I have no idea what happened here. I enjoyed the previous Quarterback Club, but this one just feels completely wrong. I did initially theorise that perhaps Acclaim Austin were focused on the Dreamcast version of the game (with the console being released a few weeks after this point of the N64’s life in America), but that version got absolutely abysmal reviews.

In terms of gameplay, everything just has an “off” feel to it. Passing is extremely difficult, while tackling is extremely trivial. Making a breakthrough is also much more difficult than the previous game. Graphically, the animations just seem wrong. Players often stand around looking like deactivated Star Wars battle droids rather than humans, with a multitude of graphical glitches impacting the gameplay. Whenever the CPU opponent managed to get a touchdown, he just stood still with the ball while across the line for at least 5 seconds before the game realised that he had scored, and he started celebrating.

It’s a shame as Acclaim had managed to find a great formula for American Football, and managed to mess this up, and it doesn’t even seem like they were attempting something unique with it.

Fav

The passing system has been overcomplicated, so it’s incredibly hard to catch the ball. Even if your receiver is wide open, failure to press the catch button at exactly the right time results in the ball bouncing off his head. There’s a new passing option which is supposed to allow you to pitch the ball to a specific part of the catchign zone, but it’s rediculously tricky. Tellingly, the default settings leave it switched off. A big disappointment.

Martin Kitts, N64 Magazine 36. Review Score: 60%

Remake or remaster?

There are better versions to bring back.

Official ways to get the game.

There is no official way to get NFL Quarterback Club 2000