In today's PC gaming market, where a gamer has a ton of choices when looking for a sports game, a company better be darned sure to have a great product before letting it hit the shelves. MicroProse has just released a brand new football game called Ultimate Football '95 and it seems that the designers have really done their homework. Every feature that a successful football simulator needs has been included, and then some. Whether you like the action part of football or the strategic coaching component, Ultimate Football 95 has got it covered. Ultimate Football 95 is a football game for the PC with all of the advanced customizable features that a PC can deliver, instead of a game that looks and plays like a translation from the Super Nintendo. UF 95 has gotten the license to use all of the NFL names and players so you aren't just messing around with fictional teams. The players, teams and coaches that you know, hate and love are all in UF 95, including the two new expansion teams, Carolina and Jacksonville.
When playing UF 95, the player has two choices about how to play. The first is action mode, in which the player participates in the game by calling the plays and then taking an active part in the action. The second way to play the game, coaching mode, allows the player to assume the role of the coach through just calling the plays and watching the computer play both sides. Coaching mode isn't as boring as it sounds since UF 95 lets the player mess around with all of the stats of all of the teams, but we'll get to that shortly.
If you don't already know something about football, UF 95 will be a challenge to learn. You must learn how each of the plays work or you'll end up hindering the team rather than helping, and that means knowing a healthy bit about the way a team works as far as positions and assignments for each player. When calling a play, a menu pops up on the screen through which a play is called. This is one of the most difficult features to use because of all the different plays available and all the different ways to view which plays you can call. Each team has its own distinct playbook. A nice feature of this menu system is that you can decide which types of plays you want to look at so you don't have to mess with the entire playbook at once. For example, if you want to call a pass play for long yardage, there's an option where you can specify that the menu only shows plays designed for a pass for long yardage. In order to choose the play you want, you can cruise through either a list of the names of the plays, or you can cycle through the diagrams from the playbook. It's a workable way to call plays, but until you can become familiar with the playbook, you won't have enough time to choose a play in the time that you're allotted. I would've preferred an interface where you can see more than one play at once, maybe even all of the plays at once. It would have made everything much easier and efficient.
Once you call the play, if you've chosen coach mode you just watch the play happen. If you're playing in action mode, you get to take an active part in the game. The team comes to the line and you can hear the QB call out the count. When you want, just click to hike the ball, and it's up to you how the play goes. When you're ready to throw, just click and the QB will try to hit the primary receiver. If he's not open, the next man is tried for. There's really no way to absolutely choose which guy to pass to, unless you want to wait until you see that the receiver is open. Defensively, the player can choose which guy he wants to be. The defensive play is called, then you just position the pointer over the desired player and click. Players can be chosen on the run simply by clicking the mouse. It's all very simple, but I'm sure some folks would have wanted more control over the passing aspect of the game.
When you play with a mouse, there's a star which shows the destination you want the runner to go to, so you aren't directly controlling the runner. You have to put the star wherever you want the runner to make a straight line to. It's very disorienting at first using the mouse method, but it does get a little easier as you go along. The best way to play the game is using a joystick or a gamepad. It's very intuitive since the runner moves in the direction you move the controller. The only real trouble with playing the action mode is that the player control seems to be slightly sluggish. It's not really a design flaw because the designers have made the players move as real people do. Don't expect Nintendo-style playing where the runner can reverse directions instantly. If you want the guy with the ball to go in the other direction, you have to wait for him to spin around like a real human.
One of the best features in UF 95 is the camera view. UF 95 gives the player a lot of different pre-set viewing options to watch the game from, along with the ability to move the camera to any position on the field. The camera menu gives pre-set choices like the scoreboard view, behind the defense, from the sidelines, angle view and more, which can all be accessed through a function key or a pop-up menu. But the real fun is in choosing your own view. Through using the mouse or joystick, it's possible to zoom in and out and pan around anywhere on the field to watch the game. The only shortcoming is that the camera cannot be positioned while a play is running. Using the different camera options is really a plus when playing in coaching mode, checking out film tapes and instant replays, which brings me to my next subject...
UF 95 keeps a log of the plays in a game which the player can go back and check out at any time. There's also an instant replay feature which allows the last play to be watched immediately. The player can do the basic play, stop, forward and backward options with the ability to scroll through the film frame by frame. It's a lot of fun, not to mention informative, to check out play execution and style, especially since the film can be seen through any camera angle.
The graphics are very impressive in UF 95, but not the most impressive ever. The players move smoothly but look very pixelated, especially when watching very close up. The action of the players is first rate, particularly when you watch a hard tackle. The runner doesn't just fall down when he's tackled - you'll wince when you see the guy with the ball take a shot that lifts him off the ground and sets him hard on his back. The way UF 95 scrolls around the field is very nice and a lot of the graphic features like the crowd, ground texture and hash marks can be toggled on and off to make it run just right for your machine.
UF 95 also has a lot of depth to it. Not only can you play with all of the actual NFL teams and players, you can customize them as well. You can change the coach's name and coaching attributes, the players and their attributes, and the rosters of the teams. Basically, if you want to change something in UF 95, you can change it, no problem. Even the playbooks can be edited from the name of the individual plays to the way they work. You can even design your own plays as well as edit existing ones. The whole game is wide open for customization.
Ultimate Football 95 is a very good, solid football simulator. With all of its coaching, editing, and customizable features, UF 95 goes beyond just a game. It really has the attitude and feel of coaching and playing on an actual football team. It looks good, plays good, and is, most importantly, a lot of fun. Football fans are going to go nuts for this, especially those who like the coaching intricacies of the game. MicroProse did all of the right things with UF 95 to make it a nice addition to your sports sim library.
