Even for those of us who could care less about football real or simulated, this one shows obvious strengths. The graphics are excellent, though not really much better than NFL 2000 on the Dreamcast.
Control is accessible even for newbies, passing fluidly to the active on-screen character.
You have access to 200 old school players and their teams as well as actual NFL coaches and their playbooks. The rendering engine tries to add emotion to the players' faces, but the result is that most of the faces look like ventriloquist dummies. Their eyes move a lot. John Madden's commentary is excruciatingly banal, often reiterating great mysteries of the game such as, moving the ball up the field is essential to winning. The visual presentation is quite good, though slowdown does occur in busy scenes.