John Madden Football '93

The Good
The gameplay, graphics, strategy, and control are excellent. It's just classic football on a game console. The graphics are very detailed and clear cut - the players may be on the small side but for a football game it's the best way (later versions sport players that are just too large and slightly fuzzy which makes distinguishing individual players difficult). The field looks great and all pertinent information such as the teams, score, down, yards-to-go, and play clock are in clear sight. Selecting and reading the plays are very clear (which becomes a bit of a problem in later versions of Madden). Control is top-notch and there are many different plays. I especially like the offensive and defensive audibles chart and those plays are executed as described - pretty darn cool for a early 1990's football game! The learning curve isn't too bad and once you start playing a game you can really get into it. Equally fun game playing against the computer or a human.

The Bad
Not much to dislike. Probably not having enough variety in sound effects and seeing more of a stadium crowd (ie. when you're in the red zone and about to score). But those are minor issues when you get into the game.

The Bottom Line
Very fun if you like football. It's very exciting when you complete a long pass and you're running toward the end zone with a defenseman closing in on you, OR, you manage to just scrape by on a 40 yard field goal attempt, OR, you win the game in the last minute of the 4th quarter with a long bomb or field goal. It's a great game - get it and play it!!!