PlayStation 2
Released in 2003 by 989 Sports
Grade: B-
This game is like dating a crazy person. It’s fun, but you know something’s wrong. And the more you care, the more frustrated you’ll be.
Where it falls in the series
It’s the last of four GameDay titles on PS2. Its college counterpart, NCAA GameBreaker, also only made it to its 2004 edition. GameDay 2005 came out on PS1, for some reason, and that was all she wrote for Sony/989 Sports’ attempt at dethroning Madden.
Praises and gripes
This game is way more fun than I expected. One of my first thoughts was, “Is this really worse than Madden?” The control is easy, the action is smooth, the graphics are solid, the playcalling is quick. What’s the matter? Well…
On its default settings, it’s very easy to pick up yards. Zone defenders don’t react to anything, receivers get open easily, linemen open big holes, and running backs can stiff-arm one guy after another. You get games with normal final scores, even with 5-minute quarters and a fast clock. This is highly unrealistic, but kinda fun.
The good news is there are some settings that drastically affect defensive AI, and you can play a more realistic game of football. The bad news is that some of those offense-friendly quirks are still rampant, no matter what settings you choose.
This is somewhat compensated for by the fact that defenders make long diving tackles and run faster than ballcarriers, as if the ball weighs 30 pounds and it’s hard to run with. It’s out of whack.
The control is fluid for the most part. Running, cutting, tackling, and juking are tight and responsive. Playing QB is initially awkward — you often seem to be throwing off balance — but then you fire accurate passes anyway. The unusual catching system has icons appearing below the receiver showing what button to push to catch, jump, or dive, but this also doesn’t seem to matter much. Receivers soar upward and snag passes anyway.
The playcalling screens are well crafted, but where the heck are the play-action passes? It’s all normal runs or normal passes. No screens, no draws, no reverses. You can call hot routes and make adjustments before the snap, but these aren’t up to par with Madden, and they’re less intuitive to call.
What’ll happen if you play this game long enough, unfortunately, is that all the quirks will bum you out, and you’ll wish you were playing a better football video game. You’ll resort to the same few plays and same gimmicks (and they’ll keep working because the AI is weak). You can stiff-arm five guys for an 80-yard touchdown run, but a perfectly executed pass play won’t have the same luck because the DB will inevitably catch up to you. You can hone your defensive tactics, but a braindead teammate will leave a guy wide open anyway.
This game is fine in short spurts. Play it with a kid or with a casual gamer friend who wants to drink beers and not learn how to use hot routes. But to answer my own question — “Is this really worse than Madden?” — yes, it’s worse than Madden.