''Madden NFL '96'' is a
football
Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...
video game
Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This fee ...
designed for the
1995 NFL season
The 1995 NFL season was the 76th regular season of the National Football League. The league expanded to 30 teams with the addition of the Carolina Panthers and the Jacksonville Jaguars. The two expansion teams were slotted into the two remain ...
, licensed by the NFL. The
AI has been boosted and can now hurry in
two-minute drill situations, spike the ball, and cover the receivers with better efficiency. In addition to the 16-bit console and portable versions, a DOS version was also released under the title of ''Madden NFL Football: Limited Edition'' in 1996.
It was the last to explicitly be endorsed by the ''
NFL on Fox
The ''NFL on Fox'' (also known as ''Fox NFL'') is the branding used for broadcasts of National Football League (NFL) games produced by Fox Sports and televised on the Fox broadcast network. Game coverage is usually preceded by ''Fox NFL Kickoff ...
'', although a knock-off/rendition of the ''NFL on Fox'' theme would continue to be used in ''Madden'' for several years afterward.
Gameplay
The Create a Player feature is added, which includes position-specific mini-games that determine the ability of the player.
The game is the first in the ''Madden'' series to include secret "classic" teams. Each time a player wins
Super Bowl XXX
Super Bowl XXX was an American football game between the National Football Conference (NFC) champion Dallas Cowboys and the American Football Conference (AFC) champion Pittsburgh Steelers to decide the National Football League (NFL) champion ...
, the victory screen reveals a code for the winning team, such as BYBYLA for the recently relocated Oakland Raiders. Having both debuted in 1995, the
Jacksonville Jaguars
The Jacksonville Jaguars are a professional American football team based in Jacksonville, Florida. The Jaguars compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference (AFC) South division. The team play ...
unlock an All-Madden super squad, and the
Carolina Panthers
The Carolina Panthers are a professional American football team based in Charlotte, North Carolina. The Panthers compete in the National Football League (NFL), as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) South division. T ...
unlock a playable NFLPA team made up of free agents and user created players. Each of the established 28 teams unlock the lineup from their historical best season, ranging from the 1960
Philadelphia Eagles
The Philadelphia Eagles are a professional American football team based in Philadelphia. The Eagles compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East division. The team plays ...
) to the 1986
New York Giants
The New York Giants are a professional American football team based in the New York metropolitan area. The Giants compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East division. ...
. The classic teams have golden logos, historical stadiums, but the rosters consist of jersey numbers only, no names.
PlayStation version
''Madden '96'', developed by
Visual Concepts
Visual Concepts Entertainment is an American video game developer based in Novato, California. Founded in May 1988, the company is best known for developing Sports video game, sports games in the ''2K'' franchise, most recently ''NBA 2K'' and ' ...
, was originally planned to be the first NFL game on the
PlayStation
is a video gaming brand that consists of five home video game consoles, two handhelds, a media center, and a smartphone, as well as an online service and multiple magazines. The brand is produced by Sony Interactive Entertainment, a divisi ...
shortly after the console's launch in 1995. Features were to include customizable playbooks, penalties, weather conditions, and playing surfaces, and commentary from
John Madden
John Earl Madden (April 10, 1936 – December 28, 2021) was an American football coach and sports commentator in the National Football League (NFL). He served as the head coach of the Oakland Raiders from 1969 to 1978, who he led to eight pla ...
,
Pat Summerall
George Allen "Pat" Summerall (May 10, 1930 – April 16, 2013) was an American football player and television sportscaster who worked for CBS, Fox, and ESPN. In addition to football, he announced major golf and tennis events. Summerall announ ...
,
James Brown
James Joseph Brown (May 3, 1933 – December 25, 2006) was an American singer, dancer, musician, record producer and bandleader. The central progenitor of funk music and a major figure of 20th century music, he is often referred to by the honor ...
, and
Lesley Visser
Lesley Candace Visser (born September 11, 1953) is an American sportscaster, television and radio personality, and sportswriter. Visser is the first female NFL analyst on TV, and the only sportscaster in history who has worked on Final Four, ...
. But after several delays, the game was canceled because it did not meet EA's quality assurance standards. Visual Concepts would go on to make the ''
NFL 2K
''NFL 2K'' is an American football video game series video game developer, developed by Visual Concepts and video game publisher, published by Sega. The series was originally exclusive to Sega's Dreamcast video game console due to the absence of ...
'' series of games.
Reception
The two sports reviewers of ''
Electronic Gaming Monthly
''Electronic Gaming Monthly'' (often abbreviated to ''EGM'') is a monthly American video game magazine. It offers video game news, coverage of industry events, interviews with gaming figures, editorial content and product reviews.
History
The m ...
'' gave the Genesis version scores of 9.5 and 9.0 out of 10, stating that "EA listened to players and has come up with the best 16-bit football game ever made." They praised the "hard as hell" AI and the addition of speed bursts. A reviewer for ''
Next Generation
Next Generation or Next-Generation may refer to:
Publications and literature
* ''Next Generation'' (magazine), video game magazine that was made by the now defunct Imagine Media publishing company
* Next Generation poets (2004), list of young ...
'' deemed it "a definite improvement from last year's poor effort", citing the more solid player graphics, faster play, and tougher AI. He further remarked that while
Sega
is a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational video game and entertainment company headquartered in Shinagawa, Tokyo. Its international branches, Sega of America and Sega Europe, are headquartered in Irvine, California and London, r ...
's ''Prime Time NFL'' was still the best football video game in single player, ''Madden NFL '96'' was the best two-player experience. He gave it four out of five stars. Slo Mo of ''
GamePro
Gamepro.com is an international multiplatform video game magazine media company that covers the video game industry, video game hardware and video game software in countries such as Germany and France. The publication, GamePro, was originally la ...
'' found the AI a somewhat mixed blessing, remarking that "The mean and nasty A.I. will answer the prayers of hardcore Madden players, but it will surely frustrate rookies and bandwagon fans." He also deemed the new Scouting Combine feature "an excellent idea that could nonetheless use some tinkering." However, he praised the rendered character sprites, the widened camera views, and the new moves, and gave the game a recommendation. He judged the SNES version to be superior to the Genesis version due to its faster animation and inclusion of drills specific to each position, and called it "the top-ranked SNES football cart".
''GamePro'' panned the Game Boy version in a brief review, stating, "This Madden features no NFL license, old lineups, and none of the improvements made to the '96 SNES version. The small sprites will cause eye strain, player control is difficult, and passes sound like bombs falling from the sky." They made many of the same criticisms of the Game Gear version, which they noted had better control but was still "a below-average attempt to bring football into the handheld arena."
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Madden NFL '96
1995 video games
Cancelled PlayStation (console) games
DOS games
EA Sports games
Game Boy games
Game Gear games
High Score Productions games
Madden NFL
Multiplayer and single-player video games
Sega Genesis games
Tiertex Design Studios games
Video games developed in the United States
Video games scored by Tommy Tallarico
Video games set in the United States