Preferred by me to Madden 06

ESPN NFL 2K5 deserves much more props than it currently receives. The Madden Juggernaut had just dominated the football genre for about as long as it has been releasing games, but ESPN NFL 2K5 really challenged it for the title of top football game that year. 2K5 Challenged Madden by doing two things: Simplifying the Game Modes and selling it for a really low price($20). Madden felt so threatened by this game that EA purchased the exclusive NFL license past the year 2010, so that Madden will be the exclusive NFL game available.

This is unfortunate because ESPN NFL 2K5 is played more by me than Madden NFL 06, because it is simply more fun and less repetitive and has better unique features than the Madden games. Again, Madden's Game Modes may be deeper, but that doesn't always equate to more fun.

Game Modes

The simplest of game modes on ESPN NFL 2K5 is Exhibition, where you simply pick two teams and hit the field. Of course there are other more advanced game modes. There are modes that I barely use such as tournament, practice, and situation but others may enjoy them more than I do. The meat and potatoes of the game is definitely Franchise Mode, in which you take control of a team for several years. You make all the decisions in terms of personnel and play the games.

Another innovative feature of NFL 2K5 is first person football. The concept of FPF is simple, put the player in the role of an individual player and see the game from the perspective that they would see it from. I don't use it very often because it's easy to lose track of what’s going on away from your player, but it's still fun to play with now and then. Another cool feature is called ESPN 25th Anniversary, which places you into some of the best football games in the past 25 years and there are 25 different games.

Gameplay

The gameplay is one of the best attributes this game has. The play is very smooth and realistic to what would really happen on the football field. Smooth meaning the game runs at a reasonable pace with no framerate issues. The offensive and defensive control is pretty good, however there are some things that you ran find wrong with the controls. There are also a few glitches in play that come up rarely, but it's nothing too serious. The few glitches that I have found in the past are players going right through each other, tackling issues, but these are both very rare. The controls are also very similar to those you will find in the Madden Games, one of the only differences I could find was some of the things you could do with the ball carrier were in different spots. The graphics are also very good. I don't know if they beat the graphics on Madden, but they are still fairly impressive.

The Game uses the classic passing scheme in which icons appear above the receiver and you push the button to pass it to them. While carrying the ball you can do simple moves such as sprint and lower your shoulder to try to bowl over your potential tackler. On defence you also have a fairly simple number of options for which to bring the ball carrier down. You can dive, use moves to beat the offensive linemen, and other commands but there's nothing fancy like the hit stick you'll find in recent Madden games.

Sound

The menus feature some of ESPN's classic themes from shows such as NFL Primetime, and surprisingly the themes don't really get old. I guess using these themes and not paying to use other bands music allowed the producers to sell this game for so cheap. I had never heard of the announcers of the game before playing this game, and I would have paid the extra $10 or so it would have cost to get the regular ESPN announcers in the game. The other in-game sound is good such as the players clashing or the fans cheering after the play.

Final Thoughts

ESPN NFL 2K5 is an excellent football game that shouldn't be overlooked just because its "cheap". I find it more entertaining than Madden 06, I haven't played Madden 07 to get the verdict on that, but in the meantime, I guess this is my first choice football game. It really does make me wish that this series of games was around to challenge Madden and to keep their prices modest.