NFL 98 (USA)

NFL 98 is the official SEGA Genesis release of Madden NFL 98, covering the 1997 NFL season. Published by Electronic Arts under the EA Sports label, it arrived in North America in 1997 as part of the long-running annual football series. This version was the last Madden game to appear on the Genesis, alongside the SNES and Saturn releases.

This is a full simulation of American football. You pick an NFL team, then play through exhibition games or a full season. On the field you control the quarterback, running backs, receivers, and defensive players. Play calling comes from a playbook, and you execute passes, runs, blocks, and tackles using the Genesis pad. The game includes the actual NFL teams and players from 1997, plus basic stat tracking.

For retro football fans, NFL 98 represents the peak of the 16-bit Madden era. It has smooth sprite animation, digitized speech for referee calls, and a decent sense of realism for its time. If you grew up with console football games in the late 90s, this one holds up as a solid, single-screen simulation. It is not fancy or deep by modern standards, but it captures the feeling of the sport in a way that many later 3D titles lost. Worth a look if you appreciate old-school sports gaming.