Made by super high game developers
Sega Genesis
Released in 1992 by Acclaim
Grade: F
This poorly thought-out game was probably meant to steal a piece of Tecmo Bowl’s popularity by appealing to folks who like side-scroll football but found Tecmo Bowl too easy to control and lacking the excitement of hearing taunts like “Momma’s boy!” and “You’re toast!” before every play and occasionally fist-fighting opponents after them.
By fist-fighting, I mean that you watch goofy gifs of actors in football uniforms pretending to fight while you tap buttons rapidly to make a meter go up, which is the same mechanic that you use on kickoffs and field goals.
Where it falls in the series
There was a High Impact Football arcade game in 1989, then Super High Impact in 1991, and this is the Genesis port of the sequel. Some say High Impact is technically the precursor to NFL Blitz because the arcades were made by Midway, but I ignore that nonsense. Blitz didn’t come out until 1997 and thankfully bares no resemblance to this piece of junk.
Gripes
The CPU defense breaks through the line of scrimmage instantly on most plays, so your only sensible strategy becomes snapping the ball and throwing aimlessly as fast as possible.
There’s a simple 1-button throwing system — you can direct your pass either up or down, despite the fact that you have 3 to 5 receivers running patterns. Once you throw it, a crapshoot determines if your receiver catches it, doesn’t catch it, or runs out of bounds before it gets to him.
If you’re lucky enough to complete a pass, the illusion that you’re playing a football game disappears a moment afterward — players move so unnaturally and there’s no dynamic to running with the ball. A magic turbo button will shoot you forward like you got pulled by an invisible speedboat, which will free you from tackles for a second before the defense catches up to you.
When you get tackled, that’s where the edginess kicks in, baby! By that, I mean that you see your player’s pads fly into the air to end the play, and sometimes that will be followed by a gif depicting some guy in a suit and sunglasses who has a good laugh at how violent or not-violent-enough the play just was.
The game is a mess with no charm. It’s like it was created by people who never saw a football game in their lives, or even experienced the physical act of running.
Don’t believe me? This game wound up at #7 on a list of the worst Sega Genesis games ever over at the very cool site Revoking the Sega Seal of Quality.