NFL Quarterback
Club 2000
System:
Nintendo 64
Publisher: Acclaim
Devloper: Acclaim Studios Austin
Released: 1999
Genre: Football
Capabilities: Controller Pak, Rumble Pak, & Expansion Pak
Compatible
Review Updated: June 29, 2001
The Game
This is the 3rd Quarterback Club game for the n64. The first one in the ‘98 season was declared eons better than Madden 64 that year. But in the ‘99 season, things went the exact opposite. QB Club took up a new game engine that many people did not like. This year Acclaim and Iguana try to change things again and hope to regain there faithful crowd from the ‘98 season back. Did they succeed? Let’s get onto the review and find out.
Graphics
The game has a great close up view of all the action when you’re doing running plays and before the snap, and after players catch a pass. All the players on the field are huge and detailed well, so you can make out the helmet, jersey number and name. The games menus are easily laid out, and the play book was designed by the pros so it is easy on the eyes. There are, however, some drawbacks to the views of the game. Like when you zoom out to do a pass play, all the players are tiny, and hard as heck to make out. You should be thankful that you got icons above those passers. Also the game moves at an insanely fast pace. I mean the football players just zoom across the field in no time. For example, it takes about 1 second for a football player to run 30 yards. Yes, I am telling the truth. And half the time, it’s really hard to keep up with all the action going on at once. I don’t know if the expansion pak enhancements caused the players to act like Olympians or not, but it was weird.
Sound
You got your standard gridiron themes in the background here. And they got the job done for the game. The sound effects are also like they were in the previous games, and everything sounds the way it should like tackling, grunts and so on. The announcers in this game are hired pros. I wish they sound like they do off tv, because they show no feeling for the game at all, and sound like talking robots. So a real bad job there.
Game play
The game controls are a big downer in this year’s game. Everything is the same from last year to pick plays, call an audible, and so on. But the main problem here is the addition of the “catch” button, where you have to press the “catch” button at the precise moment to catch the ball. And with the game moving really fast already, you can imagine the amount of difficulty to get precise timing.
We got all our standard modes here from the past games like Exhibition, Playoffs, Season, Tournament, Fantasy Draft and so on, and they all remain intact from the previous games. There aren’t really all that many new features in the game aside from the create-a-juke, where you customize a silly running ability. And just like last year’s game you can create players and teams, and do as many trades as you want, so all the customizing is here again.
Replay Value
Up to 4 players can play this game. Create players, teams, jukes, plays, and play books. You name it, this game can let you create nearly anything. And I’m sure the Season and Fantasy Draft modes will be enough to keep the single player occupied for a while. But most likely the "catch" button will drive your friends insane, and they'll never come over to your house to play games again. Yes, the games controls makes the replay value for this game sink to new lows.
In Brief
+: Good player models, you can make nearly anything you want to
-: Game moves too damn fast, announcers sound like robots, the catch button is a joke
The Final Ratings Rundown
Graphics: 7.7
Sound: 5.0
Game play: 3.1
Replay Value: 1.8
Overall: 4.4
Rounded to fit GameFAQs Score: 4
Comments
I only played this game twice on two occasions for about an hour each, so you can see why I chose this game for my last n64 review to revise (It took me nearly two years to finally revise this review, which happened on June 29, 2001). In all honesty, I actually like the ‘98 version QB Club much better, and I think it was the best out of the series. This 2000 version was actually considered the worst of the 4 QB Club games on the N64. The stupid “catch” button and “create-a-juke” features were removed in the 2001 version of the game, which ended up being much better, but still leagues behind Madden 2001 on the n64. And if you are one of the few QB Club faithful, and are an n64 fan, than here’s the order in my opinion on which you should buy them:
1: NFL Quarterback Club ‘98
2: NFL Quarterback Club 2001
3: NFL Quarterback Club ‘99
4: NFL Quarterback Club 2000
So there you have it, this is one of the worst football simulations I played in a long time, and I hope all of use will never have to look at it again.