Sega Genesis
Released in 1997 by Sega
Grade: C-
This game is a real mixed bag of gameplay elements. If it did the stuff it doesn’t do well as well as it does the stuff it does do well, well, it would do just fine.
Where it falls in the series
With this series I just write it all out. Here it is:
- Joe Montana Football
- Joe Montana II Sports Talk Football
- NFL Sports Talk Football ’93 Starring Joe Montana
- NFL Football ’94 Starring Joe Montana
- NFL ’95
- Prime Time NFL Football Starring Deion Sanders
- NFL 98
There are also two college games by Sega, College Football’s National Championship and College Football’s National Championship II, which both rehash the NFL ’94 gameplay.
The last three editions use the same tilting camera and makeshift 3D graphics I’ll explain below. NFL ’95 plays noticeably slower than the last two. Prime Time and NFL 98 have identical gameplay, but NFL 98 adds difficulty sliders for several elements of the game. Jeez, I think I’ve already written too much about a game I don’t like much.
Praises and gripes
Let’s get this camera nonsense out of the way. The early games in this series used a very wide view of the action, and when the QB got rid of the ball, the view zoomed in closely. It was a novel idea, but far from perfect. This time around, Sega shoots for a compromise, a view that’s wide enough for you to see the field, but close enough for graphical detail once the play develops. To accomplish this, the camera tilts back during the play, allowing you to see far down the field. The problem is that, as you might recall from your Video Games 101 class, Sega Genesis games never had true 3D graphics. Developers trying to achieve a 3D effect had to stitch together sprites and backgrounds that represented their subjects at slightly different angles.
And well, in this case, that stitching together doesn’t work well at all, resulting in a horribly disorienting few seconds while you try to scan the field. The players all get big and small, small and big, and it’s hard to tell how fast or slow they’re moving. Once the ball is released, you’re back to the comfortable view you started with, which works fine.
Okay, boy, that took too long. It’s okay if you stopped reading. You shouldn’t buy this game anyway. Buy Madden 95 and Tecmo Super Bowl III.
There are parts of this game that aren’t so bad. There’s a decent number of plays and they unfurl like real football plays. Running with the ball can be exciting. The speed burst seems unrealistic but is fun to use. AI defenders swarm to the ballcarrier realistically. Tackling and defending passes are intuitive, although it’s pretty annoying that it seems easy to get to the quarterback, but sometimes you miss because, that’s right, that damn tilting camera has everything distorted.
The passing game is hit and miss. This game uses the Tecmo Bowl system, where you press a button to highlight receivers and press a button to throw. The camera even pans to the receiver you’re highlighting, recreating how a real-life QB may “go through his options” as he drops back. You usually don’t have a lot of time to throw, as your AI offensive linemen rarely do their job right. Adding to the challenge, your passes are often off the mark, even when your QB is set before throwing. Aaaanndd, on top of that, the pass command isn’t exactly super responsive, so you’ll often press the button and it’s too late, you’re either sacked or the pass is tipped. If you do get the pass off cleanly, it’ll likely arrive to your receiver as he’s standing in place waiting for it, instead of hitting him in stride.
Want more complaints? On kick returns, the camera doesn’t flip around, so you’re running down the screen, not up it. The playcall interface is needlessly difficult to use. You can flip through formations with up and down … or A and B? And when you pick a formation, you press down to see more plays, but if you press up, you go back to picking a formation? What the hell, Sega?
This series evolved in the wrong ways. In my review of its first edition, Joe Montana Football, my main takeaway was that the running and tackling mechanics were good but that the passing interface and camera view needed work. And that’s basically still the case, after seven editions.