Gaming Target - PlayStation 2: ESPN NFL Primetime 2002

Written by John Scalzo on September 07, 2001

First Impressions: He.. could... go... all... the... way...

Somebody get a referee down here, I need a ruling on the field. There seems to be a lot of players on the field in the upcoming fight to the death between all of the 2002 football games. With Madden 2002 already out and looking mighty impressive, where does that leave everyone else? We'll get the newest edition of Sega's NFL2K series. Sony will trot out their new football title, NFL Gameday 2002. Acclaim will chime in with the latest edition of NFL Quarterback Club, but this series has gone down the crapper in recent years. You also can't forget NFL Blitz 2002. And then you have ESPN NFL PrimeTime 2002.

ESPN NFL PrimeTime 2002, besides breaking some kind of record for having the most initials in a title ever, was supposed to be released last year. But, video game rules dictate that games must be delayed and when the release date kept getting pushed back farther and farther, Konami said screw it and scrapped last year's game. So now, Konami has tried their hands at it again and if history has taught us anything, if it says ESPN, men will come (re-reading that later makes it sound really wrong).

Well anyway, yes, the letters ESPN have this sort of hypnotizing effect on the male of this world. That would be a good thing, because Konami is banking on milking that for all it's worth. Let's face it, when you're competing with five other games, someone's getting lost in the huddle and you need a way to stand out. In fact, the only word that would stand out more to the human male would be Playboy (Playboy Football, Hef you reading this?).

Visually, those four little letters get Konami a lot. The game has been infused with ESPN style. The scoreboard and play clocks all feature the familiar ESPN visuals that we see on Sunday Night Football. And play-by-play is performed by Tom Jackson and the man, the myth, Chris Berman. From the few snippets of play by play I've heard, Berman and Jackson put Madden and Summerall to shame. You need a big animated guy like Chris Berman to liven up the monotony of the play and play, and PrimeTime looks to pull it off. Gameplay wise, ESPN NFL PrimeTime 2002 sports a more arcade feel than the heavy-duty simulation style of Madden. And everything definitely plays a lot faster than your typical game of Madden.

The players look detailed and have that suitable next-gen look that I don't need to go over every little detail on them, right? Besides impressive graphics, ESPN NFL PrimeTime 2002 sports a lot of the options that are almost standard on every football game nowadays. There's your basic Exhibition mode, Season mode and Tournament mode. Then you also get Practice mode, Scenario mode, and a fairly deep Franchise mode. Now I've never seen the appeal to the Franchise mode, but it should be noted that the Madden Franchise mode is deeper and features a few more options. But again, I don't play Franchise modes often enough to use the endless options that Madden games have now. Simplicity is good once in a while.