NFL Quarterback Club 98

"Has lots of features, but lacks solid gameplay"

Football games for the N64 and PS1 have never looked very sharp. The sluggish gameplay and poor graphics really took a toll on the whole football experience that we all desire at some time or another. The folks at Iguana and Acclaim, who have designed the NFL Quarterback Club series for the SNES and Genesis, have tried to correct this. They released a ‘98 version of their series for the N64. Does this game maintain the same balanced gameplay of the original, this time in a 3D environment?

The game presents itself well upon the start of the game. The menu has a bountiful of options to choose from, along with that funky background music and the picture of Brett Favre really make this game look professional. The player can engage in a quick game, undergo a season with their favorite team, or edit a team's roster.

Let's start by stating the good about this game. This game has tons of customizable options and statistics. Each team has a full roster of real-life players with statistics in a bunch of categories, such as speed and strength. These players can be traded around from team to team, and there are even more fun options such as a fantasy draft in which all the players are put into a pool and drawn out by the player's choice. There are Create-A-Player options, which let the player design a top-notch player in any position with editable statistics. These players are put into the free agent pool, and can be put on the teams. Lastly is the Create-A-Team option, in which the player can add any players to their team and edit the team's colors as well.

The game also features a complete season mode, if the player is into this kind of thing. There is the option for playoffs or even a tournament (no bye games), and a classic game mode, in which players can recreate scenarios of old games and try to come out on top. This sort of stuff is interesting, but what is comes down to is the basic gameplay, the “pre-season” mode. Pick some of today's NFL teams rated in all sorts of fun statistics, such as passing and running, even including some old-fashioned teams from the past, which have everything except for the player's names.

What is poor about all this stuff is the huge amount of space required to save these changes. The game requires the ENTIRE space of a single memory card, and that hurts.

In a typical pre-season game, players select the number of players (up to four), the quarter length, the stadium, the weather, and the penalty severity. Then here's the actual football game…which is where the game sadly fails. What fails? The controls? The graphics? No, it's the lack of smooth, coordinated gameplay, and it feels as if the player isn't actually getting anywhere.

Most of the gameplay will take place in the basic offense-defense action, in which the offensive team tries to score a touchdown and defeat his opponent. There's a ton of plays to choose from, but the in-game action is funky. The gameplay never feels smooth at all, and it gets frustrating. The passing game, for one, is mediocre. All passes usually take a while to land on the target, and once a receiver gets the ball, he will be tackled by the defender, and there'a a fifty-fifty chance that he will drop it, only to have it flung ten feet into the air for an incomplete pass. The defenders controlled by the AI always stick to the receiver, but they never seem to actually block the pass; they just tackle the receiver once he gets the ball.

The running game is even worse. In most real-life football situations, the running back is able to shrug off any nearby defenders that are pushing against his goal of a touchdown. This is not the case in this game. Regardless of strength statistics, if a defender gets near the running back, bam--instant tackle, even if the defender is caught up in a struggle with an offensive lineman. This makes running up the middle very difficult. Gaining more than two yards on such plays is excellent. Running to the left or right usually gives more success, since the AI defenders don't make their move towards the running back until they get near them. All in all, a football game with a defective running game is really a poor football game. And the team controlled by the CPU usually chooses running plays often, only to lose yards most of the time.

This game can incite laughter or tears for being so broken. For instance, receivers can dive before they catch the pass to eliminate the safeties' ability to tackle the receiver and cause an incompletion. However, there is an exception to this since any passes caught in the endzone can't be dropped or flung in the air, since the game will instantly recognize a touchdown if the ball is caught, even for a split-second. There's all sorts of AI exploits (such as the fake FG pass to the left receiver that never fails) that are to be discovered. As for pacing, it is broken since all the players run super-slow. You can use turbos repeatedly to give the man a little "push", but the "uh" is really stupid and players get injured way too easily. Did I mention that when a player is injured, he rolls around on a ground while sucking his thumb like a baby? No, I'm not kidding.

Probably one thing that's most hilarious are the late hits. They're not part of the game by any means nor are there any penalties for it, but for the few seconds in between the whistle and the info dialogue, the player can run around and dive at other players in a humorous manner. I'm not sure whether or not this is a good thing, since it gives players a little something to laugh and enjoy in the game.

After the bad has been washed away, everything else in the game comes off as below average, but not nearly as bad as the offense and defense. The special teams, such as kicking and punting, are done with an easy power meter, but it's almost too easy to click a little too late past the maximum, making the kick super-duper weak. There are other moves, such as the turbo, the juke, the stiff-arm, the spin, the jump, and the super-awesome hurtle, which causes the player to clear an army of linemen in a single bound, that are at the ball holder's disposal. Unfortunately, none of these moves prove to be very helpful in dodging the defenders, and they are not reliable at all.

At least one thing that deserves a standing ovation is the ability to choose any position on offense and play as that man. Playing as a lineman or a wide receiver while letting the QB do his thing is a good idea, but it's no good since the gameplay is awful.

The graphics are better than gameplay, and the framerate is smooth most of the time. The players look alright, even displaying numbers and names on their jerseys, but none of them look distinctively different from each other, with the exception of height, width, and color. The transition between animations are mediocre though. The ball holder would be running and then will hit the ground upon being tackled by a defender. The stadiums look okay but they all look incredibly similar to one another, there's no coaching staff or players on the sidelines, and the the crowds consist of a flat texture of cardboard people. The best part of all is the referee's animations, which move their arms and whatnot for penalties.

The sound is shamefully poor. The menu music is good, but that's it. The announcer, Marv Albert, sounds disappointing and repeats the same phrases over and over again (“Boy, what a PUNISHING tackle by….41). He never refers to players by their names, but by their numbers. Other than the announcer, there are the grunts and crunching (yes, that's right, crunching) of the linemen, the howling of the crowd, the masculine voice of the QB, and the little “uh” noise that a player will make upon pressing the turbo button that will be played over and over again. The sound never gets the player into the game, and it fails on many levels.

This game looks good at first glance, but all the wonderful features can't save the bad gameplay. This game would have been good; it could have been good; it SHOULD have been good, but it appears that Iguana and Acclaim have focused more energy on the graphics and features as opposed to the actual gameplay. If NFL QB Club action is what is desired, then get the old SNES/Genesis game instead.

Presentation: 8/10 -- Game looks professional with all those options, and the music is nice. Looks good, until you actually play the game. . .
Gameplay: 4/10 -- Customizing teams and players is always fun, but the flawed gameplay destroys any chance of enjoyment in this game.
Graphics: 6/10 -- Players look alright, the framerate is smooth, but the choppy animations are no good at all.
Sound: 5/10 -- Other than the funky menu music, the sound effects will put the gamer to sleep.
Replay Value: 4/10 -- Like the gameplay, the customization is fun, but the actual game itself is poor. Expect to play this for a limited amount of time before it can no longer be tolerated.

Reviewer's Score: 4/10, Originally Posted: 07/11/05, Updated 06/29/09

Game Release: NFL Quarterback Club 98 (US, 10/24/97)