John Madden Football '92 review - Sega Megadrive

John Madden's Football was probably the best Megadrive game ever, I say "was" because John Madden's '92 is even better! For a start, the difficulty level has been tweaked so the game provides something of a challenge - especially if you play a weak team against a stronger one. There are yet more options and a greater number of plays. As far as the graphics go, the sprites are slightly smaller, but they're packed with loads of neat touches, such as the quarterback looking around before the snap, and some fab close-ups of the crowd and team celebrating. The sound has also been improved, with a much better crowd noise. To put it simply, John Madden's '92 is one of the best games to appear on any format recently.

The greatest ever Megadrive sports game has just got even better! Rather than completely rewrite the game, the programmers at Park Place have kept the basic elements that made John Madden's Football so brilliant, and just tweaked the gameplay and added some new features. Some people might be disappointed by this but personally I'm not - what's the point of fixing something that's not broken? So what's new? Well, there are twelve additional teams, the menu systems are better to look at, there are new presentation points (such as the digitised crowd scene), much more stats information, instant replays and the chance to choose the weather conditions. But to really appreciate the difference between this and the original, you have to play it. The differences between each team are now far more pronounced (you've got some real crap-artists in there), there are different plays, players can get injured and, if you play dirty, you can also get penalised for unsportsmanlike behaviour! More importantly if you're a single player, the computer opponent is a lot faster, tougher and more aggressive; he takes less time when choosing his move and also learns - try doing the same move more than twice! And there's a new two-player participation mode to go alongside the normal head-to-head option. The big question obviously is, is John Madden's '92 worth buying if you already own the original game? Well, if you still love playing it, but want more challenge and new features, definitely. But if you're not so sure, I'd recommend you give this a good go beforehand, just in case you think it's too similar. If you haven't already got an American football game, John Madden's Football '92 is utterly essential.