All-Pro Football 2K8

"The best gameplay of any football game yet...but without 2K5's abundant features"

So, maybe you're a longtime football fan anxious to pit football's greats against each other in a fight to the death...or, maybe just a game of football. Or maybe you're like me, a casual football fan who wants a football VIDEOGAME, with no nitpicking when it comes to stats, training, ticket prices, and all that boring stuff...without it turning into NFL Blitz. A fan like that sounds like a niche market, but it's really not...finally, a football game with realistic physics that is also fun to play.

Graphics: 6/10
Yes, I'm sorry, but the graphics are terrible. The character creation options are thin, especially since you can't edit your player's hairstyle or skin tone properly. The graphics are jagged and the textures are barely there, and the score would have been a four if the animation weren't so fluid. You'll rarely see body parts going through each other or a player falling in an awkward animation. They move like real-life players.

Sound: 7/10
The players hit into each other with a satisfying crunch, and at the end of the day, that's mainly what matters anyways. Some of the sound bits appear to be re-used from NFL 2k5, but it's hardly noticeable since football games have been using the same phrases for years. Three points were taken off for the terrible, terrible soundtrack. Madden at least has a few bands I've heard of. APF 2k8 mainly has remixes done by "DJ Z-Trip." You may remember him from the song he did with Linkin Park, Walking Dead, which was popular for a while. I hate remixes, but I think most people would hate a whole soundtrack full of them.

Gameplay: 10/10
The best gameplay of any football game yet. Since it's not NFL, it's very balanced. Unlike any other sports game ever created, you have to strategically build your own team from a selection of superstars, with the rest of the team filled by generic players whose AI you have some control over. There are no "statistics" for each player to determine who is good and who isn't. If you're skilled enough, you should be able to zig-zag through the defenses, even if you're not using a pro. Most importantly, a player's strengths are shown by icons when you select the player. Some of these strengths are special "abilities" like the ability to tap A to run faster or get a speed burst after dodging a tackle. It sounds like it would make the game too "arcadey" but it really doesn't. To sum it up, APF 2K8 plays like a football videogame should. Whether or not you win is based on strategy and skill, not which team you choose or last year's statistics on how well a player performs under certain conditions, like Madden is.

Replay Value: 4/10
What? A 2K Sports game with a tiny feature set? No way! This is pretty much the only thing keeping the game from being amazing. The best thing about NFL 2K5 was all the extra features you would never find in Madden. You had a crib, which was interesting but pointless. You had celebrity challenges, which were tense and exciting. You had ESPN 25th Anniversary, a set of difficult and fun scenarios from football's past. You had Season, Franchise, Quick Play, online tournaments. There was a store to buy minigames, uniforms, videos, and teams. All-Pro Football 2K8 has online leagues and tournaments, which increases this score by two points, but aside from tat, that's IT. You have Quick Play and Season, nothing else to speak of. You would think that not having NFL teams would make it easier for extra modes. Obviously, I could just make the score a 10/10 since football games can pretty much be played forever, but compared to any other football title released this decade, NFL 2k5 included. I'm not asking for Dynasty or Franchise, surprise me. This game is very unique, so how about some new modes?

Buy/Rent/Skip
Some people love this game, some people hate it. I love its gameplay, but you may want to rent it first to make sure you agree. Or if you're low on cash anyways, wait for APF 2K9, so that they have a year to bulk the game up a little.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 07/20/07