Boy do we love football. Gamers and non-gamers alike were equally enamored at the excitement this weekend’s NFL Championship games produced. Well, at least for one of the games, anyway. On the plus side when your team loses you have Madden to fall back on as a way to let out your frustration by destroying the opposing team virtually a dozen times. We feel for you. But what if there wasn’t Madden?
Also See: 5 Amazing Things That Happened During NFL Championship Sunday
Worry not, heartbroken Packers fans. There is still a bevy of NFL football video games with replay-ability you can use to help get over the heartbreak. Here is a look at the Top 5 NFL football video games without “Madden” in the title.
Top 5 NFL Football Video Games Not Named Madden
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5. ESPN NFL 2K5
That's a lot of acronym. It's also a lot of fun, and the last football video game that directly competed with Madden. It competed with Madden so much, especially with its $20 price, that EA undercut 2K Games by going straight to the NFL and the NFL Players Association and made a deal for exclusive rights to publish NFL video games. Thus, there hasn't been an ESPN NFL 2K6 or anything any year after that. It's a shame too, as many gamers consider these games better than Madden, when you got down to the nuts and bolts. As they say in football all the time, though: it's a business.
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4. Blitz: The League
While you were watching the Seahawks' thrilling 16-point overtime comeback victory over the Packers, or the Patriots' 35-7 shellacking of the Colts, were you watching the game with that guy. You know? The guy who says that football players are bound to get seriously injured and are all just violent meat-heads whose diet consists solely of steroids and the dreams of infant children. In his mind, the NFL is Blitz: The League. No refs, no penalties and certainly no four-game suspensions for violations of the NFL's performance enhancing drug policy ("what policy?" Blitz might ask). All told, that makes one hell of a video game.
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3. NFL Xtreme
This might be the most misleading subtitle in all of gaming (though it would lose out to any game that used "Revelations"), since NFL Xtreme appealed exclusively to people who had only a casual interest in either football or gaming. Was it a good game? Not really. Was it a good football video game? Not if you want any semblance of the depth an actual football game offers. However, the violent collisions, ultra-excited announcer and hurdles that were just front flips made this game a casual must-have. It's sequel, NFL Xtreme 2, wasn't half-bad either. Also, I guess the director of Paranormal Activity was a programmer on it.
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2. NFL Challenge
The 1985 PC title NFL Challenge has to be the most interesting football video game. Costing an unheard-of $100 and requiring a blistering 256k memory, NFL Challenge's only gameplay was picking plays, after which a visual simulation of X's and O's would play out. This put it more in the category of a football simulator, with the outcomes of plays carefully calculated based on the competing teams' abilities. NFL Challenge's claim to fame came after it successfully predicted the 1986 Patriots upset over then-juggernaut Miami Dolphins, advancing the Pats to the Super Bowl. Out of 50 simulations, the Patriots won 27. The Patriots would go on to be embarrassed by the Bears who, of course, cemented their legacy as one of the greatest defenses of all time. And hey, NFL Challenge predicted that, too.
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1. NFL Street
Still, though, No. 1 has to be NFL Street. Doesn't it? While other games, even others on this list, tried to emulate the casual, hard-hitting fun that a football video game had clear potential for, none did it quite like the Street games. It was pickup football, played anywhere from the local turf field to an abandoned airport. Customizable characters, dream football teams and don't forget the aptly-named "gamebreakers." Build up enough style points by showboating, and you can go full Beast Mode and score on any given play. Point of fact: NBA Street did it first, but NFL Street did it best. These were not only gamebreaking, but top-list breaking. It was hardly a competition.
