub players in and out of the game. One thing with this game you will never say I wish it had more teams….It has an impressive 80 teams. 28 NFL teams updated for 1993-94 season, 38 Super Bowl teams since 1966, 12 All Time Franchises since 1950, and 2 All Madden teams. I love the All Time Franchises that has the best players that played for each team. You can play a Exhibition, playoffs, Championship playoffs, Franchise Playoffs, and the Season. One thing they really improved on as well was the playbook. You now have 72 different plays to chose from as well as the option to flip them. Some other options added are Reverse angle replays, audibles, that you can customize, “Bluff Mode” that disguises what play you are going to take. 4-way play; 2 on 1, 2 on 2, 3 on 1, or even 4 vs. the CPU. Over all this is a huge improvement, but I can’t give it a 10 because they still do not have saved stats for a season. Graphics and Audio: (6 of 10) The graphics in this game are better then 1993 Madden, but they still have a long way to go. The totally redid the players to make them look larger and more fluid, but they are still too small and it looks like the ball magically appears in their hands when they catch it. Also the field needs to be bigger. The field looks the same as last year with only slight improvements. The players in Madden ’91, ’92, ’93 all had number 11 on their backs, well they got rid of number 11 only to get number 32, except the QB’s who are all number 17. As far as Audio more of the same as well, Madden still will tell you his Maddenism’s that you will grow tired of very fast. The menu music is even the same. Overall (7 of 10): I really did like this game, but I walked away from it asking for more. I wish it saved players stats throughout the season. I would still recommend this game to someone looking for a cheep football game to play with friends.
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