Madden 97 on SNES is one of those games that just feels like football—even with the chunky 16-bit graphics. The second you boot it up, you get that classic John Madden commentary and those crunchy tackle sound effects that somehow make a pixelated linebacker hit satisfying.

It’s got all the teams and players from the ‘96 season, and the playbooks are surprisingly deep for a Super Nintendo game. I spent way too much time tweaking my offense just to see if I could make the AI bite on a fake handoff (spoiler: sometimes it worked). The modem play was ahead of its time, but good luck finding someone to link up with these days. Still, the CPU puts up a decent fight once you crank up the difficulty.

If you’re into retro sports games, this one holds up better than most.