In Troy Aikman NFL Football, players have the choice to compete in matches across any of the game modes available with either AI-controlled opponents or against other human players. Initially launched for the Super Nintendo, it was then released on the Sega Genesis a few months after the original version and was later ported to the Atari Jaguar in the following year.
Troy Aikman NFL Football garnered mixed reception since it was released for the SNES and Genesis from critics and reviewers alike, as they felt divided towards various aspects of the title such as the graphics, sound and gameplay, while the Jaguar version also received the same general reception and was criticized for its similarity with the 16-bit versions, in addition of also being compared with the John Madden Football series from Electronic Arts. Ports for the Macintosh and PC were also in development but never published.
Troy Aikman NFL Football is an american football game similar to Madden NFL '94 where players can play exhibition matches, season matches, playoff matches, make their own plays for use on the field, and even make payments to the salaries of every player.[6][7][8] Most of the rules from the sport are present in the title, though they can be disabled from the menu options. Players can either play directly with the teammates on the playfield or coach an exhibition game or an entire regular season, including the Super Bowl. When playing a season, the progress can be saved via battery-backed memory (or the cartridge's internal EEPROM in the Jaguar version), which prevents the frustration of having to play 16-19 games in a single sitting. During gameplay, there is limited speech from the referee and announcer.
Development and release
Troy Aikman NFL Football was developed by Leland Interactive Media and published by Tradewest, who signed former NFL player Troy Aikman to endorse their then-upcoming american football project. Aikman was also heavily involved in its production by creating the plays as well as being designed alongside the Super Bowl MVP.[5][9][10]
Troy Aikman NFL Football was initially released in North America for the Super NES in August 1994 and was later released in Europe by Sony Electronic Publishing during the same year. The Sega Genesis version, developed by Tradewest themselves, was released shortly after the SNES version by Williams Entertainment and only in North America on October.[1] Versions for both Macintosh and PC were also in development and advertised to be released during the same period as with other version, but neither port were published for unknown reasons.[11][12] The Atari Jaguar version, developed at Telegames' CDG division, was released first released in North America on 1 February 1995, then in Europe on May of the same year and later in Japan by Messe Sansao on July.[2][3][4][8][13] This last version of the game features digitizedgraphics and sprites, instead of the original hand-drawn look in the 16-bit versions.
The two sports reviewers of Electronic Gaming Monthly gave the Super NES version scores of 65% and 68%, criticizing the small characters, choppy graphics, and poor defensive AI.[20]
Reviewing the Super NES version, Quick-Draw McGraw of GamePro commented that "What the Genesis did for Joe Montana, the SNES does for Troy Aikman." He noted the large number of options and special features, the inclusion of all the real-world NFL teams, the money management features, and the ability to create your own plays as the game's strong points, though he criticized the graphics and audio as mediocre.[22]
GamePro's Slo Mo accorded the same praises to the Jaguar version but was more vehement in his criticism of the graphics, remarking that it is impossible to identify individual players in large mobs. He concluded, "Despite some tantalizing innovations, Troy Aikman Football sits in favor of better-crafted 16-bit games, including Troy's own clones."[23]
Electronic Gaming Monthly's sports reviewers gave it scores of 6 and 7 out of 10, saying that though they were impressed with the Jaguar version's improvements, particularly the graphics and the new Play Selection Accelerator feature, the game is still so-so. Like Slo Mo, they found that it is difficult to keep track of individual players, and that the control "still isn't what it should be for a big-time football game."[21]
A reviewer for Next Generation, while praising the game's comprehensive content, NFL licensing, and realistic gameplay application of the nuances of football, said that the mediocre graphics and animation, though better on the Jaguar than in previous versions of the game, make it fall short of other football video games on the market. Assessing it to be more a game for hardcore NFL fans than for video gamers, he gave it two out of five stars.[27]
