NFL Tour review

Jan 15, 2008

Publisher Electronic Arts has gotten pretty good at blowing up and then rebuilding sagging sports franchises. After all, they killed off the moribund Triple Play Baseball and started over with MVP, which in 2005 yielded the best baseball game ever made -at least in our humble opinions. Next to be thrown into the remake-o-tron was Knockout Kings, whose successor Fight Night reigns as the current heavyweight champion of the world. Needless to say, we had high hopes when we heard that the arcade fueled NFL Street football series was next on EA's makeover hit list. Street wasn't terrible by any stretch, but the franchise had clearly run out of new ideas and needed a kick in the pants.

Unfortunately, EA hasn't gone 3-for-3. NFL Tour is nothing more than a watered-down version of a game that wasn't tremendously fun in the first place, suffering from an identity crisis that ultimately removes any personality from the proceedings. Tour lacks sporty visuals, compelling gameplay, and any long-term replay value, and actually runs a little chuggier on the PS3 than its 360 counterpart. Even worse, it piles on with godawful announcing and a dreadfully boring custom character feature, leaving us fighting off boredom as we slogged through the campaign.