Previous Next

American Football is a game in which the player attempts to score points by carrying the ball across his opponent's touchline. Play stops every time the ball hits the floor, and if the ball has not been carried ten yards by the time play has stopped four times, possession is awarded to the opposing team. Points can also be gained by kicking the ball through the opposing team's goalposts, or by forcing the other team behind their own touchline.

American Football has been represented in a number of games on the Megadrive, the best known of these being John Madden's Football. Joe Montana II tries to shake off the shadow of this title by adopting a new, side-on viewpoint and zooming in on the action once play gets underway. Tactics are still chosen in a style similar to Madden, but plays are directly selected, as opposed to being reached through a series of choices such as formation and set.

Joe Montana II is at last attempting to do something not inspired by John Madden's, and it works. The zoom function makes the game feel a lot more realistic, and arcade skills are required to keep you standing as opponents rush in from all angles. But the really strong point is the speech.

This adds an awful lot to the game, and makes it possible to overlook some of the gameplay flaws and annoyances. If you've got John Madden's and you're looking for something different, give this a go, but if you're looking for the best American football game on the Megadrive, go for John Madden '92.

The major selling point of Joe Montana II is the speech. Over one hundred and fifty phrases are combined to provide a running commentary throughout the game, with every more being talked through by the commentator. This improves the atmosphere no end, with tension being built up just as in real life!

Choosing plays in Joe Montana II couldn't be much simpler. Three plays appear on screen at once, and the desired option is picked by pressing one of the three joypad buttons.

Pushing left or right on the controller scrolls the plays along in that direction, and pushing up or down chooses a set of three different styles of play, such as passing or kicking formations.

Before the snape, play is viewed side-on from afar, but all this changes once the quarterback gets his mitts on the ball. A square appears around the area of play, the view zooms in and the action is displayed using huge (for a sports game), clear sprites. Much less of the pitch is visible at the time, meaning you must think on your feet - more like real American Football.

Rather than tackle John Madden's head-on, Sega have taken an unusual and very clever approach with Joe Montana II and come up with what is basically a stunning showpiece game.

It's not endowed with spiffing graphics, but what it has got is speech. Tons of it. In fact, over 150 different phrases! They're very cleverly put together so that the console doesn't keep on repeating itself, and the end result is truly amazing - it really does sound like there's a slightly muffled old commentator chattering away throughout the game!

The game itself is quite simple, which means that novice American football fans can easily get into the action, but there is scope to learn some clever moves and develop your play. If you're after the best American football simulation available, John Madden '92 is the obvious choice - but Joe Montana II is different enough and impressive enough to deserve a place alongside it in your collection.

Presentation 80%
Lots of options and stats, brill zoom sequence.

Graphics 81%
Zoom view graphics are superb, but "standard" view is pretty poor.

Sound 96%
Probably the best speech ever heard, plus a variety of reasonable effects and a cacophony of average tunes.

Playability 85%
Good response speed, plenty of tactics and addictive, arcade-style gameplay.

Lastability 80%
Lots of teams to beat, playoffs and three skill levels mean that the game should maintain a lengthy challenge.

Overall 83%
A simple but enjoyable American football game which features incredible speech. A landmark game - let's hope there's more like this!