I feel like I was blessed to be born at the time I was. Being born in 1993, I can still remember the good old days before all the crazy technology came along. Technology for kids was definitely much more different at the time. I had a Sega Genesis, a PS1 and a Gameboy Color as a child. While advanced at the time, it’s certainly not like the technology kids today have grown up with. A generation of kids that are born with an iPad in their hands wouldn’t know what to do with a Gameboy in their hands.
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After growing up with those systems, I slowly transitioned to an Xbox. From my Xbox, I went to the Xbox 360 and now I have the Xbox 1. Over the course of time, I played every sports and wrestling game you could imagine. Some of my favorites as a child included, WWF Smackdown: Know your role and NBA Jamz. I played so many classic games it’s hard for me to pick just one. However, I had one in mind that was before it’s time. I thought of it the second I decided to write this. The game is NFL 2k5. It was the last NFL game that 2k was allowed to make before Madden got the exclusive rights deal with the NFL.
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The game was so good that the Madden franchise felt threatened enough to strike a deal that gave them exclusive rights over NFL video games. The game was cheaper and just in general much better than Madden. 2k5 also happened to have my favorite player at the time on the cover. 2018 NFL hall of fame inductee Terrell Owens. In the game, you could play from a players point of view and be inside the helmet of the player. You had Chris Berman with the halftime highlights to go along with a smoother gameplay than Madden. The player lounge was also something that 12 year old me enjoyed. Had 2K not been forced to halt their NFL games, I probably would have never bought another Madden game again.
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However, it’s 2018 and I have Madden pre-ordered at GameStop as we speak. After writing this, I think I may dust off the original Xbox and play a little NFL 2k5 when I get home tonight.
