Why The NFL 2K Series Was Truly Great And Why You Should Miss It

[RaychelSnr]

Just as longtime football fans struggle to stop Lawrence Taylor from rushing through their minds every time Joe Theismann pops up on television (these days, to promote cures for a broken prostate), it has become equally hard for seasoned sports gamers to hold back thoughts of NFL 2K any time its old nemesis, Madden NFL, releases another hype trailer or holds another cover vote.

Forever, these football icons will be linked, primarily because of a privately cheered, publicly booed 2004 contract, in which the NFL (playing the role of Harry Carson) and Electronic Arts (standing in as the original L.T.) struck a long-term, exclusive partnership that effectively ended Visual Concepts' career in creating pro football videogames.

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[Toma]

I remember this day clearly...

9-9-99, just got back home from school, my dad had Dreamcast sitting on my bed as a present and he knew I loved football so NFL2K was on the bed as well... Honestly, the second I snapped the ball, I was in so much shock and could not stop playing the game. It was perfect...

NFL 2K will eventually come back... Who knows when though...

[Hooe]

How dare you bad-mouth Sonic Adventure. :-P

Fun nostalgia trip though.

[elgreazy1]

Re: Why The NFL 2K Series Was Truly Great And Why You Should Miss It

You do this to me everytime...
GIFSoup

Ah, NFL2K5. You are the reason I opened a Best Buy credit card account to purchase a Dreamcast - which with immaturity, lack of finance understanding, overcharges, interest, and late fees ended up costing me well over $1000. And you are the reason my GPA dropped from a 3.8 to 2.75 within a semester.

Don't regret a damn thing, but I do miss you.

[GiantBlue76]

This accurately sums up why there are so many disgruntled football gaming fans. Great article, and right on the nose. Reading this just makes me depressed, because 2 console generations later and nearly a decade of time, Tiburon still lacks the ability to incorporate all that 2k was able to do in less than 5 years.

[malky]

Awesome history write up of the greatest football game EVER.

[DGuinta1]

Still own my copy of 2K5. Could never sell it.

[B0X836]

I blame take -2 interactive they ruined the 2k sports series why because they dont care about sports game look how many great games they got just with GTA v alone they made a grip of money when Sega use to own the rights for 2k they wete on top of things before the collapse of the dreamcast whqt get me mad is that 2k games forgot about the fan base Midway at leats had the balls to bring out Blitz the league

[anthonyf105]

I still play NFL 2K5, animations are still better IMO

[Hooe]

Re: Why The NFL 2K Series Was Truly Great And Why You Should Miss It

Still own my copy of 2K5. Could never sell it.

Not sure if I even have a console which can play it at this point but I still own a copy as well. Haven't played it any time recently, but it's the principle of the matter.

[jyoung]

Re: Why The NFL 2K Series Was Truly Great And Why You Should Miss It

How dare you bad-mouth Sonic Adventure. :-P
Fun nostalgia trip though.

I enjoyed running through the beach and outracing the whale, like we all did back then, but then the animals started talking, and then the levels started becoming more focused on patient 3D exploration (with a camera that wasn't up to the task), instead of pure downhill speed.

Sonic Adventure 2 basically repeated the same mistakes, starting you with an awesome runaway truck sequence, and then immediately throwing you into some tedious treasure hunts.

Not sure if I even have a console which can play it at this point but I still own a copy as well. Haven't played it any time recently, but it's the principle of the matter.

2K3 and 2K5 are playable on the Xbox 360, but they don't look as nice or run as well as they do on an original Xbox, due to the fact that they are being emulated whenever you play them on an Xbox 360.

All sports fans should own the original Xbox IMO, since the system only cost about $20 these days, will still connect to most modern TVs via component, and it has so many awesome game franchises that don't exist anymore, like MVP Baseball, MLB Slugfest, NHL Hitz, NFL Blitz, NBA Street, NFL Street, Sega Soccer Slam, Aggressive Inline, Dave Mirra BMX, et al.

[OSGuy321]

Still better than Madden.

[kingdavidtaylor1989]

I wish I had my original copy of NFL2k5. Still the best sports game of all time. I wish they would have made comparisons of all the football games at that time. Gosh I just miss the different football games. Gameday (WAS ACTUALLY PRETTY FUN TO PLAY), NFL FEVER, Blitz, NFL2k and Madden. Put there pro and cons year by year starting at the year 2001. I promise you 2k will beat out all of them, but it will not be by much because each game brought something different to the table. I just wish there was more competition. Why can't the NFL just give the rights to TWO companies just for competition purposes.

[bxphenom7]

This is just beautiful. Each NFL 2k was great and then NFL 2k5 shocked me. The graphics and movement was ridiculously amazing for its time. It still has better animations than Madden. I played that and NBA 2k5 all damn day.

[socalbeast08]

After madden continues to drop the ball(pun intended) i would love to see 2k come back stronger than ever when those idiots at EA decide to let someone compete with them. The fact that they bought out the NFL's rights just shows how bad their product is. I love football and yes i will buy madden because thats my only choice but the day 2k comes back, i will have forgotten EA even exists.