2KSports All-Pro Football

from JoeUser Forums

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Sports gaming fans (like me) got a bit of a reason to celebrate today with 2KSports releasing their 'Professional Football' video game today.  Note this is 'Professional Football', not NFL Football.  2KSports is not the license holder for the NFL, having lost that as an exclusive to the deep pocketed EA Sports who (in my opinion) overpaid quite heavily for the rights to the NFL for video gaming purposes.

Cover for 2KSports All-Pro Football game

EA's deal with the NFL, and with the NFLPA means that only EA can produce a game that uses NFL team names/logos, and only EA can produce a game that includes current NFL players.

One might think that the exclusive deal that EA signed would keep their competition from producing an NFL type football and for the most part, that is true.  True, but...   2KSports found a creative way to skirt that exclusive deal while still delivering a fairly satisfying NFL style football game.

Johnny U.

All-Pro Football gives video gamers a chance to play games that use their favorite heroes of teams past.  Classic players and all-time greats of the game.  Players such as Johnny U., Sweetness, even (shudder!) the Juice.  Jerry Rice and his old team mate Joe Montana as well.  Lots of stars from years past.

... more in the comments area. Please continue there.

13,239 views 3 replies
Reply #1 from JoeUser Forums Top

... continued from original article. Thanks for continuing here!

2KSports All-Pro Football logo

Unfortunately no complete teams, at least not for the most part, and even more unfortunately no NFL stadiums, team names, logos, mascots, art work, etc.  Instead players create their own city affiliations, select from a variety of stadiums and logo packages that were created just for the game, and use generic/substitutes throughout the game with no chance to infringe upon the NFL's trademarks and logos.

Sweetness running for daylight

The game plays traditional NFL style football, using traditional NFL style rules.  There's still coaches, traditional playbooks, referees and umpires to call fouls and penalties, etc.  There's still audibles, and all of the traditions of NFL style football.  Just none of the NFL to go with it.

The game is rated E/10+, meaning E for Everyone, and 10+ for an age recommendation of 10 years and up.  There's a Mild Language rating as well, but nothing that is heard is that bad.  (No worse than what would be heard at any youth football game really).  There is however the 2K Beats Soundtrack, which may include hip hop and rap style music that may get a bit racey for some.

The game is available on both the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 platforms.  In my case I opted to snag the Xbox 360 version since it includes the ability to score achievements as you do things in the game.  The graphics are quite similar in both versions, and anyone trying to choose between the versions on either console would probably find that decision a toss-up (unless they were like me and wanted to score achievements, or unless they wanted to make use of other Xbox Live features).

Sadly the game comes with a full 'next generation' game pricetag of $59 (US) at most locations.  Not that the game isn't worth that much, but I definitely miss the good old days when 2KSports was the underdog in the NFL gaming arena and they fired a discount price tag shot across the bow of EA and their Madden product.

I almost, almost snagged a dirt cheap copy of NFL 2K5 for the Playstation 2 while I was leaving EB/Gamestop with All-Pro Football in hand.  That game was so smooth and so much fun compared to Madden.

I still have last seasons Madden (Hall-of-Fame edition) for the Xbox 360 and at this point I'm not planning to buy another version (this year or future versions) as the game just seems stale to me.

Same for EA's NCAA Football game.  I have last year's game (2006 season) and no interest in replacing it.  The game plays fine, and especially for that game where you don't get rosters made up of the real players from NCAA teams, it makes no sense to replace last year's version with more of the same thing.  I'll save my money for another game that will give me something different to play

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Reply #3 from JoeUser Forums Top

I originally posted the following comments on another site I frequent, but am copying them here since they may also be of interest here.

I really, really, really wish that 2KSports was still able to do an NFL game, but oh well.

Actually I'm a bit surprised that 2KSports didn't work out some sort of deal with the NFL to call the game NFL Legends or something similar, with the NFL granting rights to use the team names/historical stadiums, Hall-of-Fame and that sort of stuff. That would let purists that want to play with their team names and stadiums play with the old classics while still preserving the rights to current NFL and NFLPA properties for EA.

I hope over time that 2K puts out some other players to choose from, but I know they had a short period of time to work with signing deals with all of the players they did get. Most of the classic teams seem to be represented, with a few players from each. Not necessarily a complete team, but not bad.