Joe Montana Football

Sega

The finest quarterback in NFL history finally lent his name to a football game as he was nearing the end of his career in 1990. San Francisco 49ers great Joe Montana signed on the dotted line with Sega that year, and the result was one of the longest-running console football series of all time. Joe Montana Football and its successors helped establish the Sega Genesis as the premier 16-bit console system on the market, particularly for sports gamers.

Joe was still a young man in 1990.

Such a move likely hadn't been planned. Joe Montana Football was actually designed to appeal to sports gamers across the board, coming out in 1990 for numerous platforms, including the Genesis and the PC. Its biggest impact was as a Genesis title, however, the series surviving into the late 1990s despite direct competition from the Madden line. Initially, there was no comparison. The first Joe Montana Football was little more than an updated version of the atrocious Great Football and Walter Payton Football for the Sega Master System (see Part I of this feature). It was particularly weak on the PC, hampered with buggy code, awful graphics that incorporated an annoying side view of the field, and a playbook that was nearly nonexistent.

Early visuals in the Montana series were primitive.

Nothing in the original suggested that a sequel was anything but a losing proposition, though Sega commissioned one regardless. The resulting Joe Montana II: Sports Talk Football was a minor hit for the Genesis in 1991, however, thanks in large part to the use of a continuous audio commentator for the first time. This synthesized play-by-play man would use basic one-liners such as "The blitz is on!" and "First down!" to describe events on the field during every play. Though the vocal quality was crude, it added a broadcast sheen to gameplay that hadn't been previously attempted. Other aspects were similarly advanced. The playbook boasted more than 50 plays, the in-game camera zoomed in and out during the action when appropriate, and you could team up with a friend to take on the computer.

NFL 97 on the Sega Saturn was the end of the line.

Sega acquired the NFL license the following year and changed the name of the series to NFL Sports Talk Football 93 Starring Joe Montana. Voice samples soared to more than 500 in the first sequel. Using this as a selling point faded in subsequent seasons, however, as did the aging Joe Montana's effectiveness as a pitchman. NFL Sports Talk Football Starring Joe Montana soon became simply "NFL" with the appropriate year tacked on to the end. Game series quality hit the skids at the same time as Joe's completion percentage went south in Kansas City. NFL 94 had some good qualities, including refined zooming-in during play, but NFL 95 seemed unfinished, with choppy graphics and lots of slowdown.

The series limped on to an ignominious death with NFL 97 for the soon-to-vanish Sega Saturn. This horrible effort single-handedly drove a number of Sega fans into the arms of NFL GameDay and the Sony PlayStation (see below). But there was one positive: As bad as NFL 97 was, it didn't scare Sega away from football games altogether. NFL 2K for the next-generation Sega Dreamcast console system made it clear that the company still had what it took to create an excellent gridiron simulation.

NFL 2K

Sega returned to football gaming in a big way in 1999. As part of the launch festivities for the company's heralded next-generation Dreamcast console system, NFL 2K was released. Indeed, the game hit shelves with almost as much fanfare as the system received, with preview buzz all but proclaiming that this would be the best football game of all time.

NFL 2K made the Dreamcast a system to be reckoned with.

Those pundits weren't far from the mark. Though die-hard Madden and GameDay addicts might still defend their respective series of choice as the ultimate in football gaming, critics were simply blown away by NFL 2K. We awarded it one of the highest review scores ever awarded at GameSpot--Ryan MacDonald gave it a lofty 9.9 along with bushels of praise for every aspect of gameplay. This score was well deserved. NFL 2K captured the real NFL in a game in a way not seen since Front Page Sports: Football Pro 95 (see above). Computer AI was tremendous. Each of the clubs came with custom playbooks that they used to the hilt, playing up their strengths and attempting to hide their weaknesses in the same fashion that their counterparts did each Sunday afternoon in the real world. Meaning that you could expect a shootout in games against the St. Louis Rams and a low-scoring, ground-control affair when up against the New York Giants. Every team displayed characteristics that were fully discernible by any follower of the real NFL. And better yet, all of the teams displayed smarts when it came to clock management. Watching the computer quarterback take a knee in the dying seconds was a satisfying sight--even if you were on the short end of the scoreboard.

Better visuals and career play made NFL 2K1 an improvement.

This accurate "feel" was further accentuated with a precise control system. Gamepad response was excellent, a quick tug on the analog stick allowing you to move players exactly where you wanted them to go. Full use of the Dreamcast controller's buttons allowed the full range of motion on the field, incorporating stiff-arms, jukes, and jumps into every player's repertoire. Visual detail reached an unprecedented level of expertise. Players were given the recognizable faces of their NFL inspirations and motion-capped animation that gave each game the appearance of a TV broadcast. Plays even withstood the "slow-motion test." You could take a close-up look back at every play without seeing anything out of the ordinary. Unlike editions of Madden released around the same time, balls were handed off, thrown, and caught exactly according to the laws of physics. Stadiums were modeled after the real thing, with each park having the proper artwork and fans along with team-specific signage. Play-by-play commentary reached a new height. The no-name broadcast team may have lacked the Fox TV glitz of John Madden and Pat Summerall, but it made up for its anonymity by nailing nearly every play with dead-on observations. Specific, varied references and quick response time sold the illusion that you were listening to real people commenting on a football game.