Realsports Football for Atari
This game beautifully combined the graphics of pong, with the football excitement of choosing from 7 plays over and over. But at least the uniforms were accurate.NES Football
The year was 1990. I had Nintendo. And this was football. And yet at the time, I knew it sucked. But I didn't have any other option. There were 8 teams but without any NFL licensing. Completing a pass was a feat worth celebrating...but it was football.Tecmo Super Bowl for NES
Still enjoyable to this today because of awesome gameplay and complete NFL licenses. (Well almost complete, QB Eagles and QB Bills being some notable exceptions.) This game ate my childhood. Remarkably good franchise mode considering it was 1992.NFL Football '94 for Genesis
This game introduced me to the straight ahead camera angle that will become the standard. It also introduced trash talk and really crappy gameplay. I kept playing Super Tecmo Bowl.Bill Walsh College Football '95 for Genesis
This game ate up hours and hours, and is still playable today. Real colleges, if only about 25, and some real bowl games. Smart AI, realistic penalties. Solid game. Players moved like real players, sort of.NFL Quarterback Club '96 for Genesis
How can you make Quarterback Club without the trademark quarterback competition? Not a big step forward, but a playable game, real NFL teams and players and featuring 50 of the greatest scenarios of all-time (to that point).NFL Blitz for N64
Improved graphics and addictingly fun gameplay. Players are actually started to look like players, except that the game doesn't look like real football.Madden 2001 for PS1
We're getting there. Realistic, looks good, options galore. It's come a long way already. But it will look a lot better in a few years.NFL 2k2 for Dreamcast
Looks really sharp, but almost too sharp. Like a cartoon, instead of realistic. But the game was realistic. Plus it had Michael Vick.ESPN NFL 2k5 for PS2
Now we've got the ESPN presentation, updated divisions, challenges, cribs, better graphics than the Madden counterpart for that year, the best gameplay yet. Check out that grass!Madden 07
The future of video game football. Exclusive licensing will make sure it is. And it looks a little bit better than NES football, but will it have the gameplay to match?
Sweet, thanks for the timeline. I always enjoyed how Bo Jackson was 10 times faster than anyone else in Tecmo bowl, until my friends found out and wanted their lunch money back.
ReplyDeleteI hope Nike gets pissed that Michael Vick is wearing RBKs in the new Madden (Ironic considering that Vicks teamate, DeAngelo Hall, got in trouble for the vice a versa of that situation last year).
ReplyDeleteSorry if I didn't include your favorite game, this is just my own personal history.
ReplyDeleteWhat a fantastic trip down memory lane. While other kids were learning other languages and musical instruments and playing sports and making friends, we were pretending to be football players for hours and days and nights. And look how great we turned out!
ReplyDeleteI'd like to mention two other worthy games: (1) Spectravision Football. Good fun in vector graphics, although the every hitch pass went for six. (2) EA's NCAA Football 2004, which included the "matchup stick" that let you figure out which freshman DB was too nervous to cover your man deep.
Anyway, great post.
Somewhere in there should be John Elway's Quarterback, a favorite of mine not just for my affinity for the Broncos, but the fact that it was made during the height of cheat codes (I think). One in particular gave you the ability to make one of your players so fast that he was literally untackleable. You could simply run around the field watching as defenders foolishly chased you, missing tackles and such. This was partciularly good in the fourth quarter in a tight game because you could basically run out the clock and score.
ReplyDeleteIsn't what you refer to as "NES Football" actually "Play Action Football"?
ReplyDeleteI could swear Play Action was the one with the diagonal field.
Yes the full name of "Football" is NES Play Action Football, but I just always called it "Football" or NES Football. Anyways we are both talking about the same game.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.planetnintendo.com/thewarpzone/boxes/n3.jpg
To this day, even with my Xbox and NFL2k5 and Madden 06.... I still play Tecmo Superbowl... because for some reason it's more addictive than crack.
ReplyDeleteYou could add 4th and Inches for the Commedore 64 in the late 80's, that game rocked, plus it had an expansion to build your own teams!
ReplyDeleteYou could add 4th and Inches for the Commedore 64 in the late 80's, that game rocked, plus it had an expansion to build your own teams!
ReplyDeleteWhere's Atari 4-Player Football? The arcade game with the trackballs?
ReplyDeleteStill, to my mind, the best all-around football game ever
Anonymous (11:37) - I remember that play in John Elway's QB - I called it the "Reverse Ply" I think "forward play" and "reverse ply" (not enough letters apparently) were just supposed to be used to turn the formation around, but if you left the cursor up there without selecting the play, you got 2 pretty fast guys and the ultra-fast guy.
ReplyDeletePlaying 2-players, we also discovered that if you called the "Block Kick" defense that you could often intercept the ball before that fast guy got it.
fascinating. the atari players look like drawings from the caves of altamira!
ReplyDeleteHey, man. Great list. I would also like to note Mutant League Football and Madden 92. Those were my favorites. I wish I still had a Genesis 'cause I still have a copy of Mutant League Football.
ReplyDeletethe NFL 2K series will never be beat. Great post.
ReplyDeleteI guess I would be dating myself if I said I had fond memories of Kaleko (spelling?) hand held football. The first Madden was great, what was it 91?...came in a white box for the PC with X's and O's. I had no idea what nickle or dime defense was - Madden taught me, and there were a bunch plays called waggle?...And the game let you design your own plays, what a concept! The 90's, we wasted playing Madden on nintendo/super nintendo. Whoever had the ball last usually won by some stupid score 65-58. And don't forget Neon Dieon...you could not throw to the side of the feild he was covering...instant interception. BTW, I hated Techmo bowl...Bo was unstoppable and all you had to do is drop back far enouph...the DB never covered the reciever once out of screen....instant bomb for completion, and usually a TD.
ReplyDeleteA few comments:
ReplyDeleteGreat timeline. Would also recommend including:
1. 10-yard fight. Playing that game was as painful as stepping on a rusty nail.
2. John Elway's Quarterback for ability to use a cheat and have a guy on your team run the 40 in .5
3. Original Tecmo Bowl (possibly greatest football game ever), simply for the player ability of Lawrence Taylor which further confirmed his crack addiction.
Also, thanks for including NFL2K for Dreamcast. I have a jackass friend (Rello) who doesn't appreciate it's beauty. I'm in full agreement with all of ninjajames' comments above.
The best part of NES Play Action Football had to be the accelerated clock and *slow* motion speed of the ball carrier. I once returned a kick-off for a touchdown and it ate 3 minutes off of the clock. Of course the cut-scene clip after diving into the endzone was mandatory on every TD. And could anyone ever hit a damn field goal in that game?
ReplyDeleteBill Walsh College football I'm sure cost me scholarship money. I stayed up all night the night before taking the ACT finishing a season, and fell asleep in the Reading section. Ouch. Great story.
ReplyDeleteGreat timeline. One thing that is missing and I am not sure how many played, but it was quite fun and that is Intellivision football. It actually came with a booklet of plays to choose from. From a strategy perspective, it was beyond Tecmo Bowl and around 7 years before it.
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