NFL GameDay 99 Review

[Ayen]

NFL GameDay 99 is part of a series of NFL games developed and published by 989 Sports which lasted for ten years, from 95 to 05 before finally ending due to a decline in popularity from when it first started. NFL GameDay 99 would actually be the first game in the series to take on a more Madden inspired approach while Madden went to polygon technology and of course there are times where change is good and change is bad. I won't go any further into that as I want to judge NFL GameDay 99 on its own merits instead of comparing it to the rest in the series and its competitors at the time.

After a grand opening splice of live football footage and one guy landing on his head we get to the main menu which is different from most. Straight away what we're given is a 'mode' for gameplay, level of difficulty, style of play and how many minutes will be on the clock per quarter. Mode gives us Preseason, Season, Custom Season and Tournaments. Difficulty settings goes from Rookie, Veteran, All-Pro and Hall of Fame. Style of play consist of Simulation (recommended for beginners) Total Control for a more advanced style of play and Arcade for faster style of play and exaggerated special moves. The clock can be set from 1 minute to 15 per quarter.

And then you have your Roster menu. Here you can view each team's roster, create your own player and draft them to any of the available teams or make him a free agent, trade players from each team, draft players, sign players from the free agent pool, release players or reset the roster to reverse any changes you made that you're unhappy with. In the options menu you can set the music, announcers, penalties and injuries from off, low, normal and high based on your own personal preferences. Now let take a look at Preseason,

Selecting Preseason will take you to the team selection menu where you can pick your home and away team. NFL GameDay 99 feature the Denver Broncos, Green Bay Packers (which will be your default players), Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Arizona Cardinals, San Diego Chargers, Kansas City Chiefs (cheers for my hometown team!), Indianapolis Colts, Dallas Cowboys, Miami Dolphins, Philadelphia Eagles, Atlanta Falcons, San Francisco 49ers, New York Giants, Jacksonville Jaguars, New York Jets, Detroit Lions, Tennessee Oilers, Carolina Panthers, New England Patriots, Oakland Raiders, St. Louis Rams, Baltimore Ravens, Washington Redskins, New Orleans Saints, Seattle Seahawks, Pittsburgh Steelers, Minnesota Vikings, Chicago Bears, Cincinnati Bengals and the Buffalo Bills.

Seeing how Super Bowl XLVI (46) was just this last week for the sake of this review I'm having the New York Giants go up against the New England Patriots.

Before you start a game there are some extra settings here. We have Modified Rosters, Weather, Options and User Records. Weather as you can no doubt guess on your own allows you to change the weather. It can be day, night, fair, raining, snowing, windy, your choice. Options will allow you to pick the stadium otherwise the default will be wherever the home team is from and Options let's you pick the home team jersey color.

At the start of the game is the coin toss, if you're the away team you will get to choose either head or tails, if you win the coin toss you'll be able to choose whether you want to kick the ball or receive it. If you lose the coin toss you can choose which field goal you want to defend, north or south. After that you have the kick. Once you see the American flag on the top right corner of the screen press X to bring up the power meter. Press X again when the meter is at the top to get the best kick your player can muster. You can also use the left and right directional buttons to aimed the kick at a left or right angle.

Prior to the beginning of each play you'll be brought to a screen that allows you to choose which play you want your team to go with. If you're like me and don't know the first thing about what play does what you're in for some trouble. If you're well versed in the game of football then this gives you a chance to carefully strategize be it on offense or defense.

Pause the game during play and you'll be able to view game stats, view an instant replay, call for a time out (you only have three), cycle through camera options, substitutions, choose audibles, customize your game (computer speed, IQ, passing ability, the size of the players, etc.) or quit the game. Audibles have to do with plays and team formations.

Scoring a touchdown will earn your team six points, you can get an additional one immediately afterwords which is normally where you go for a field goal, but if you don't know what the play is you can't do that and you're not forced to go that route. You can try another play to score that extra point entirely. Field goals that are not performed after a touchdown are worth three points but be careful when and where you go for a field goal kick because there's a high chance of interception.

Season Mode allows you to play as your favorite football team in a complete 16-game NFL Season. You'll go through a NFL schedule where you can play game or simulate them and at the end your team will enter the playoffs and even have a chance to play in the Super Bowl which is of course every team's dream. By the way The Giants just made a field goal bringing the score 3 to 0 at this time of writing.

Take control via Custom Season which allows you to reorganize the teams in each division from both conferences. Custom Season works the same way as a regular Season but with your preset changes made before the Season officially starts.

Tournament is exactly what the name suggests. It's a tournament where you can set up to 16 player names and compete in either an 8 or 16 player tournament.

The NFL GameDay series may be a thing of the past but that's not necessarily always a bad thing. If you're a fan of the NFL or just enjoy sports in general I'd recommend NFL GameDay 99 unless you already played the first Madden game that used polygon technology. Then you'd probably wouldn't like it as much. This is ToriJ signing off.

NFL GameDay 99 Fantasy Super Bowl Scores

First Quarter: Giants 6 – Patriots 3
Second Quarter: Giants 9 – Patriots 17
Third Quarter: Giants 12 – Patriots 31
Fourth Quarter: Giants 26 – Patriots 45
Total Score: Giants 26 – Patriots 45

New England Patriots win!