Joe Montana Football
System: SMS
Release Date: December 1990
Developer: Blue Sky Software
Publisher: Sega
Genre: Sports
Time to head to the gridiron with one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time in Joe Montana Football! The last football outing on the Master System was a turnover on downs, so with the Genesis needing a Sega produced football game, little brother gets its own version. Choose your favorite city and then an opponent for as many exhibition games as your heart desires.
The look of the game is similar to Tecmo Bowl, with a side scrolling field. You have nine guys present on each side. Defense has 3 linemen, 2 linebackers, 2 corners and 2 safeties. You can choose from man to man coverage, zone coverage, a linebacker blitz, goal line, or prevent. You can then choose which player you want to take control of. I usually like playing as linemen, but it wasn’t very effective here. None of the positions on defense were very effective to play as. The opposing QB was able to make passes to double covered guys all the time. (1:07) There are no penalties, so you can mug receivers, but it doesn’t really make a difference, tipping the ball to cause an incomplete is inconsistent.
Offense has many more plays to choose from. There are a decent mix of run and pass plays available. They all have really stupid names, but are standard routes. After snapping the ball, you cycle through possible receivers with Button 2 and throw it with Button 1. If you choose a run play, you have to manually hand it off to your back with Button 1. If you’re too early or too late, you’ll pitch it to them instead. The computer was pretty good at getting interceptions against me. I threw six against Green Bay and barely pulled off the win. This made the passing game much less attractive.
The running game wasn’t much better, as the computer always seemed to pick right up on where I was going. I found that dropping back for a pass and checking the coverage was pretty easy. If they are charging you, throw it. If they’re sitting back, you can run forward and snag 7 yards. There’s no stamina and I didn’t have any fumbles through the games I played, so there’s no downside. This is how I put up 567 yards and 45 points in my second game.
Graphics: 1.5
It’s red versus blue no matter what cities you pick. Models are identical and look passable.
Sound: 0.5
Music is practically nonexistent and sound effects are sparse and poor.
Gameplay: 1.5
There aren’t a whole lot of plays to choose from and games get really repetitive.
Difficulty: 1.5
Once you figure out how to run plays properly, playing offense starts to work. Defense felt more like a crap shoot.
Fun Factor: 1.5
The game got a lot more enjoyable once I realized I can skip a lot of the in between plays stuff and even force the computer to snap when I was on defense.
Overall Rating: 1.3
Joe Montana Football earns a D+. I know the Master System was still a big deal in Europe and South America, but I don’t see those as big markets for a football game. It’s playable, but it’s time to upgrade to a Genesis.