Madden 96

"Another average Madden game"

Back when I used to play my GameBoy all the time, I enjoyed playing Madden 96 most of all. I was a football nut back then (I'm even more of one now), so naturally I would play a game of Madden instead of Toy Story or whatever other mediocre games I had. I recently found my GameBoy again and the first game I played upon finding it was Madden 96. Looking back now, the game is not nearly as good as I remember it being. Blame it on the game's age or whatever, but Madden 96 is not as good as I once thought it was.

Right away upon loading up Madden 96, one will notice the lack of an official NFL license. Instead of being able to select teams by looking at their real-life logos, the player has to look at some cheesy rip-offs that are not even close to the real logos. As a result, it may take a thought or two for someone to find the team they are pursuing. The lack of an NFL license is understandle due to the time period of the game, but it does detract some fun from the game.

To go along with the licensing problem, the players do not have names. Instead, they are given simple numbers to represent them. The numbers are true to the player's real number, but it can get difficult to remember who's who by just using numbers. Once again, this problem is understandable given the time period of the game, but it is still a problem nonetheless.

There are three modes of play in Madden 96 - exhibition, season, and playoffs. Exhibition mode is the usual meaningless 'team vs. team' game of football. Just select two teams and you're all set to go. Season mode is pretty self-explanatory, as you get to guide a team through a single football season in hopes of reaching the glorious Super Bowl. The season mode would normally be the best part of the game, but that is not the case here, thanks to the loooooong passwords one must enter to continue the same season. After every game, the computer will show a password that will enable the user to advance to the next game if they wish to shut off their GameBoy. Well that may sound all fine and dandy, it is really not a good idea. The passwords used are ridiculous - all are similar to something like '(C)FC9(C)HVSTXTP'. It becomes quite tedious to enter such a long password every time you wish to resume the season. As for the playoff mode, it is also self-explanatory - you select a team and hope to successfully make it through the playoffs with the ultimate goal being to win the Super Bowl. Despite the fact that there are only three modes of play, with none of them being particularly special, the lack of modes is normal for GameBoy football.

Perhaps where Madden 96 lacks the most is during the actual game play. You get to select a 20, 40, or 60 minute football game with five, ten, and fifteen minute quarters, respectively. No matter how long of a game you choose, each actual game will likely be a high scoring affair. It is simply too easy to score 30+ points in a 20 minute game of football. The frequent high scores kill the chance of the game having realistic statistics, but I shouldn't have expected true-to-life stats anyway. Also adding to the unrealisticness are disturbingly similar players, awkward speed settings, frequent 'big' 25+ yard plays, and an unfair kicking system. Those problems just add more to the almost 'arcade' style play of Madden 96, which is either a good thing or a bad thing, depending on what type of football fan you are.

One thing that Madden 96 can correctly state as realistic is the game's football plays. The Madden games have always been known to have real-life plays, and Madden 96 is no exception. All of your favorite plays can be found here, both for offense and defense. There are quite a few different formations of plays for every team, including 'I Form' and 'Shotgun'. The game also claims to have updated rules for the 95-96 season, including the new-at-the-time addition of two point conversions. Despite these realistic ideas, the earlier unrealistic problems I mentioned far outweigh the realisticness.

Madden 96 does a pretty decent job using the GameBoy's simple button layout. The game manages to do things that console football games do but with only two buttons. In fact, the game plays out like a bare bones console football game. For example, the passing system is very simple - just press A to snap the ball then press A or B to throw to a receiver. The controls are simple to learn, which is always a good thing.

Visually, Madden 96 is average at best. It is easy to tell the difference between the football and a player, for example, but there is overall little detail put into the visuals. The animations are rather poor - players merely merge into one nasty blob during tackling. The players also are hard to tell who's who since they all have the same design, with no difference in height or weight to be seen. The teams are quite generic in their detail - one team has white jerseys while the other has dark jerseys. The graphics are definitely not the best part of the game, that's for sure.

As for the audio, Madden 96 surprisingly has quite a bit loaded into its small cartridge. The game is full of little sound effects during play, such as the quarterback yelling ''Blue! 42! Hut hut hike!'' before the ball is snapped. When a touchdown is scored, a little celebration jingle is played for the occasion and the referee will yell ''Touchdown!''. When the football is in the air, a ''whirrrrr'' sound will play until the ball is caught after which a ''plooomp'' sound will take place. The sound effects are a neat little addition to the game, but they can get annoying at times. Thankfully, the little volume switch is always there on the side of the GameBoy if the sound gets to outrageous. Music-wise, there is just one little tune that plays on the menu screens. Nothing special at all.

Overall, Madden 96 is actually an average game of portable football. This review may have seemed a bit on the negative side, but the game really isn't as bad as it seems. In fact, this may very well be the best game of football for the GameBoy. Despite its minor annoyances such as the unrealistic play and the lack of an NFL license, Madden 96 is a decent game of football. I wouldn't really recommend anyone going out of their way to buy this game, but if you really must have portable football then this game of Madden might be worth a try.

Best Feature: It's portable football, Madden style.
Worst Feature: Long passwords and unrealistic play.

Final Analysis:
Graphics 3/10 - poor animation, plain characters
Sound 5/10 - decent, but can get annoying
Gameplay 5/10 - unrealistic and no NFL license but remains average
Control 6/10 - good use of the GB's simple button layout
Replay Value 4/10 - long passwords destroy reason to continue a season
Challenge 4/10 - not very hard, easy to score 30+ points every game even on 20 minute games
Overall 5/10

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 11/28/01, Updated 11/29/01