"Finally! John has come back to the Mac!!!"

Good GOD, this was a long time coming!!!

Madden NFL for the Macintosh! Who would have ever thought??? Not me, certainly! Madden for us Mac Gamers! To be honest, I thought Steve Jobs had just given up on gaming for the Macintosh. I thought I would never see any type of EA Sports title let alone any kind of sports title with actual DEPTH.

But he's here. We can all grin and finally play Madden on the Mac!

Last paragraph has run redundant on my @$$, so I will just do like Monty Python and GET ON WITH IT!!!

STORY:

It's freakin' Madden! There's no real story unless you're playing the situational mode or Season Play. The story in that case would go something like this: you are the proud player of an NFL team of your choosing(and there's like 150+ teams) and you have come out to play football against an opponent of your choosing(being a human if you have friends or a computer opponent if you're a total loner). You play for points and you play for pride. Your goal is to win. You do this by playing this game where you toss a ball made of pig-skin to your teammates and run really really fast toward the end zone to score seven points. If for some reason you are blocked or tackled, the secretary will disavow all knowledge of your actions and you need to start again.

GAME PLAY - 8

Oh, so sweet. Your players move like they're supposed to. They scramble when attacked, run and move according to their vitals and pass like they were born to play the game. On occasion, you get a stiff runner who runs the opposite direction when you're pushing him to run the other way. It doesn't happen too often but it does happen. There are other times when you have to press escape to call a timeout, thus slowing down your personal momentum. You should have the option to call it on the fly to keep the game going. That's not possible unless Aspyr fixed this in the update it provided. Catching is sometimes a bit of a pain as well. Watch for FOUR-MAN COVERAGE on Jerry Rice as you try to hit a precision pass! Be amazed as you hit one out of every ten attempts you make. Catching also means that you may have to take control of your receiver and position him in almost the EXACT spot the ball is being thrown. Usually, unless (a) you have the reflexes of a crack-addict on speed laced with mephanphetamines injected with PCP and dipped in powdered caffeine, or (b) your receiver has a running start and is about five to seven yards behind you, you will be tackled on the spot or somewhere near it. Of course, this will be easily mastered with practice and you'll soon be peeling out and running TD's faster than O.J. Simpson from a crime-scene. Another defect(and the weakest part of the game) is the kicking-system. I just plain don't like it. Thank God it was improved in later Madden games for the PS2 and PC. The system in dispute calls for extremely taut and well-executed guessing. You have to press the kick-button once to start your kick-strength Meter. As soon as you have it at desired strength, you have to press the button again and you have a kick. The problem is the meter fills up so incredibly fast and falls back down to weaker-kick strength even quicker, that it's hard to get a good kick off. This is especially annoying when you have seemingly scored the winning touchdown in the 4th quarter with about 25 seconds to play and you give your opponent a gift by unleashing a fury-filled, totally velocity-possessed, and completely UNINTENTIONAL ONSIDE KICK that allows your opponent outstanding field-position in the waning moments of the game. Seriously, my girlfriend's God-daughter could kick a football higher and better than that!

SOUND - 8

Nothing but the crowd cheering you on(or booing you depending on your status in the hometown you're in), roaring to their heart's content, chanting ''DEFENSE'' when the other team is close to a first-down or your goal-line. Seriously, that's really all I need. The rest of the sounds are well-placed. Tackles and hits have force and power to them so don't be shy about turning up the bass on your speakers. The QB's scream positions and commands from the scrimmage-line, players get in each other's faces, taunting one another after fantastic catches, runs, sacks, tackles, and TD's. The downside? Unfortunately, it's Mr. Madden and his partner, Pat Summerall. Their commentary is horrible even though it's deceptively inviting and delightful at first. The only reason is there's not enough dialogue programmed into the disc to really fill a game and you'll hear the same sentence said about two or three times. The good part of this is when Madden starts to talk about certain players and gives you a back-story or history. But again, that talk is far and few in between. Thank God you have the option to turn it off...of course, then you have to listen to that stupid guy who voices-over the EA SPORTS commericals. Imagine hearing phrases like, ''OOOO! THAT TACKLE TOOK HIS HEAD OFF!!!'' spoken by the same idiot who says, ''KICKIMUS MAXIMUS BUTTIMUS!!!'' for FOUR...LONG...QUARTERS...

GRAPHICS - 10

Easily the best part of the game and one of the reasons we play Madden so much. Every stadium is here for you to play in(that is, up to the 2000 season)and there are even some older retired ones and some you can unlock with special codes. OPEN GL for the Mac really puts the game in overdrive as everything becomes well-rendered and rounded. Once again, players get cocky, do endzone dances, taunt one another, the works. And check out instant replay!!! This is where you observe how life-like the players move and you can actually stop the Replay at anytime you choose and do a ''Bullet-Time'' thing where you can revolve the camera around a player who's in motion...unreal. Now granted, the graphics aren't as good as some of the newer Madden games(it's still more ''gamey''-looking rather than being a ''television''-experience) but it's a great start. Players' last names and numbers are clear across their jerseys and helmets actually fly off if things get intense. The opening sequence alone is worth the price of admission and we get cut-scenes during season-play with James Brown in the Fox Studios before cutting you away to footage of Madden and Summerall who discuss things about the season. Very cool.

REPLAYABILITY - 10!!!

Madden has so much MORE to it than just a game of football! Sure, you can play an exhibition game for the hell of it and come off with a smile on your face but you can also play a season and take on the rest of the NFL in an 18-week trip through hell. See if you have what it takes to get to the playoffs and even the Super Bowl. And if that bores you(and it probably will after about 32 trips to the championships), you can make your own team to play the computer. Make an all-star team comprised of past-and-present football stars which includes every player available to you from every team-roster from all 150+ teams that grace the game. Or make your own players and put them to the test. If that doesn't suit your fancy, you can re-live football's greatest moments by going to the ''Situation'' menu. Once you're there, you can replay great championship games and Super Bowls to earn passwords that will help you unlock game-secrets or even set up your OWN great situation by placing the ball where you want it, fixing the score, choosing what down you're at and how many yards you have left to go. Then choose how much time you have left and what quarter you're in and you're off. Not satisfied? Have a team-practice to brush up on your football-skills. Choose your side(offense or defense), choose your plays and then play them until you've got the right moves. Not enough? You can even edit the game's default roster to your liking! Want Joe Montana to play for the Rams as back-up QB? Do it! Want Marshall Faulk to run for Titans? Do it! You can even pull the Steeler's steel-curtain defense over to the Bengals if you want...do whatever you like. It's your choice. You can trade, waive, and sign players at will. You can even update the NFL Rosters to match the present ones. See how well the 49ers do with their youth-revamped starting line-up and a created Jeff Garcia at the helm. Raise Marshall Faulk's and Kurt Warner's vitals to current status and see how far the Rams march. Retire and delete Troy Aikman and Steve Young! Create an unlimited amount of custom players!!! You can even toggle the dreaded SALARY CAP! OH, THE POWER!!! You can and WILL play this football game until you get a PS2 or a PC so you can play later Madden sequels! It's that cool...and there's SO much more to do, too...

MAC PLAYERS:

I'm playing this game on a Macintosh Performa PowerPC 6400/200. It has 72 MB's of RAM as well as a 4x CD-ROM. It runs well to say the least with a little bit of choppiness. Some words of advice in this review...first and foremost, Aspyr Media has officially STOPPED supporting Madden NFL 2000 and is no longer distributing the 1.0.1 update. This update is VERY much needed. It fixes Veteran's Stadium so that you can play in it. Otherwise your machine will crash and die. There are also many other bug-fixes. You can get it at http://download.com to my knowledge. Also, if you have a G3/G4 Macintosh, you may experience crashes like you wouldn't believe. This game LOVES my computer and plays for hours. On a G3/G4, you will be lucky to even get through a quarter before the game freezes on you. Again, you may have to get the update to fix this but since I haven't tested it yet, that may not solve the problem. I don't know what to do in this case. I have also noticed that you can scarcely find Madden 2000 anywhere for the Mac. I don't know if that's because Aspyr has dropped it or that Apple isn't supporting it or what...if all else fails, complain to Aspyr.

OVERALL - 9

This is Madden. It's on the Mac. And it's good. Pick it up! Any football fan will love this game. Hell, even the non-football fan will love it. Highly recommended and believe me when I say...the wait is now OVER.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 02/03/02, Updated 02/03/02