The Madden series was the standard of exemplary football in the 90's, but it wasn't without its competition. Between 989's NFL Gameday series and Sega's rebranding of its football franchise during the launch of the Dreamcast as 2K, it felt refreshing to have options. 2K's attention to detail had surpassed Electronic Arts' Tiburon studios, the gameplay was quickly catching up. This reached a culmination with THE BEST football video game ever created, ESPN NFL 2K5.

One of the reasons the Madden franchise has a stranglehold on the NFL license, NFL 2K5 was an incredibly deep intuitive football game, and presented at a price point of $19.99, it cemented it as the ideal football game of choice. This led EA Sports to back the Brink's truck up to the NFL to secure the license for the league for video game distribution, effectively killing the 2K football game franchise. Instead of rising to the occasion and aiming that focus on the integral elements to make Madden a more comparable football video game, Electronic Arts simply bought their way to the top. As the years went on and nothing to challenge fans' entertainment dollar, the Madden series sat atop a throne of money and complacency. But I digress.

Talking a little more about the presentation, Visual Concepts created one of the most engrossing experiences the world of sports games have ever mustered. Their attention to detail, even in their NBA and NHL series, were in a league of their own. The partnership with ESPN and the personalities used brings the feel of a television broadcast to life. Chris Berman calls highlights from around the league during play, along with Trey Wingo and sideline reporter Suzy Kolber. Mel Kiper Jr. also provides insight into the draft and trade updates during Season play modes.  

The character models utilize the method of mapping a photo of the player's likeness onto the 3D model and vectors are connected to appropriate facial animations. Visually, it's probably the most dated aspect, but the animations remain timeless. 2K5 was ahead of the curve when it came to collision detection, a lot of the tackles, bumps, catches, and interceptions seldom feel like the players get locked into animation sequences the way many Madden games felt. When I can break a tackle in 2K5, it FEELS like it was due to momentum and physics carrying me through the tie-up. With the Madden series, if a guy touched you, even if you had him beat on the edge, it felt like you're going down regardless, making additions like the Hit Stick seem more invincible than it should really be. In 2K5, making a bad read on trying to beat a tackle as a running back will get you blown up if you juke in the wrong direction, you can't just rely on being magnetically drawn to the offensive player.

Same on offense, when you're leading your receiver on a route as a quarterback, an under-thrown pass will cause some overcompensation in order to make the catch. Their hands score and ability to catch the ball can help make up for the effectiveness of whether or not they're skilled enough to bring the ball in. The variables have a degree of fairness to them, at no point do I feel like I got cheesed by canned animations.

This game also sports some of the deepest GM Mode features. You can set practice regimens throughout the week to optimize your team's performance and recovery, including strength and conditioning, weight training, or yoga to heal up injured players. How aggressively you implement these will either help or hinder recovery. Assigning too many days off can make your players sluggish, but enough off-time improves morale and team chemistry. The off-season features, like scouting your rookies becomes a game within itself, and one of the reasons I'll play sports titles is for the farm system. It's insane how locked into 2K5 I can become.

if you have a chance to experience 2K5, or if you're a sports video game enthusiast and wish to revisit this game, I believe you'll find a robust experience that still holds up to this day and OUTCLASSES the modern Madden football offerings. The controls are tight, the challenge feels fair, the broadcast presentation is incredibly engrossing, and the replay value is very high.