College Football the Way it Should Be
NCAA Football ’99 is the best college football game ever made, period. But really, when you think about it, it doesn’t have much in the way of competition. NCAA Gamebreaker? Yeah, right.
Traditionally, college football games are throw-away titles that pale in comparison to their professional counterparts. Even the venerable sports gods at EA pulled this slick maneuver with NCAA ’98, which bore a striking resemblance to Madden ’97 (not even ’98!). If you’re a college football fan like me, you understand that there are subtle nuances in college ball that professional pigskin simply can’t match. Happily, EA has recognized the goldmine that is college football–they even stuck an entire development team on this game. The result is a game that beautifully captures the spirit of college ball while at the same time being one of the most comprehensive football games to date.
First thing’s first: praise be to EA for going 3D. That’s right boys and girls, these college guys are polygonal! Not only that, they are insanely detailed (zoom in during the instant replay and you can see black under their eyes, team logos embroidered on their pants, even writing on the ball itself). With all this 3D stuff comes a bevy of new player animations; after playing the game four times I had already seen tons of one-handed grabs, receivers going head-over-heels after getting their legs taken out, and a half-back that stretched out over the sideline to catch a pass headed out-of-bounds. And folks, this one’s got wrap tackling, wrap tackling, wrap tackling.
As far as depth goes, EA may have overkilled this puppy a bit. It’s ridiculous how many options this game is packed with. You can, of course, play any of the 112 teams’ 98-99 season, with total stat tracking along the way: rankings are updated, league leaders are monitored, and bowl games played. Then there’s the arm chair quarterback’s wet dream (Free beer?- Ed) – Dynasty mode. For your average Chuck, this stuff is just too intense; it literally has got you doing everything from recruiting blue chip high schoolers to making sure your junior golden boy doesn’t jump ship to claim that juicy check from the Tennessee Oilers. And if your team doesn’t start winning? Your five-year contract can be terminated and the next thing you know you’re flying your ass to Northern Illinois to report to Huskie training camp (The Huskies suck, by the way).
One of the coolest new goodies is the much-hyped play editor. Although I’m still trying to figure out how to design a slew of trick plays that I’ve got in mind, it’s fairly easy to program your own plays right down to the play action fake. You can then throw your new play (complete with your personalized title) into a custom play book that is automatically loaded when you choose your personal profile. That isn’t enough, you say? Check out the ‘Great Games’ option and see if you can change history by defeating the ’57 Oklahoma Sooners with the ’57 Fighting Irish. And if your skills aren’t what they used to be, grab your practice jerseys and take your squad out to the practice field. I know CDs hold massive amounts of information, but this is really something.
One thing that always pisses people off about football games is that a seasoned player can knock off a CPU controlled Nebraska with, say, Ball State, no problem (final score: Ball State 54, Nebraska 0). Although I don’t know much about how AI works, I know that this is the first football game that has ever made me punt (it was 4th and 11 on my 20, tie game). The damn computer even shut down my passing game, forcing me to (gasp!) run the ball! Long gone are the days when the shotgun post-out pass to the right receiver will get you 30 yards every time. Oh yeah, EA also wised up and added a juke button (R2) that will no doubt be the subject of many a trash-talkin’ session in the near future.
With all that said, there are a few ticky-tack details that I can’t help but complain about. In a game that manages to pack in an unparalleled amount of details (122 teams, complete with fully-rendered stadiums and sampled fight songs? Hello, nurse!), you’d think that they could get the throwing arm of a certain California quarterback right; although #10’s attributes are almost as dismal as the real world, the polygonal arm throwing those terrible passes is definitely not his left one. And if I’m going to be that nit-picky, I might as well mention that in 1982 the field of California’s Memorial Stadium was turf and not grass (EA does, however, deserve huge props for even including the ’82 big game between Stanford and Cal). And after God knows how many football games they’ve produced, EA still hasn’t found a way to improve interceptions and fumbles–yes, the action still magically freezes for a second while the camera swivels around the ball. Last but not least, I’m still a bit confused about how to save everything I’ve done–an auto-save function would be super.
Really, though, I’m the kind of guy that looks for flaws in the Mona Lisa. And although it isn’t a timeless masterpiece, this game rocks, and no other college football game can touch it.
