Madden before the monopoly

It's that time again! Time for all Madden enthusiasts to come out of the woodwork in order to grab the 20-year anniversary installment of EA Sports' NFL franchise! OMG! I'm so excited! Oops, that was all just sarcasm on my part. Even though I have a recent version for my Nintendo DS, I usually wait until about six months after the game comes out and the excitement wears off. And still, despite all the bells and whistles that come with today's Madden games, my favorite is still the one that came out 16 years ago.

John Madden Football '93 is by far my favorite Madden title and one of my two favorite football video games alongside Tecmo Bowl. EA didn't have any exclusive licenses then, so there were no team names or player names. (In fact, the Raiders were "Oakland" before even moving back there so "L.A." could be the Rams, and the Jets were "New Jersey," which was fitting since that's where they really play). However, all the players had their correct numbers, so deep down inside we knew who they were. I remember running all over defenses with "Thurman Thomas."

Madden '93 was actually a groundbreaking addition to the series. There was the introduction of "Maddenisms," little cheesy sayings J.M. would fire off after some plays. This was much better than the play-by-play commentary we get today (Thank god you can turn it off). This game also introduced eight classic teams, including the 1976 Raiders and 1985 Bears, among others.

I used to get quite a kick watching the two teams warming up on the title screen. There were also elaborate touchdown celebrations and injuries. But the one thing that amazed me the most was in Playoff mode (You couldn't play a season, but you could play a playoff bracket). At halftime and after your game, there would be a scoreboard ticker that would scroll scores from other playoff games. Then, the computer would show you the last minute or so of another playoff game in progress, all on its own (Early NHL titles from EA did the same thing). Can today's developers remove some of the other senseless options from the game and put this back in? Thanks.

Overall, this is probably my favorite football video game, ever. Even though the graphics aren't top-notch compared to today's Madden installments, they were quite fresh at the time. If you can get your hands on a copy, do it. You'll be glad you did.