Great Football
System: SMS
Release Date: July 1987
Developer: Sega
Publisher: Sega
Genre: Sports
What in the hell is this? Great Football, you’re of similar unfamiliarity of the sport as the Japanese version of 10-Yard Fight. This is going to be a short one, folks! You choose your fictionalized team from the AFC or NFC. They don’t have any cities attached to them, so pick the name you like most. Then you’re thrown out onto the field at the start of the 4th quarter, down a random amount of points. You have 15 game minutes to bring your team back to victory.
You only play offense against the computer. You have four pass plays and four run plays to choose from. At the beginning of each play, the computer slowly scrolls through the choices and you have to press the 2 Button on the play you want. Then you have to wait for it to cycle through all the other choices.
Choose a pass play and you supposedly choose your target by pressing the D-Pad and the 2 Button. This only worked about half the time for me, the other half I was sacked. About ten percent of the time I threw an interception. The input lag was infuriating. Running worked as long as the defense didn’t automatically break every block and tackle you. I had one end to end play in the game I played. Extra points were stupid, if you don’t hold the d-pad to the right, you kick the ball to the sideline. That doesn’t make any sense. Oh, throw an interception and you get booted back 20 yards, but you get a first down! I don’t know…
Graphics: 1.0
Poor graphics. Lots of flickering on the QB’s plane because too many players are lined up there.
Sound: 1.0
The song is annoying, as is the crowd noise.
Gameplay: 0.5
It barely works. Giving it anything is being generous.
Difficulty: 0.0
It wasn’t difficult when it wasn’t cheap.
Fun Factor: 0.0
No. Not fun. Stay away.
Overall Grade: 0.5
Great Football gets an E. Sega with some false advertising here. This is Terrible Football.