"It may have taken three tries, but the Madden series begins to show its potential. Unfortunately, some things still need working on."

After two rather lackluster titles that served as little more than the base formula for future successful titles, Madden 94 was the first game in the Madden series that showed how good the series would eventually become.

The first thing that fans of Madden 92 or Madden 93 will notice is a very large number of gameplay options, including the long-awaited ability to simulate a full season. 1994 was the year that the NFL experimented with two bye weeks for each team, and though the schedule is generated randomly (the Madden title of the year simulating the true NFL schedule wasn't instituted until later titles) you'll still see each team have two weeks off. After you go through your season, it's off to the playoffs and Super Bowl if you're good enough; and unlike the previous two Madden games, that much-deserved parade will take place should you win it all.

But there is much more to do than to simply simulate a season. All-time teams exist all over the place, and you'll be able to simulate a playoff season with them as well. You'll also have access to every team in the game for exhibition mode, and some very interesting matchups can take place here. Imagine the '85 Bears against the All-Madden Team for a second, or any one of hundreds of other potential matchups.

The in-game has been given a much-needed overhaul, starting with the graphics. At a glance the game will look the same as before given the view of the field being the same as in previous games, but there's more to it than that. Player sprites are far more detailed this time around, and as such you'll see many different ways in which players fly at each other or fall to the ground. There's also been a dramatic change in the music, though it isn't that much better than the tracks seen in previous Madden titles.

Major changes were also added to the gameplay itself. Play-calling is now much easier and faster. Rather than picking a player package, formation and play like in the previous two Madden titles, now all you need to do is pick a formation and play. Not only does the game essentially plug in the player package for you, but you won't have to deal with the annoyance of watching substitutes run on and off the field every time you change your mind about what player package is necessary. You just have to pick and go. You'll also get the added benefits of an easier audible system, seeing how many timeouts each team has at all times, and better graphics in the playbook itself which will lead to a better understanding of the plays.

This said, this game shows that the series still needs to work on a lot of things, namely how easy it is. In fact, Madden 94 might be the easiest game of the series yet. In the running game, you win if you have a fast running back like Emmitt Smith of the Cowboys or Thurman Thomas of the Bills, no questions asked. If you're using a weak team like the Browns or the Patriots, that's fine. You simply need to have all of your running plays go straight up the middle, and it won't take long for you to figure out which running plays are guaranteed 4-5 yard gains. The one thing that can be said is that the spin move isn't nearly as overpowered as in the past games, though you won't agree with this is you're a fan of using the best backs in the NFL when you play. Consider it a miracle or a fluke if you ever see Barry Sanders tackled before he gains 10 yards.

The passing game, despite EA taking steps to make it more difficult, is still fairly easy to master. You still only need to lob the ball to your favorite receiver, then move him under the ball to get good at the passing game. Sure the catch radius is smaller, but it doesn't matter too much once you're used to it. In fact this method is probably the best to go with, because trying to use a "realistic" passing game doesn't work very well. Receivers don't run routes correctly, and the easiest example of this is that they don't turn around and stop on hook or curl routes, or will simply run out of bounds on out routes. You're left with little else other than sending the receivers deep and bombing away.

Don't worry about the unrealistic aspect of at least seven defenders always being able to get to your receivers before the ball, because you'll probably be able to catch it anyway.

Things aren't much more difficult on defense, given that the same rule applies to you when the AI is passing. The AI in general isn't difficult to deal with at all, given that it doesn't do anything well until it enters comeback mode; which it will be in a lot, given how badly you'll be able to beat it at will. The one exception to this is when the computer has an electric running back, because they'll always seem more difficult to bring down when the AI is in control of them.

Of course, this can be offset by two things. One, you'll quickly learn that every team in the game yet again has the exact same playbook and follows the exact same play-calling pattern. It isn't exact to the point of knowing what play is next, but once you become good on defense, you'll be good on defense regardless of who you play against due to no team doing anything that sets itself apart from the rest. The AI doesn't utilize every play in the playbook and it won't take long before you see what formation the AI is in and be able to narrow down the possible plays to around two or three.

Secondly, the line of scrimmage isn't the ball, but the feet of the center. This allows you to pick your fastest defender, line him up a good two yards ahead of where the line of scrimmage should be amd fire through the line before the offense even thinks to block you. When paired up with how predictable the computer is on offense, your defensive capabilities will reach Steel Curtain status before long. The fact that you can't see the offensive package pre-snap would typically be a major flaw, but it doesn't matter much given how easy it is to play defense. And that in and of itself is a huge issue.

Overall Madden 94 shows signs of things to come with the various improvements made, but at this point in the series there were still several things left to be done and many errors to weed out. The game is better than the past titles, but it suffers from the standard issue of only being fun for a little while before the difficulty becomes so nonexistent that the game is practically unplayable.

Reviewer's Score: 4/10, Originally Posted: 11/11/05