NFL Gameday '97

"An old game that is still classic."

INTRODUCTION

When I bought my PSX, the first game that I bought to accompany it was NFL Gameday 97. I had already owned NFL Gameday 98, only I had needed to use my brother's Playstation to play it. Well, a friend of mine had Gameday 97, and said while it was very much like Gameday 98, it was worth a buy if you could find it cheap. Well, I don't know about you, but brand new and for $14.95 sounded pretty good to me. So I went ahead and picked it up and took it home for my enjoyment. And enjoy it I did.



GAMEPLAY

NFL Gameday 97 has an excellent roster. All of the thirty teams that were around in the 98 season are available, although there are no Cleveland Browns yet. There was also a full selection of past Super Bowl teams. This was accompanied by All Star teams for each individua team, composed of that team's greatest players of all time.

NFL Gameday 97 did not feature very many modes. You have the exhibition mode which was a standard game of football. The only other real option was the season which you could go on. There were no tournaments or any other modes, as many modes in a sports game were not widely included in December 96, when Gameday 97 was released.

One thing that NFL Gameday 97 did well in were the options of the game. You had many ways of customizing the perfect team. You can have trades. However, the trades are very awkward as I could get Steve Young for Dug Peterson and there would be no objections. So you could easily compose a superstar league with no troubles. There is also a fantasy draft which is very cool. The computer goes through and randomly throws around a starting quarterback, runningback, wide receiver, decghsive lineman, linebacker, and cornerback or safety, I forget which one. These six players that start on each team are thrown into a tumbler, and they are tossed around the league so you could end up with a devistating combination like Brett Favre, Terrell Davis, and Jerry Rice. You could also end up with a terrible combination like John Freeze, Terrence Mathis, and some jobber runningback, so this mode is quite fun. It's great to do this and go on a season, as you do not know who 1/4 of your players are until you play game one.

NFL Gameday 97 plays barely any different to any other game in the NFL Gameday series. Running is very basic, you simply press the direction of what you want to do, and press buttons to do actions with your runners. For instance, circle is spin, x is speed burst, square is dive, etc. Passing is not difficult either. After you've hiked the ball, you cove around with the quarterback. Press x again and you will have icons appear under your receivers. Press square and you will throw the ball to so receiver that correspondes with the square icon. The controls in Gameday 97 are nearly flawless. There are a few difficult parts, such as pitching the ball backward correctly, but there is no problems with sluggishness or choppiness. The game moves smoothly and responsively. Overall, NFL Gameday 97 plays very good, and it is good for its time.

GAMEPLAY SCORE: 8.4/10



GRAPHICS

The graphics in NFL Gameday 97 are good. The characters, while done in sprites, are done rather well. Some of the players look kind of weird and you can't see them very well. The stadiums are all authentic and resemble their real life buildings well, although some minor details are not included as well as I would've liked. The uniforms look great and just like the real team jerseys, making for a great effect. The crowd is my biggest problem. Like most of the PSX sports games until very recently, the crowd looks like little blobs of color that are intended to resemble humans. Since this was a very early PSX game, and is even worse. There is just a huge massive blob in the bac that represents a crowd. Overall, the crowd and lac of a bit of detail bring down the graphics somewhat.

GRAPHICS SCORE: 7.7/10



MUSIC/SOUND EFFECTS

The music in NFL Gameday 97 is decent. There is only one track that playsand that is during the menu. It sounds very much like a typical song you'd hear as a TV station was going for a commercial during a real NFL game. I really like the music. It plays yrt clip of this music when a touchdown is scored, but otherwise there is no music, as there isn't much ever in sports games.

The sound effects are spectacular. The PA announcer does a great job. He always tells you who got a first down, what yardline you're on, how many yards a pass was, who tackled who, etc. etc. He does a great job, and since he doesn't put in his own comments, only facts on the game, he is never behind unless you're game starts to skip, when he may skip out and only get around to say who tackled somebody when the QB is hiking the next play. if you're game's in good condition he keeps up very well. The sounds of play are great. All of the guys crunching into each other with their sickening hits is portrayed very nicely and accurately. The crowd is decent enough. They are a bit quiet for my taste, but cheer when big things happen. They do not favor the home team, which is something I really like to see in sportsgames that adds to their realism greatly. Overall, the sound in NFL Gameday 97 is for the most part excellently done.

MUSIC/SOUND EFFECTS SCORE: 9.1/10



DIFFICULTY: EASY

NFL Gameday 97 is not a challenging game at all. There are a few plays that can get you a good 30 yards every time reguardless of difficulty. The only real difference in the difficulty levels is how the computer plays better on offense, and instead of the final score being 72-7, it's more like 72-49. It is a very easy game.



REPLAY VALUE: MEDIUM

NFGameday 97 lasts about average. It is a good game, but there are plenty of games out there now with more customizable options that I like to use a lot better like a franchise mode. The season is fun to go on, but you'll probably win the Super Bowl with a perfect record and win each game by at least 20 points. I don't know about you, but winning continuously isn't too fun. When you enable cheats though the computer for some reason gets harder, and so it's funner to play the game a few times again.



OTHER GAME INFORMATION

RENT/buy?: BUY

GENRE: SPORTS



OVERALL SCORE: 8.4/10

NFL Gameday 97 is a very good game. It was one ofthebest football games of its time, and I think it's still do game to play sometimes. You should buy this game if you at all like the genre, you could probably find it pretty cheap these days. Like really cheap, seeing how it's three and a half years old.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 08/12/00, Updated 08/12/00