Sega Genesis
Released in 1994 by EA Sports
Grade: B
It’s the college brother of EA’s Madden 95, but it separates itself with a slower passing style, slightly different running control, cuter graphics, and more college-focused playbooks.
Where it falls in the series
It’s EA’s second of four college football games. The first is plagued with passing windows (Boo!) that are thankfully gone in Bill Walsh 95. The next two editions dropped the Bill Walsh name for “College Football USA” and they’re decent followups with their own slight gameplay differences. For whatever reason, this 95 version is the one people talk about.
Praises and gripes
Like Madden, this game is built on a solid foundation: simple controls, a logical playcall system, and an engine with plenty of football-like stuff happening on every play.
The running control is a little tricky to get used to, but becomes manageable with practice. This game also inherits Madden’s curiously chaotic offensive line play, resulting in “pixel soup” where the pocket should form on most plays.
The most significant difference between this and Madden is that passes soar slowly through the air, which turns most plays into a mini game where you steer your receiver toward the ball and time the catch, usually in the middle of a pile-up of defenders. It gets a little repetitive, but it’s the key to victory in this game. Most attempts at short, quick passes end up sailing past your receiver.
The playbooks feature college-style option plays, and these are thankfully fairly easy to learn, but the running game can be pretty unreliable. On top of that, playbooks are slim and you can’t flip the play like you can in Madden. So, prepare to pick the same few plays often and to launch the ball in the air A LOT.
This type of limitation would normally drive me nuts and make me say this game sucks. But, fun is the ultimate equalizer, and somehow I love playing this stupid game. It has a distinct raw fun factor that so many games don’t.
It’s got some added charm about it too. The colors are bright, and the player models are stocky and sculpted, which just looks nice. The digitized recreations of college fight songs are pretty cool, and they blare through the speakers following touchdowns.
It’s still a big step behind Madden 95, 97, and 98, in my opinion, but it’s worth the dirt-cheap price if you want something different to add to your Genesis collection.