Sega vs EA: NFL Football(Time for War!)

The 16 bit gridiron war between Sega and EA on the Genesis is one of the things I miss the most from that era in gaming. So different from the way things are now with EA's Madden Monopoly over the genre allowing them to shit on us year in and year out. Which Genesis NFL football game series do you prefer? Why?

EA ------------------------------- Sega
1990-- John Madden Football------------------Joe Montana Football
1991-- John Madden Football '92------------Sportstalk Football:JMF II
1992-- John Madden Football '93------------NFL Sportstalk Football '93
1993-- Madden NFL 94-----------------------------NFL '94
1994-- Madden NFL 95-----------------------------NFL '95
1995-- Madden NFL 96------------------NFL Primetime: Starring Deon Sanders
1996-- Madden NFL 97-------------------------------------------------------------
1997-- Madden NFL 98-----------------------------NFL '98

I feel like the first Joe Montana Football has aged better than the first Madden, it just seems like it's much more fun to play. After that though the flashy graphics and sound can't save the busted passing system and collision detection of the Sportstalk games, so Madden 92 and 93 win over those due to the much better gameplay.

The 94 games are dead even to me, each has something that the other is missing, and both are great in completely different ways. NFL 95 completely owns Madden 95. It may move a bit slower, but there is just so much more to it, both in terms of features and gameplay.

Madden 96 has a few things that make me like it more than Primetime but those games are almost even to me, similar to the 94 games, both have something that the other is missing. NFL 98 is better than Madden 97 and 98 combined in my opinion, and is probobly my #1 NFL game on the system.

The first Joe Montana Football was the best till a friend of mine figured out how to onside kick. He never told anybody how he did it and eventually the game became onesided. So we switched to Madden. I like Madden 94 the best.

I hold no biased here.
To me all football games suck equally

3 words: Tecmo Super Bowl

Temco Super Bowl

TSB is nice but, for some reason I prefer the NES original. I don't know why really, maybe on a subconscious level I love flickering sprites and washed out colors. Nah for real though just something charming about the NES version that does something for me over the Gen port, I remember being blown away that there was such a deep football game on such limited hardware.

Tecmo Bowl was great because Marcus Allen and Bo Jackson could normally gain a yard or 2 even when one's play was guessed; sometimes score on these when inside the red zone.
JMF `90 and Primetime. Even the worst JMFs are only equal to the best Maddens.

I remember really being blown away when NFL '94 came out. I also remember that it pissed me off more than any other football game except for Madden '10.

True story:

The first time I saw the game was when some kid offered to trade it to me. He had just gotten it for his birthday (it had just been released) but wasn't really into football. The darn thing was still shrinkwrapped! I hadn't played it yet, so I told him to come back to my house so I could try it, and he could also check my collection to see what interested him. We get home, I boot up the game and choose my Patriots and start playing against Chicago (revenge for '86!). I battle my way down field and score a field goal, and the computer returns the kickoff for a touchdown, breaking more than half a dozen tackles like nothing. It made me so mad I ripped the cart out of my Genesis without even shutting the console off and smashed it against the floor. The kid was simply mortified and sat there in stunned silence. When the rage subsided and I became Bruce Banner again, I realized what I had done and just told him to pick a game from my shelf. He took Aladdin and quickly left. I never saw him again.

The only year in which I had two football games for the Genesis was back with JMF '92 and JMF II. The hype surrounding Montana (play by play commentator) was overdone because even that wasn't enough to compete with Madden.

NFL Blitz 2000 was my favorite.

I'm pretty sure there are multiple sources (wasn't one here?) that will tell you at least the first Joe Montana game was developed by EA for Sega. I tried hacking quickly but the only thing I can tell you is that JMF does have the same custom checksum routine used by other EA games...

The first one was indeed done by EA. We have several interviews that attest to that fact. The complete story can be read in our article on Joe Montana's development, which you can read once the site comes back next week.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Melf

The first one was indeed done by EA. We have several interviews that attest to that fact. The complete story can be read in our article on Joe Montana's development, which you can read once the site comes back next week.

---

Wasn't it actually based on Madden with some specific cuts to simplify the game and make it less flashy/competitive compared to EA's release? (not to mention a slightly delayed release to push it to early 1991 rather than 1990)

It would be rather ironic if any of those changes actually made Joe Montana the better game in hindsight. ;)


There's also the issue of Sega's original 1989 commission for Joe Montana football before they went for EA, but that's another story. ;)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Melf

True story:

The first time I saw the game was when some kid offered to trade it to me. He had just gotten it for his birthday (it had just been released) but wasn't really into football. The darn thing was still shrinkwrapped! I hadn't played it yet, so I told him to come back to my house so I could try it, and he could also check my collection to see what interested him. We get home, I boot up the game and choose my Patriots and start playing against Chicago (revenge for '86!). I battle my way down field and score a field goal, and the computer returns the kickoff for a touchdown, breaking more than half a dozen tackles like nothing. It made me so mad I ripped the cart out of my Genesis without even shutting the console off and smashed it against the floor. The kid was simply mortified and sat there in stunned silence. When the rage subsided and I became Bruce Banner again, I realized what I had done and just told him to pick a game from my shelf. He took Aladdin and quickly left. I never saw him again.

---

You must have been a real joy to be around with fighting games if a football game pissed you off that badly.

So how many other Genesis games met an untimely demise at your hands?

**shines a bright desk light in Melf's face**

NFL 94 starring Joe Montana is my favorite football game of all-time. They managed to fix almost everything that was wrong with the 93 version. The playcalling is far deeper than any other football game of it's era and even surpasses most games into the next decade. For example, how many other games have option routes? I don't think there were any until well into the 2000's. I liked Madden in 1991 but Madden's playcalling system was always backwards from the beginning; you don't call your set of players then force them into formations that don't fit with your wide-receiver at running back. Or the concept of looking off defenders when passing wasn't in Madden until the next decade, either. The play-by-play is superior to anything in the 90's, too; not perfect, but clear and fairly consistent. Montana also offered just about any play-view that you could want: behind the offense, defense, overhead, or sideline. The sideline view is brilliant because it lets you see your wide-outs (unlike Madden where they are always off-screen) as well as fifty yards downfield. Plus, you have the option of the zoom when a player catches the ball or hand-off so that you get the action up close. Not only are these graphics options better for gameplay, they look far better than any other game with rotoscoped players.

If it has a weakness, it's the lack of four-player and six-button support but it came out the year before the team taps and new controller were readily available. They did add those for the college game which is also really good except that they sort-of messed up the play calling system by trying to make it "easier". They also should have had an injury system. To this day, I'm amazed that they threw away this game engine after this year. Even their second version of the college game removed the narrator, which is just stupid since you already can turn it off if you don't like it.

Cyberball is under-rated as it's a great adaptation of the indoor game. It was actually the first football game to have a logical injury system, too, rather than the random system that Madden used. It has full league play that Madden didn't have until a later edition. The passing game is superior to the early Madden's, too. It was the first game to offer defensive perspective and had improved defensive play overall.

Mutant League Football has the best injury system of any football game in the 90's. Yeah, it's fun to kill your opponent's players but the real brilliance is in managing your team's injuries through the playoffs. You actually have to use coaching skills to maintain your best players if you want to see them in the championship game rather than spread out an inch to the quarter mile.

How I would rank them for play now:

1. NFL 94 starring Joe Montana
2. College Football's National Championship
3. Cyberball
4. Mutant League Football
5. Madden NFL 96 (numbered players, no passing windows)
6. John Madden Football (best "pick-up" version for new players)
7. Pigskin Footbrawl
8. Other versions of Madden
9. Other versions of Sega's football
10. Tecmo's football
11. Other versions (ESPN, QB Club, Unneccesary Roughness, Ditka, Aikman, etc.)

By the way, the first two games I bought for my Genesis were John Madden Football and Cyberball (Sonic 1 was the pack-in). I thought they were both amazing games! I still play Cyberball but it's the rare day that I play Madden since it has been surpassed in every way since then.