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[Shake Your Rump]

I’ve been reading old video game magazines lately, and I came across this advertisement. This ad was placed by the NFL themselves to show off eight new NFL games! It’s a crime that we went from this, to a single NFL game for almost 20 years.

At this time, I was a GameDay fan, but there were so many viable choices. I also had Madden on N64. When EA bought the exclusive license, I was playing ESPN Football (2004) on Xbox.

Which football game did you choose during this time?

 

[crackajack]

Were any of these sold outside of America? I only ever played Madden here. Especially since the Super Bowl seems to become more and more a thing each year, the market for Eggball games should have grown quite a bit in some countries or maybe almost worldwide.

 

[Sacred]

NFL 2K5

 

[drganon]

NFL blitz was my personal favorite.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

- Genesis Montana/Sportstalk games
- A couple PS1 Gameday games
- A couple NFL 2k games on PS2/360

Never played Madden. Even on Genesis, I only played Madden 1 and barely at that. I always thought the graphics and sound were shit. Maybe the recent Maddens are great, but since I'm not a hardcore NFL fan, I just go with whichever games looks and sounds the best, and all I do are long passes and sweep running plays. lol

 

[kazuyamishima]

ESPN NFL 2k5, Madden had a lot more competition before.

 

[Evolved1]

once it was all. now it is none. nfl greed and laziness about quality killed any hope of actually good products.

 

[Bumblebeetuna]

TIL Jimmy Johnson had a football game.

I always played Madden and 2k with a couple others sprinkled in. Of course, Tecmo Bowl and Tecmo Super Bowl as well.

That QB Club game on the ad was hilarious. There was a glitch where any time you scrambled with the QB, you could not be tackled, you’d break every single tackle.

And I agree, it’s a goddamn shame that we went from 2-3 games a year down to 1 shitty monopoly with a franchise that has become stale. Madden peaked in 2004/2005 with Madden 05 and Madden 06 which surprise surprise was when they were in deep competition with NFL2k5, which STILL looks smoother than Madden and has better presentation.

All-Pro Football 2k8 was also a fun game.

 

[German Hops]

Gameday was good, until it shit the bed starting with the 2001 season.

 

[dorkimoe]

Also NFL 98 on genesis and then maybe some 2k

 

[MarkMe2525]

Coincidentally, I just procured NFL Primetime 2002 PS2, NFL ESPN Football (2k4) PS2, NFL Gameday 2004 PS1 and I regularly play NFL 2k5 360, Madden 05 PS2, Madden 04 PS2. I just found out NFL Fever 2004 is backwards compatible on the 360, so that is the next one I am going for.

 

[Kacho]

Tecmo Bowl and Joe Montana’s Sport Talk Football as a child. Then Madden/Blitz. Madden 16 is the last football game I played.

 

[El Muerto]

Started out with Tecmo Bowl. Played a lot of NFL Quarterback Club with friends on N64 then moved to NFL 2k which is the GOAT of football series. Madden has always sucked. Blitz is always fun to play and still play it on my retro handhelds. I'm currently hooked on playing Retro Bowl on my phone. No ads, no online bullshit, and fun to play.

 

[Alex Anderson]

Tecmo Bowl series until NFL 2K came out. I bought NFL Gameday a few times. NFL Blitz.

 

[TheGrat1]

Madden. Particularly 98, 2003, 2004, 05, and 06. Madden 06 is the peak of the series to this day as QB vision separated the men from the boys.

I had that Monday night football game on PC and it sucked because you could only call the plays and not control the players. A shame because the rest of the presentation was quite good.

 

[IFireflyl]

 

[Jigsaah]

NFL 2K5 was the last non-Madden football game I played. It was better than Madden by a mile.

 

[Shake Your Rump]

That QB Club game on the ad was hilarious. There was a glitch where any time you scrambled with the QB, you could not be tackled, you’d break every single tackle.

Interesting! One of the magazines (EGM?) had a few pro players come play several of the new NFL games before they were released. One of the players commented on precisely what you mention. He mentioned that the opposing QB made a 70 yard running touchdown and hoped that this would be fixed. I guess it wasn't.

 

[Dacvak]

 

[FrankWza]

Sports games changed in 2006. Baseball and Football have never been able to capture that quality since. I don't play soccer or basketball games so I can't comment on that.
But to have the best baseball game ever be 20 years old is a travesty

 

[Evil Calvin]

Dreamcast NFL2K, NFL2K1

Earlier great ones were the Genesis Maddens and Genesis Joe Montana Sports Talk Football 2

 

[intbal]

My favorite

 

[VenomousCoffee]

 

[StreetsofBeige]

Never play it. Just watched my bro play it.

But as a fun tip, Joe Montana Football on Genesis and PC were totally different.

 

[DeepEnigma]

Still one of the coolest names for a football game.

 

[sadmaker]

Retro Bowl

 

[NeonDelta]

Was it Blitz where you could juice your players and cause awful injuries? That one

 

[BossLackey]

NFL Blitz and NFL25K

So damn good for different reasons. I miss them.

 

[a multicultural team of v]

Gonna give a shout out to NFL Play Action Football on the NES. I played that shit so much as a kid, and looking back it seemed like it was fairly sim-like for an NES game. Top down isometric view, player stamina, etc.

Never play it. Just watched my bro play it.

But as a fun tip, Joe Montana Football on Genesis and PC were totally different.

oh my GOD I totally fucking forgot about this game! I need to download this right now, what a great game. If I remember right it was super customizable, and there were a few money plays that I abused the fuck out of... I want to say lining up just off center on defense was an easy sack.

 

[reektann]

Not specifically the NFL but I got into SUPER HIGH IMPACT on the Snes - I just liked when the announced would yell " AAAND NOW.. ITS SUPER HIGH IMPACT " before each game began.. it was also ultra violent at the same time with great sound effects before each play.

You could also start fights - timecode link below and a man would say " SOMEBODY GET A BODY BAG " when you won... mental.

 

[March Climber]

Time to post the most underrated fun football game for PS360.

 

[ReBurn]

I stopped playing football games after the 16-bit generation. I played Madden and Joe Montana Sports Talk Football like crazy.

 

[March Climber]

I stopped playing football games after the 16-bit generation. I played Madden and Joe Montana Sports Talk Football like crazy.

Even for people who don't like American football, I would still recommend NFL Blitz and NFL Street with friends. They transcend the genre because of how fun they are, much like the Mario sports titles, NBA Street, SSX series, and Virtua Tennis.

 

[ReBurn]

Even for people who don't like American football, I would still recommend NFL Blitz and NFL Street with friends. They transcend the genre because of how fun they are, much like the Mario sports titles, NBA Street, SSX series, and Virtua Tennis.

I agree. Couch gaming with friends was the main driver for me. I'm not a big football fan but playing those games in the same room with friends was amazing. I had less time to play games as 32-bit was taking over and I just fell out of it.

 

[Dacvak]

Time to post the most underrated fun football game for PS360.

Never heard of this game but I decided to take a look at it. Man, the kinetics here are super impressive for this era.

 

[The Incarnation]

All Pro Football 2k8

 

[March Climber]

Never heard of this game but I decided to take a look at it. Man, the kinetics here are super impressive for this era.

Glad you noticed! It was a euphoria physics game and came out not long after GTA 4.

It was that and also the Gears of War-esque camera and shooter controls that made it so different and fun in it's own way.

 

[Shake Your Rump]

My favorite

Agreed. Back when my friends all had Tecmo Bowl, I bought this. It was fantastic. I was disappointed that they seem to have lost the NFL license sometime during development. The preview screenshots in Nintendo Power showed real team names and logos. The final game just has generic logos and city names.

Actually, I went back and looked in Nintendo Power to verify. It seems that they never had the actual teams. However, they did change LA from the Raiders to the Rams, which, as a Raiders fan, was completely insulting. All the Nintendo Power screenshots show the Raiders. I wanted my Bo Jackson!

Look at this bait and switch bullshit. This was from their main feature in Nintendo Power #8:

 

[Magic Carpet]

The only NFL game being played around these parts is Fantasy Football.
Money is on the line at the office.

 

[TwiztidElf]

Coincidentally Jesse posted a video about NFL games last week.

 

[GooseMan69]

It’s not technically NFL, but All Pro Football 2K8 is the greatest football game ever made. Madden STILL has not caught up to it. Fucking pathetic.

 

[Naked Lunch]

NFL2K and Tecmo Bowl.
Loved Blitz too.
Fuck Madden.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

Time to post the most underrated fun football game for PS360.

Really good animations and physics tackles.

It's too bad the rest of the game was crap. It wasnt even the lack of NFL license. The player physics always had them lying on the ground, the run game had a weird behind the back cam view making it impossible to see where you're running and the game had this heavy metal vibe on kick offs.

If they just made a standard football cam views with the awesome physics and hits I think it would had done better.

 

[StereoVsn]

2K Football for Dreamcast was fucking magic! EA Madden has sucked for over a decade now.

 

[LordCBH]

ESPN NFL 2k5 the GOAT!!!

 

[March Climber]

the run game had a weird behind the back cam view making it impossible to see where you're running and the game had this heavy metal vibe on kick offs.

If they just made a standard football cam views with the awesome physics and hits I think it would had done better.

These were two aspects I really loved about the game. It had a lower Gears of War style camera angle to make the runs feel more intense. Even the sound design would enchance that effect as you heard the muffled noises of running on the grass and the player huffing.

Standard football would have ruined the vision and made it not stick out compared to other games around the time. If anything, they could have used a few more sequels to really iron out any minor issues so we could have seen where they could have went with it. It's a shame we never reached that point.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

These were two aspects I really loved about the game. It had a lower Gears of War style camera angle to make the runs feel more intense. Even the sound design would enchance that effect as you heard the muffled noises of running on the grass and the player huffing.

Standard football would have ruined the vision and made it not stick out compared to other games around the time. If anything, they could have used a few more sequels to really iron out any minor issues so we could have seen where they could have went with it. It's a shame we never reached that point.

A shame more games didn’t come because there was supposedly a back breaker hockey game in development too.

 

[donkey_oaty]

NFL blitz was my personal favorite.

Blitz was so damn fun, especially the old ones that still had late hits

 

[Morrie’s wig shop]

Joe Montana Sport Talk Football…..
……Montana…. Back.. To…Pass… lol

 

[StreetsofBeige]

Joe Montana Sport Talk Football…..
……Montana…. Back.. To…Pass… lol

…. He throws it down the line!…. A great catch, good execution!