 Review By: Nick Arvites |
Developer: | 2K Sports |
| Publisher: | 2K Sports | |
| Genre: | Sports | |
| ESRB: | Everyone 10+ | |
| # Of Players: | 1-2 | |
| Online Play: | Yes | |
| Accessories: | PlayStation Network (online play) | |
| Buy Now: |   |
The season mode is straightforward. Take your created team to the playoffs and win the championship. There is no franchise or even multi-season mode, so this is pretty much it for single player. My biggest issue is that they don’t scale the CPU games and simmed games to your time settings. What this means is that your stats reflect a 5 minute quarter game, while the CPU stats reflect a 15 minute quarter game. This makes achievement chasing problematic, since it’s really hard to keep up your stats on either side of the ball because of the time differences.
Multiplayer is standard fare. You get a few lobby choices for ranked games, and you can only use user-created teams online. Shockingly, most of the teams I faced weren’t identical. Most did have Jerry Rice, who is just as insane in the game as he was in real life, but the rest of the makeup varied. I faced balanced teams, defense-only teams, offense only teams, and several strange combinations. The ranked lobbies also have a short game and long game option for both difficulty settings available, though I rarely found people in the long-game rooms.
The extra features aren’t up to the usual 2K standards. You don’t have a skybox type feature, and you don’t have the mini-games. You can, however, still set celebrations for touchdowns and sacks to the profile and set them off in game. It’s almost identical to the list of celebrations that were in NFL 2K5. The soundtrack is pretty good. Most of it is remixed songs that generally blend rock and hip-hop. The remix of the Rush classic Tom Sawyer is especially good, and will get the song stuck in your head for days.
There are two issues people will have with this game. First: the collection of legends is by no means complete. The biggest absence was legendary rusher Jim Brown. It feels criminal to prevent Brown fans from playing as one of the few high points of the franchise. They have a few notable recent players (Jerry Rice, Emmitt Smith, etc), but they’re also missing several good players that probably should have made the cut considering some of the “lower” names on the list (notable recent ones: Cris Carter and Deion Sanders). Steelers fans would be completely cranky. You don’t get Swan or Bradshaw or most of the Steel Curtain, but you do get Neil O’Donnell (and Jack Lambert). You also can’t recreate the Unitas/Namath matchup either because Broadway Joe isn’t here. On a personal level, I was annoyed they included Brian Bosworth but not Bo Jackson. How can you include a guy that’s widely considered the biggest draft bust in the history of the NFL draft but not the guy who bowled him over on a classic Monday Night Football matchup? Overall, a good first roster, but we would all like more.
The second issue I have with the game is a cost factor. I try to not bring this up unless I truly feel a game missed the pricing boat, and I fully believed this one did. This game launched at a full retail price, and has gone on sale at 49.99, putting it on the same level as Madden. While this game does pull off things Madden still hasn’t done, I have issues essentially paying full price for a reskinned NFL 2K5 (which cost $20 bucks new) three years later. The game lacks a deep single player mode and really doesn’t bring the offerings I’d expect from a full-priced sports game.
Bottom Line:
This is a good concept for a game. I wasn’t sold when they originally announced it, and it does have its quirks. However, the overall feel combines history with fantasy football to deliver a solid game. The multiplayer is fun, and it’s a good test of skill against another opponent’s team due to the star-caps. I talked to a few die hard Madden fans that played this game (and generally hate 2K titles) who genuinely enjoyed this. Again, the biggest problem with this game is the lack of some notable legends and the price-to-what-you-get factor.
A good start 2K, just not enough to get a top tier score. Now call up MLB and Cooperstown and do an All-Pro Baseball title on the MLB 2Kx engine.
| Pros: | Cons: | Final Score: |
|---|---|---|
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| 7.0 |
Posted: 2007-09-08 15:56:17 PST