Madden NFL 98 is a 1997 football video game. It was the last edition of the Madden series to be released for the Super NES, Genesis and Sega Saturn platforms, as well as the last Madden game to utilize 2D sprites for the players and referee, on 3D playing fields.

The game’s development focused on improving the Madden NFL 98 series’ artificial intelligence. This aspect earned the game critical acclaim, with some reviewers considering Madden NFL 98 a new landmark for A.I. in football video games.

The Green Bay Packers had the best team overall in the game with a 95. The worst team overall was the Baltimore Ravens with a score of 71. The Dallas Cowboys, the New England Patriots and the Green Bay Packers were a 3-way tie for the best offense with a perfect score of 100. There is also a 3-way tie for the best defense in the game between the San Francisco 49ers, the Seattle Seahawks and the Green Bay Packers with a score of 97. The San Diego Chargers had the best special teams in the game with a score of 96.

Publisher EA Sports licensed the Super NES and Genesis versions of the game to THQ, who published it for those platforms.^[6]

The PlayStation version of the game is playable in the collectors edition of Madden NFL 2005 with updated rosters.

Gameplay – Madden NFL 98

Madden NFL 98 introduced touch passing to the series, which allows players to control the speed of a pass by how hard they push the button.^[7] Control can be switched to any football player at any time.^[7]

The PC version of Madden NFL 98 allowed players to download the latest NFL rosters from EA’s website, thereby keeping the game up-to-date.^[8]

Development – Madden NFL 98

In response to the longstanding criticism of the Madden series that its AI is too vulnerable, the development team made improving the AI their main emphasis with Madden NFL 98. The AI architects dubbed their new system “Liquid AI”.^[9]

A version for the Panasonic M2 was in the works, but never released due to the system’s cancellation.^[10][11] A version for the Game.com was also planned, with Tiger Electronics as the developer, though Tiger producer Allen Richardson admitted that the game would be difficult to do on the Game.com due to the 16 megabit size of the cartridges.^[12]

Reception – Madden NFL 98

Madden NFL 98 was positively received, with the overwhelming majority of critics agreeing that the new “liquid AI” had eliminated the longstanding Madden NFL series problem of “money plays” that could be used to successfully run the ball in any situation, making the game more challenging and the final scores more comparable to those of real football games.^{[13][14][15][16][18][22]}

Kraig Kujawa of Electronic Gaming Monthly called it “the smartest football game I’ve played”,^[14] and Gary Cutlack of Sega Saturn Magazine said the new AI “Makes the game a lot harder, but a well earned victory is much more satisfying, don’t you think?”^[18]Next Generation dissented with the majority, contending that while the AI was improved from the previous installment of the series, they had managed to find some “money plays”.^[17]

However, other aspects of the game were widely praised as well, particularly the lively audio commentary,^{[15][18][22][23]} realistic animations,^{[14][15][16][22]} and wide selection of options.^{[13][14][15][16][17][18][23]} Several reviewers made particular mention of the new “fantasy draft” option.^[13][14][23]

Title Screen

Pause Menu

Half Time

End of Game

Playoff Standings