Nintendo 64
Released in 1998 by Acclaim
Grade: F
For collectors who often go to video game stores, this game is somewhat infamous. Much like the Peter Frampton album Frampton Comes Alive, NFL QB Club 99 is easy to find. Every used video game store I’ve ever been to has stacks of it, usually at the lowest possible price to justify the few square inches of space it takes up. Who knows how it sold so many copies in the first place — maybe it was given away in the mail along with samples of Tide laundry detergent — but apparently everyone who ever owned one pawned it off for pennies. And if you play it, you’ll find out why: it’s horrible!
Where it falls in the series
Acclaim’s football efforts started on 16-bit consoles with the halfway decent NFL Quarterback Club, and it went downhill from there, one lousy version after another, finishing with the 2002 version on PS2 and GameCube. This is the second of four on N64.
Gripes
The framerate stutters and the animations are herky jerky. The controls are touchy, yet they also lag at times. Quarterbacks don’t swiftly drop back on pass plays, so they’ve got to run for their lives to avoid sacks, but they can fire off long passes anyway. Players out in the field collide awkwardly, and there are lots of pass interference penalties.
The playbooks are a joke, with no nickel, dime, or quarter formations. The diagrams are confusing, but it hardly matters because every play feels like a total mess. And get this, while the joystick is usable in the field, you must use the D-pad to select a play, forcing you to readjust your grip on the controller over and over.
I don’t know how Acclaim could release this half-baked, practically broken game in good conscience.
Published March 28, 2026