Gaming Target - GameCube: NFL Quarterback Club 2002

Written by Kyle Williams on May 17, 2002

Full Review: Time to toss the old pigskin around again.

In this day and age, a football game really has to shine in order to compete with EA's powerhouse Madden series of NFL titles. Unfortunately for NFL QB Club 2002, Madden has set the bar so high that a football game has to do more than just shine if it wants to catch anyone's attention. Acclaim really has always had a respectable franchise in their QB Club titles, but this years iteration just doesn't throw in enough material to lead the pack.

Don't get me wrong, NFL QB Club 2002 is a competent football game that is adequate in every aspect. The controls are reasonably tight and easy to learn. The visuals are ambitious but not consistent. The audio commentary is put together well and avoids being too repetitive. Do you see where I am going with this? The thing is that adequate just doesn't cut it anymore.

The one thing that NFL QB Club 2002 has that sets it apart from its competition is the QB Challenge license and play mode. This mode offers a great break from the standard football fare and can provide a group of friends with a little friendly competition. The game play mode is based on the actual Quarterback Challenge and (for those of you that don't know) is a series of skills tests for quarterbacks. There are four stages of the competition that include "Speed and Mobility," "Accuracy," "Long Distance Throw," and "Read and Recognition." The competition is set up for eight players and can be any combination of human and computer controlled quarterbacks. As I said, this mode is the real gem of the title and I found myself coming here more than I did the full game.

I have to admit that I do have one complaint with the actual execution of the game and that is that, at times, the gameplay seems to be completely out of your control. For instance, in all of the games that I played, there was always at least one kick returned for a touchdown. During the return they inevitably slip through holes you can't see and break tackles that they honestly shouldn't. Also, receivers catching passes seems to be almost arbitrary as they drop the easy ones but come up with highlight-reel quality catches from amidst heavy coverage. I know that in real games all of this can happen because people are human and as such are imperfect, but it seems to happen a little too often. At least this bizarre gameplay imbalance swings both ways and affects both the computer and the human players equally. This at least keeps the playing field level.