Football Time Machine Tussle: EA vs. Sega

[jyoung]

Primetime came out two years later in '95.

The passing game was a little more tolerable in that one, but for some reason, they took out the play-by-play commentary and all the formation/personnel subs that were in Montana '94.

The one cool thing about Primetime was that you could start a season using the 1994, 1993, or 1992 NFL rosters.

[Klocker]

This to me was the best of the series SEGA.

NFL Sports Talk Football '93 Starring Joe Montana

[frankplastictrees]

I owned both games. My problem with Joe Montana was that the game would freeze on me every time I got to the playoffs...must of had a broken copy. Out of the two games I probably played Montana more, although I was such a cheezer. I knew how to throw the deep ball just perfect, where the receiver would dive back to catch it every time, it helped combat those super DB's. I ran the same pitch run play too, even running for so much in one season that the stats started over at zero.

[jyoung]

If you think about old sports games, pretty much all of them had cheese tactics that could be exploited because the AI just wasn't very sophisticated back then.

Thing is, back then you also had your friend/neighbor sitting next to you waiting to punch you in the arm if you tried any BS tactics, whereas nowadays, the anonymity of the Internet doesn't allow for any way to police cheesing aside from giving a guy bad feedback.

[Da_Czar]

great article. Loved it !

[Bones Justice]

I'm a big fan of NFL 94 starring Joe Montana. Nice article but I wanted to comment specifically about the description of the passing game by the author:

"Regardless of whether you were throwing with Elway, Aikman or Montana himself, every pass in Joe Montana '94 came out as a lofty, wounded duck that seemed to stay in the air forever."

Most likely, the author was using the passing button the way you would in Madden (hold for bullet pass, tap for lob) but the controls are the reverse in Montana. If you hold the pass button, especially on a short pass, you will get a high, lofting pass. Also, I wouldn't call the control of the players "jerky" at all. Instead, they have more realistic momentum, turning quickly from a stop or more slowly when running at full speed.

I loved the original Madden for Genesis but quickly got tired of the passing windows which basically take the defensive (human) player out of the game by blocking his view of the field. On offense, you could never see your wide receivers, either. Also, the playcalling method in Madden was backwards, requiring you to substitute in your group of players then forcing them into formations that didn't fit; you'd end up with wide receivers playing running back, etc. I also didn't care for the idea of being "punished" for re-using a successful play or having my fast wide receiver being run down from behind by the computer. The "Madden-isms" were fun for about five minutes then they became repetitive and annoying.

In contrast, playing Montana 94, especially with the horizontal view, zoom, and full play-by-play commentary, was very much like watching an NFL game on television. Only you got to control the action! And the simulation aspects were staggering - huge playbooks with different offenses for every team based upon their real-life counterparts. They even included stuff like the run-n-shoot offense with option routes for your receivers, formation shifts, and package substitutions.

By the 94 editions, Madden was still largely the same game as the original while Montana had become a great arcade simulation that beat Madden in every aspect of the game. Unfortunately, Sega dropped the game engine after NFL 94 and went with a different development team in the following years. NFL 95 played more like the Madden series and didn't have many of the features that made NFL 94 great.

[sportjames23]

Dude, you resurrected a two-year-old thread.

[Bones Justice]

Quote: Originally Posted by sportjames23

Dude, you resurrected a two-year-old thread.

Seems fitting considering that the author reviewed the game fifteen years after it was released and still got it wrong.