NFL 2K

"Where else do they talk about drunk ducks, youngins, buffalo wings and football in the same place?"

Sega Sports was a huge part of the Genesis, competing with EA Sports, Accolade and others. But, when the Saturn came around, they didn’t have much support (aside from the excellent Worldwide Soccer and World Series Baseball series) and the system sorely lacked in quality Basketball and Football titles. Visual Concepts and Sega solved that with the Dreamcast.

Graphics – 10/10

Incredible. The details on the actual players are great, with rendered faces, wrinkles in the uniforms and even small details like breathing in cold weather and many celebration animations. The animation is smooth and the game almost always runs at sixty frames per second. The stadiums look awesome, but the crowds would be much better animated (see World Series Baseball 2K1 for DC or NHL 2001 for PC if you want to see an example of a great crowd) and so would the sprites on the sidelines. But, truly a great effort.

Play-by-Play – 10/10

The one area where EA’s Madden series has almost never been able to compete is play-by-play. Barring the two years that the nifty FMV commentary was used on the Playstation and Saturn versions, Madden has had dreadfully boring play-by-play. Sega Sports and Visual Concepts took a different route. Voice actors. The announcers in the game are Dan Stephens, Peter O’Keefe and Michelle Westpaul. Bottom line, they are the best announcing team out there. They never stop commenting, they have tons of humorous remarks. All makers of sports teams should take a cue from Sega Sports. Only the announcers of 989 Sports and Acclaim Sports football games come even close to touching the great team of voice actors.

Other Sound – 8/10

While announcing is more important than any other sounds in sports games, in my opinion, other sound can add to the aural experience. Players and coaches chatter constantly as well as the crowd. The comments are oft-times humorous. The sound effects are quite good, but the menu music stinks. Some golden oldies from the 60s or some Sonic R songs would have been perfect for menu music—in any game.

Gameplay – 10/10

I love the control for this series. It’s faster than Madden for the N64, Quarterback Club for the DC and more like my second favorite football series, Gameday (the versions from 99 on). The players control on a dime with no delay. Passes can be thrown as lobs or bullets. The powerful stiff arm can belt attacking defenders (oxymoron?) from crushing the rush. Penalties of every kind, including Offsides, can be turned on or off. I’ve wanted this kind of control since penalty options existed in football games. Also, the game speed can be adjusted to slow, normal or fast.

Customization – 10/10

Awesome. One can create players with numerous options, teams with extremely unique uniforms, plays where players fly everywhere and turn the commentary all the way up. The only bad thing is that you can only create about 8 players, 2 teams and 6 plays. But, the customization features are so detailed, that it doesn’t matter that much that there is a number limit. All volumes and penalties can be turned on or off as well.

Miscellaneous –

NFL2K is a Dreamcast exclusive, now part of the Sega All-Stars Program. To save anything, it takes 185 blocks of a VMU. It was developed by Visual Concepts and published by Sega of America. The game also supports the VGA Box and the Jump Pack.

Overall – 9.6/10 => 10/10

The gameplay is some of the best around, the graphics are among the greatest, and it features the most original and amusing commentary team ever along with a great amount of customization equals the Madden killer for the 2000 year. Highly recommended!

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 09/29/01, Updated 09/29/01