NFL Quarterback Club 2000 is where the series really fell apart. This game was released in 1999 on the N64 and the Dreamcast. I’ll be looking at the N64 version, and I’m not planning on getting the Dreamcast version. Given the review scores from 1999, this is going to suck!
Iguana handled the previous games in the series, which didn’t change here. What was different is that Acclaim renamed them to Acclaim Studios Austin. This makes things a little more puzzling for me. I’m guessing the team was changed, even though it was made by essentially the same studio.
There was more competition around this time. The NFL2K games were being made around this time, so the Dreamcast version was going to be compared to those games. I’ll be really interested to dig into the N64 reviews to figure out what happened there. What much of this boils down to is that Acclaim’s series wasn’t keeping up with the other games.
In 1999, Acclaim hadn’t totally fallen apart. There were a lot of cracks forming, but they weren’t totally dead yet. Their relationship with Midway was dead at this point. Much of what I remember about them from this time was wrestling and sports games. That was their bread and butter during the 1990s. Let’s get into this game, and maybe we can find out what happened here.
TLDR: Bad Animations and Awkward Graphics seriously hamper the Gameplay.
Narrative
It shouldn’t be a surprise at this point that there isn’t a story or career mode in this game. You can play a season or the playoffs, so there is some room for creativity. This game delivers what I’ve come to expect from an average sports game from the 1990s.
Gameplay
There are some good ideas in this game, but not all of them were implemented well enough to save the gameplay. Because of the rough graphics, the gameplay suffers. At times the AI is better, but it is fairly inconsistent.
Each team has its own playbooks, which is pretty cool to see. This adds some more variety to what is going on in the game. This is something that most football games do nowadays.
The passing game, which has been the Achilles’ heel of this series, is still awkward. Thankfully, it isn’t due to the game’s AI. You have to time the catches for the wide receivers, which isn’t something I like. It is a cool idea, but isn’t done well and suffers from the awkward animations.
There were way too many times when my offensive line just gave up. They just refused to block at times. I can blame this on my play selection in some spots, or on the difference between the good teams and the bad ones.
One of the better things about this game is that you can tell when one team is better, or when one player is better. You’ll have players that are better at some things, or a team that is simply better. You can overcome stuff like this, and it is fun to see the developers attempt something like it.
Overall, the gameplay isn’t all that great. I had way more fun with the 99 entry in the series than this one. It has way too many problems to make this good. The gameplay also is hurt by the issues with the game’s graphics.
Visuals
Some parts of this game are a step up from the last game in the series. The field looks more detailed, character models look good, but everything looks like it has been coated in grease. This last one might be due to the monitor I’m using. It might look better on the Dreamcast, but I doubt it given Acclaim’s track record of ports to that system.
The camera is very jerky in this game. Previous games had smooth camera and animations, but this feels off. It is only a problem when a lot of things are moving at once, which is a problem for a football game. It is like the developers were trying something with the camera movements, and I don’t think it worked out too well.
There are a lot of missing animations. It makes the passing game feel off, which is a problem because you need to press a button to actually catch the ball.
Parts of the character models are more detailed. Helmets and faces are more detailed, which I don’t think was necessary. It looks pretty good, though.
For some reason, the previous two games on the N64 looked brighter. NFL Quarterback Club 2000 looks like it has a greasy filter on. It isn’t bad, but it is different enough to mention. The field looks more detailed, but also a little more boring at times. This might be due to the places I chose to play, as some of the team’s home stadiums look better than others.
Overall, the graphics are still pretty good. I have problems with them and the camera is a little odd at times, but it is a good looking N64 game. Much like the PS1 games from the 1990s, the N64 games don’t normally look that great in retrospect.
Reviews at the Time
The reviews are much lower than the previous game. For the N64, the scores were between a 5 and 6/10. This is much higher than the Dreamcast version, which was between 2 and 3/10. At the time this game was released, a 5 was considered average.
IGN gave the game a 6/10. The reviewer called NFL Quarterback Club 2000 a “disappointment.” They point to a rushed production cycle and called it an “incomplete game.” This is mostly an opinion, but he does give some reasoning behind his belief.
Gamespot gave the game a 5.9/10. They commented on how the graphics interfere with the gameplay. The reviewer cited the “inconsistent frame rate,” taking away from the good parts of the game. At the end, the reviewer said that Madden 2000 is a better choice.
Game Informer gave the game a 5/10. In a roundabout way, the reviewer said that the frame rate isn’t very good, and you need to turn down the detail to make the game run well. The review is fairly short, and it lacks a lot of detail.
Reading these reviews has been interesting. NFL Quarterback Club 2000 seems to have switched things around. The reviewers are pointing out that the graphics are now a problem, and the gameplay is getting better.
6/10. At the end of the day, I would rather be playing NFL Quarterback Club 99. The 2000 entry has way too many problems for me to want to keep playing it. There are a few things that I like about the game, but none of the ideas worked out. It is an ambitious game, but I would’ve rather played a good game.
Pros
- Good Graphics
- Lots of Game modes
Cons
- Camera is odd
- AI is still a problem
- Bad or missing animations
Conclusion
There were a lot of mistakes made with this game. Many of them had to do with the developers trying, and failing, to improve on the previous game. There isn’t anything wrong with this, as long as they’re able to fix their mistakes in the next game. It is a little telling that the Dreamcast version was released a few months after this game, and it was received worse than the N64 version.
The newly named Iguana tried to do some different things with this game. In the process of doing that, they messed up some other stuff. While the AI was improved from the last game, the game’s animations were much worse. I could deal with goofy or funny things, but missing frames or bad animation isn’t something I can overlook.
I simply didn’t have fun with this game. The graphics seriously hampered the gameplay in several ways. This isn’t what you want from a game like this. Some of the changes didn’t resonate with me, and I kept wishing that I was playing NFL Quarterback Club 99.
I’m going to be taking a short break from this series. Eventually, I’ll circle back to the last two games in Acclaim’s football franchise. There will be a few reviews of cozy games that I’ve been meaning to get back to.
If you liked this post, check out my other reviews of the NFL Quarterback Club games. Such as NFL QB Club 98 or NFL QB Club 99.