It is November 1995. Gamers are wondering: what’s the future? The Playstation is a runaway success, besting Sega’s Saturn – yet there was still the pending release of Nintendo’s new system the following year. What experiences would the future bring; what new technology? Who would define the course of gaming forever? _____________________________________________________________________________
Playstation #14 & 15:
NFL GameDay & NHL FaceOff
Developed by Sony Interactive Studios America (989 Studios), published by Sony
Released: November 21, 1995 (US)
Best-Seller In: United States (Greatest Hits)
In 1995, the unthinkable happened:
Electronic Arts cancelled Madden.
EA notoriously ports each Madden to every possible console, even discontinued ones. They kept pumping out Genesis and SNES Maddens until 1997, Nintendo 64 entries into 2001, Playstation Maddens until 2004 and the Playstation 2 saw Madden games as late as 2011. Madden NFL 2002 alone saw release on five consoles, two handhelds and home computers. If a system is in any way commercially viable, a Madden will head its way.
In 1995, you could play Madden ‘96 on the Super Nintendo, Super Genesis, Game Boy and even Sega’s handheld Game Gear. Yet you couldn’t find Madden on any fifth-generation consoles. Next year’s Madden ‘97 made it onto the Playstation and Saturn. So what happened?
Madden ‘96 for the Playstation was developed by Visual Concepts. Their task: drag a 2D game into the 3D era, and do it in the limited time frame of a yearly sports game.
Visual Concepts failed. One flaw in Madden ‘96 was the game’s load times: Jason Dvorak of Game Rave reports that they tried to model every player, even down to their uniform, instead of applying textures to player sprites – bumping load times up to a minute at times. Visual Concept’s ambitions outpaced their ability.
Even an awful Madden would gross millions, yet EA still cancelled Madden ‘96 due to its poor quality.
This left a gap in the market. Whoever developed the first football game would have a license to print money – for one year, anyway. The winners of the year without Madden? The internal Sony developer Sony Interactive Studios America, later renamed 989 Studios.
989 Studios had a thriving sports division: their series included NFL GameDay, NHL FaceOff, NCAA GameBreaker, NBA Shootout, NCAA Final Four and the simply titled MLB. 989 Studios also tried many original works – and sadly, they were rarely any good.
989 Studio’s predecessor created the 1Xtreme series and Spawn: The Eternal, often regarded as the Playstation’s worst game. They developed Twisted Metal 3 and 4, which sold well based on name recognition but ultimately killed the series in quality. They also developed NFL Xtreme, a knock-off of the arcade-style NFL Blitz.
To be fair, 989 Studios also developed Rally Cross and Syphon Filter, and the Phil Hartman-starring Blasto.
I go in-depth on history because, ultimately, sports simulations are boring. I’m glad I won’t have to play too many because it’s hard to find anything to say about yet another game of football.
NFL GameDay doesn’t quite bring football into three dimensions. The players are seemingly 2D sprites, not models, and one must squint to see resemblance to real players.
When it comes to gameplay, one must acknowledge a truth: these games aren’t for gamers as a whole. The goal of most developers is to craft a fun experience. The developers of serious sports games must care about realism over fun to compete and appease the league they spent quite a lot of money buying rights from. Madden, GameDay and their like thrill the faithful with accuracy. I don’t doubt that many (though obviously not all) Madden players buy no other game.
While entertaining arcade football game exist, simulations are constrained by their sport. Those who are not already fans of the real thing may find it hard to enjoy a game that gives you seconds of control before abruptly tossing a menu at you. Football is not quite as awkward in-game form as baseball, but it’s still a strange mix with interactivity.
Some sports translate more easily to gaming: soccer, basketball and hockey, for instance. NHL FaceOff is the more entertaining of the two games simply because hockey is more immediately fun than football.
NHL FaceOff’s presentation is identical to GameDay’s: the players are sprites, while the world is 3D. Even the menus mimic the style of their football sibling.
Yet hockey is a better sport in-game form because it doesn’t stop: NHL FaceOff is a rapid experience, a maelström of hits and puck-stealing. I had fun playing FaceOff, something I could never say about GameDay.
Sports games are a commercial phenomenon – possibly the single most popular type of game – and are curiously unremarked upon: but what can one say? Even in this time of transition the games are essentially unchanged beyond the obvious graphical evolution. These games can’t change from year to year and hope to maintain their audience.
Sports games are a parallel universe, an alternate path for gaming populated by wildly different standards, audiences and notions of what constitutes a “good” game. And it’s a parallel universe I’m not keen to revisit.
notes
- EA’s tendency to port Madden games to systems long after they fell into irrelevancy means they often “close out” consoles: the final GameCube game was Madden 08, the final XBox game was Madden 09, and the last Playstation game (in the United States) was another EA franchise, FIFA Football 2005.
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Next Time: In my introduction, I said I would be playing the worst game I’ve ever played. That game is Loaded, and I’m reviewing it next week. I want to play it one more time just to make sure my negativity is justified: looking back, will I still hate it? Also: Road Rash. I’ve played a rip-off; how did the real thing fare on the Playstation?
You aren’t told what car it does work with, or why it’s incompatible. You’re just told…well, that it doesn’t work with your car.
Cultural Fragments 
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