NFL Head Coach

"The perfect football alternative to those who have become disenchanted with Madden, like myself."

Let's face it...Madden is the reigning champion of football video games. Better than NCAA, better than the NFL 2K series...better than them all. But for all the improvements that the EA folks have lumped into Madden, after a while it all becomes too much. With the introduction of the enhanced running game to this year's Madden, you now have the introduction of Playmaker, Defensive Playmaker, hot routes on both sides of the ball, QB Vision, Hit/Truck Stick, and this year's enhanced running game...and you've got about four seconds to use all of these things before Dwight Freeney drives your poor QB's face into the turf. Too many things, too little time...at least for me.

However, this year things have completely changed...and changed for the better. For the first time ever, you can now completely forget about controlling the on-field action and focus all of your attention on the other aspects of football. Stuff like practice, free-agency, scouting, drafting, retaining/firing coaches, meeting owner goals, and the like have always been a part of Madden, but it hasn't been the focal point. The focal point of Madden has been the gameplay, with the franchise stuff added on for the hardcores. With NFL Head Coach, you can now jettison completely the on-field action and throw yourself headlong into the stuff that really builds winners in the National Football League. Using coaching, practice, staffing, trading, and preparation to construct the newest dynasty are the activities of note...not relying on that one hot route, that one money play, or running Michael Vick out of the pocket 60 times a game to go an illegitimate 15-1.

Of course, since this is the first time the folks at EA have done anything like this, there are bound to be some hangups. I grant that. But for its first time at constructing what could be considered a football role-playing game, Electronic Arts has done a commendable job, and this is definitely worth a look for even the most committed of Madden-ites.

GAMEPLAY/STORY: 8/10

The game begins right after Super Bowl XL. The game casts you as the hotshot coordinator of the Pittsburgh Steelers who has just led the black and gold to their fifth Super Bowl championship, and now you're looking to go out on your own and become the greatest head coach of all time.

The start is easy enough. Pick out whether you were an offensive or defensive coordinator, design how your coach is going to look with the standard assortment of customization options at your disposal, then pick up the phone, dial your favorite team, and start your job interview. The owner on the other end will ask you a series of football-related questions skewed towards your choice of coordinator. Your answers will directly affect your various coaching attributes...work ethic, motivation, and knowledge of the various football disciplines, like QB, RB, WR, TE, OL, DL, LB, DB, and SP. After your interview, you'll get a series of job offers. Pick one, and you're on your way.

The game takes you through the typical years of a head coach, from hiring/firing your assistant coaches, to restricted free agency, scouting, the NFL draft (complete with Mel Kiper's hair), practice, preseason, the regular season, and (if you're good enough) the playoffs. You'll find yourself on the practice field, working your charges through their paces as they try to master the I-Form Twin WR Corners play, the Shotgun 4 Wide HB Draw, or whatever other plays you decide to include in the team playbook. The more you practice a play, the better you get at it. Practice something enough, and that particular play earns "Money" status, where you can count on that play in that tight segment of the game to get you those points or the first down you desperately need. You also get the power to motivate your players however you wish, be it the gentle advice or the stern rebuke. Be warned, however; certain players will take different types of motivation different ways, so get to know your players' tendencies early.

You answer only to the owner, who will set a series of goals for you (like hit the Top 8 in passing yards, hit the Top 8 in red zone TDs, etc.) Meet these goals and the owner will likely reward you with a contract extension. Fall short of these goals, or make the owner do more than he really wants, and you'll find yourself on the street. The ultimate goal is to make yourself the greatest head coach of all time, and the game provides a neat ranking of the Top 25 coaches of all time as a gauge for you. An image of the top fish, Don Shula, is also provided for you as a motivator of sorts.

I mentioned that this is EA's first foray into Head Coach, and with that comes some obvious glitches. The control system can get a little titchy at times, with the analog stick being the only means of switching from phone to reports to computer and the D-pad being your various shortcut menus, but it's simple enough to understand with some practice. The game will also provide you with a lot of Office Hours during the offseason, where you basically just sit around and putz. I've found the best way to deal with these is to either play around with your playbook or your depth chart, or just skip over them.

GRAPHICS/SOUND: 8/10

With the Madden engine behind it, you'll definitely feel like you're standing on the sidelines praying that your selected play works. With the recently-acquired ESPN rights, you'll also get such personalities as Trey Wingo, Steve Sabol of NFL Films, and the aforementioned draft guru Mel Kiper helping you along, whether it's with TV-style updates, NFL Films-style presentations, or Mel's draft advice.

If you've ever seen an NFL Films production on ESPN Classic, you know that it's got some of the best old-school music around for football. Those signature instrumentals are here, and they're quite fun to listen to during your down time as you're trying to determine whether your aging veteran or your hot young stud should be higher on the depth chart.

Even the loading screens aren't a bother here, as they are garnished with quotes from the greatest coaches ever, like Tom Landry, John Madden, Chuck Noll, and Vince Lombardi. You can't tell me you won't get psyched up for a game after reading a few Lombardi quotes.

While I personally am not willing to shell out the money necessary to do this (especially with the new system coming out soon), you can also pick up a headset that looks just like the real NFL head coach's headsets and do all sorts of neat things during games. You can listen to your offensive and defensive coordinators speak to you during the game, and you can call out the plays using the game's voice-recognition. At least in theory. I've yet to see this actually work in my limited experience.

Your coach gets to choose from a series of different voices, but quite frankly, you don't say much, and the voices get kinda old after a while. The out-of-game graphics leave a bit to be desired, too, as befits the inaugural game. But, like so many other things in this game, the good far outweighs the bad.

PLAY TIME/REPLAYABILITY: 10/10

You can do this coaching thing for an extreeeeeemely long time if you so desire. Put it this way: It took Don Shula over thirty NFL seasons to get to his record of 328 wins. If you're going to break his record in this game, you're probably going to need at least that long. The standard Madden franchise mode has been advertised at 30 seasons, and I see no reason why NFL Head Coach would be any different.

FINAL RECOMMENDATION:

Get this game. If you get it soon enough, EA's also thrown in a neat little trinket in the form of a free Commissionership to a fantasy football league through the company website, but that's not why I got it. I got this game because I have long been fascinated by what goes into being the leader of a major sports team, and this is my chance to at least get a virtual sense of what it's like. The added trinkets like exporting your coach or team to Madden 2007 may also do the trick for you, but you get games for the meat and potatoes, not the carrots.

NFL Head Coach, while still suffering at times by various first-year glitches that can only be fixed with time, is better than Madden at portraying the life and work of a head coach...and without all that gameplay stuff. You get the team ready, you pick the plays, and let your charges win you a Super Bowl. If it were only that easy.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 06/26/06