John Madden Duo CD Football By Windancer

This is a game That I continually go back to on the TurboGrafx! When most people think of sports games or even attempting to play sports games on the old TG16 they think BLEH! Well im here to tell ya this one is well worth the 15 or so dollars you will shell out to buy the best football game on the TG16. It doesnt have the supercharged graphics of todays football games but it does have the gameplay, sounds, fun and I happen to like the graphics as they are very colorful and well done. This game is and was very underrated back in the day.

Let's talk about what options are open to you in this game. You can play single player, multiplayer head to head, 2 player teammates, 1 game season (I was hoping for a full season), Start a new playoff which takes you through the playoffs and saves your progress. All teams are represented from the NFL but no names or NFL logos are present. However the team colors are well represented and I loved the old Los Angeles Rams Uni's! The game has an all madden team and teams from the past like the 85 chicago bears. Weather conditions are also present. Snow, Rain , Perfect conditions.


The refs are presented in full motion video. I really wish they would have gave an option to turn this off but it's not that annoying and can give you a laugh from time to time as there are also some full motion vids of a good stick or when a guy sacks a quarterback. with that mentioned , WHERE DID THEY GET THESE GUYS FOR THE FULL MOTION VIDS! lol. But full motion atthe time was going to be the next platform of gaming of the time and I will say this it was pretty well done here.



As you can see from the picks. the graphics are pretty colorful with some very well done sprites. The field Scales to and from and is actually very impressive for a Tg16 super cd game. If you want to see just how impressive it is for this hardware just do an instant replay and move your curser around the field or target a player its extremely smooth and fun to mess with. I'm still very partial to these old sports games from back in the day like NHL hockey 95, madden duo and madden genesis with well done sprites and smooth gameplay other than our new shiny 3d counterparts of today. I guess i'm stuck in the early 90's LOL

Sound effects and background noises are very impressive in this game as they are all cd sounds. When I first got this game back in 1992 my wife came into the room and asked me which game I was watching. I told her I was playing a game. She is quoted "thats amazing". There are no announcers which im really glad for since they usually are more annoying then anything else. The thing that really draws you in is the crowd noise and the sound effects of the quarterback. really cool.


Gameplay im going to say is a 7 out of 10 or so. It plays nice and gives you a pretty good feel of the game of football. You can audible if you catch the defense in the wrong set. While running with the ball you can make your back or receiver spin or make a dive for a few extra yards. one thing you will not be doing is running away from the defense for a 90 yard touchdown. this is really hard to do and I've only done it once or twice in all the time ive spent playing this game. most long yarders will be around 40 yards or so. I think that's why I like the game so much as it seems a little a tougher then most madden games. Once you get into it, and are crushing your opponents start taking the weaker teams and see what you can do in the playoffs. this game has some pretty good replay value as you may have to try the playoffs a few times to beat it with the Detroit lions LOL(I do beleive that Barry is there you may do well). All in all a fun game and a must own for any football fan and Turbo Duo/ TurboGrafx cd owner!

By Windancer