Publisher: Tecmo
Developer: Seamless Entertainment
Genre: Sports
Release date: Available now

When EA infamously locked up exclusive rights to the NFL, thereby firing a shot directly to the midsection of all competitors, they effectively blocked everyone from producing a game of professional football with any chance of retail survival. Without the teams and player likenesses that come with those coveted licenses, there really is no point as the industry is long past the days of Ten Yard Fight where we’d simply marvel at the ability to play the sport on our TV screens. These days we want to get into the game and ink the big contracts. That said, if there is one company out there with a trump card, it’s Tecmo, whose classic Tecmo Bowl lives long and strong in gamers’ memories, having heralded them through the Golden Age of the NES. While the dream of a next-gen Tecmo Bowl remains a fond wish, Tecmo has once again thrown on the pads with their latest release, Family Fun Football, and all eyes are upon it to see if it provides enough of a nostalgic kick to warrant grabbing another brand of pigskin.

As the name dictates, Family Fun Football is designed for Wii’s bread-and-butter crop of casual gamers. The title essentially provides a stripped down version of American football, with players choosing from a small stable of fictional teams and hitting the gridiron to take down their Mom or Pop. The basic structure and rules of football are on display, although everything is simplified with the massive playbooks seen in titles like Madden reduced to a small handful of plays that present themselves on screen as the situation warrants it. Instead of paging through a series of offensive and defensive schemes, players will be shown four plays and with the flick of a button will select the play that they want to run. This is obviously designed for younger players to keep the action flowing fast with a bare minimum of menu visits.

For single players, there is a barebones Season mode that tasks players with moving through a small schedule, and cycling through each of the available teams. On the multiplayer front, players can engage in one-on-one contests against friends and family members or enter the party mode that consists of a series of football themed mini-games. The mini-games are also appended to the middle of the adversarial matches as they pit each player against one other to score the most points during halftime and hence, reap bragging rights.

Family Fun Football is unfortunately as generic as its title. While the game is not built for the hardcore Madden masses, it’s a shame that the developers took the opposite tact and simply built a soulless representation of the sport. Although the action on the field is fairly basic and the small number of plays makes it easier for younger players to progress through the game, the title is still not as pick-up-and-play as other casual-centric sports titles such as the Wii Sports series. While designed for the younger crowd, it lacks an addictive hook and ease-of-play that gives other titles crossover appeal.

In addition, the graphics and audio are very basic; sporting textures that appear ripped from two console generations ago. It’s inexcusable that developers continue to undermine this system with ancient assets simply because they know there is a less-informed marketplace of casual consumers out there who often buy a title based on cover alone. Family Fun Football represents yet another quick cash grab, preying upon these newly minted players looking to augment their Wii Sports libraries with another family friendly title. Unfortunately, the game is likely to bore more advanced players and frustrate the casual audience, thereby missing both demographics. If there is a positive to be found here, it’s refreshingly devoid of the unnecessary waggle control schemes that often plague these titles.

I opened my review with a reference to Tecmo Bowl for good reason; if there is one developer who could mine riches from this monopolistic videogame football culture, it’s Tecmo; who could certainly ride a wave of nostalgia and surmount the inability to utilize real life teams and players. While DS owners have had the opportunity, there is a hardcore base of gamers who would likely hunger for the chance to take the time warp back to their youth and play an enhanced version of that classic title on their fancy big screens. Unfortunately, Tecmo chose the easier path and simply churned out yet another lazy piece of shovelware designed to take advantage of clueless consumers. For now, Madden remains the only game in town, and based upon what I’ve played here, maybe they deserve to be.

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