NFL Quarterback Club 99 was an N64 exclusive. It was released in 1998 and is the fifth game in Acclaim’s football series. Unlike the previous game in the series, the developer was only working on versions of this game for the N64 and the PC. The PC version was never released.
There were a few improvements made between this game and the previous. Most of these sports franchises have minor tweaks between entries. In this case, the developers made the physics better, but didn’t make noticeable improvements to the A.I. It’s a little weird to see something like this.
So far, the NFL Quarterback Club games have been okay. There has been some weird stuff in them, but nothing that makes the games unplayable. I still find it surprising that these games focus on the passing game, which is normally subpar in these games.
TLDR: Improved Graphics and Physics; the A.I. is still terrible.
Narrative
There is no story or career mode in this game. It feels like I could just cut and paste what I wrote in the previous review. It does have a few more features, but there isn’t something resembling a story for this game. I also wasn’t really expecting there to be.
Gameplay
NFL Quarterback Club 99 has better gameplay compared to the previous game in the series. Moving the ball is less of a struggle, the rosters have been updated, and there are more features. It still has the same problems with A.I. as the last game did.
The passing game in this series has always been an issue. NFL Quarterback Club 99 fixes one thing from the 98 entry, but ignores the other. The ball is thrown with a little more force, so it doesn’t look like you just lobbed it to no one in particular. The wide receivers and defenders appear largely disinterested in catching it, if they’re even in a position to do so.
In QB Club 98, the wide receivers would often run a totally different route than what was called. That happens in QB Club 99 as well. However, the wide receiver will randomly catch the ball, which feels like the developers know there’s a problem and are trying to make it work.
Running the ball is much easier in this game as well. Almost like they knew that one of these options had to be right. If you screw up both running and passing, then you’re basically screwed in an American football game.
Overall, this is an improvement over the previous game. While there are still things that are a mess, it looks like they tried to clean it all up. This game is more fun to play than the last game in the series. It is an improvement in most areas, and it didn’t go backwards in others.
Visuals
This game looks better than the last game in the series. The character models look better, the field looks a little better, and the digitized photos look good. There are still some strange things that were more of a product of their time, specifically the characters running and other animations.
The character models in NFL Quarterback Club 99 are more detailed than the previous game. While they’re basically the same model with different jersey numbers, I don’t mind this that much. You can read the player’s name, the numbers are easy to read, and they look more detailed than I was expecting.
For the time this game was released, the stadiums and fields look good. The weather effects look great, and the team logos on the field are good. While there are no players or coaches on the sidelines, this was common for the time.
I still get a chuckle out of the running animations in this game. I haven’t played enough football games from this time period to know if these were outside of the norm. They just look a little funny to me, which might be due to the technical limitations of the console.
The digitized photos still look good. There are fewer that made me laugh when I saw them, and in others I’m glad that they’re there. Believe it or not, I didn’t remember all of the players from the 1998 NFL season, so it was nice to have a picture of them.
Overall, the graphics are an improvement over the last game in the series. The game’s graphics aren’t part of the problems that this game has. They look quite good for the time and are better than the previous game.
Reviews at the Time
NFL Quarterback Club 99 received more consistent scores than the previous game. Most scores were in the 8/10s, with only a few outliers in the 6s and the 9s. It is important to note that during this time, a 5/10 was considered average. I looked at three publications more closely for this section.
Game Informer had three people review this game. Their scores were two 8.25s and an 8.5/10. One reviewer called it “easily twice as good as last year’s game.” Another said that the developer improved on the “dismal” A.I. from the previous year, which gave the game a “playable passing game.”
Gamespot gave the game a 7/5/10. They praised the graphics and the multiplayer. This review was more negative on the single player experience, and didn’t think the A.I. was improved enough.
IGN gave the game an 8.4/10. The reviewer said that NFL Quarterback Club 99 “delivers the most fun of any football simulation on the market.” They did point out the A.I. having bugs and said that hardcore football fans might not be able to overlook them.
Just about every review I looked at called this an improvement over the previous game. Some were more willing to overlook the game’s faults than others. Being an N64 exclusive probably helped this game out. The developers got to focus on one version, and the N64 media market was a little friendlier to it. It also helped that this game is an improvement over the previous one.
7.5/10. This is an improvement over the last game in terms of gameplay and graphics. Character models are more detailed, and things look a little crisper. While they were able to make it easier to throw the ball, the wide receivers and defenders seem incapable of catching it at times.
Pros
- Good graphics
- Improved Gameplay
- Easy to learn
Cons
- Awkward animations
- Bad A.I. for both offense and defense
Conclusion
It is always nice to see a series get better from one game to the next. I’m not too sure this will continue, but I’m glad that Iguana made some improvements here. It is a little odd that they haven’t gotten the passing game worked out, given that there is a focus on Quarterbacks.
This game becoming an N64 exclusive is a little strange. There had to be something going on in 1998 that was keeping them from being on the PS1. I don’t think EA had exclusivity rights for that console, but I’ll have to look into it.
This series eventually made it to the Dreamcast and made a single appearance on the PS2. That is all down the road, and I’m not planning on looking at all the versions of these games. I’m sure that some are better than others, but I’ll stick with the ones I own.
Acclaim has done a good job with these games so far. They have problems, but none are catastrophic. It feels like some of the reviewers were going easy on them during this time, though. I’ll have to see what happens with the other games, and then compare them with other series when the time comes.
If you liked this review, check out my other posts about this series. Such as NFL Quarterback Club 96 or NFL Quarterback Club 98.