Joe Montana II: Sports Talk Football

In 1991, Sega shocked Genesis owners with Joe Montana II: Sports Talk Football. Aside from changing the game's vertical perspective to a horizontal one (an internal team had been working on one for the original, but it was scrapped in favor of EA's vertical game), Sega also added play-by-play commentary. Though it might seem cheesy today, this was unheard for consoles at the time, and it marked an important step in bringing realism to sports games. We've a full review for you, so read on and see if you can count how many times the announcer says "and I can't believe it!" the next time you play the game.

WTF... a 3 who reviewed this game it a great game why give it a 3 i love this game its very nice to play i give this game a 10 out of 10

The writer is presented at the top of the review.

You're absolutely right. How blind I've been. Melf, please change my score to a 10, as I somehow overlooked that the game is very nice to play.

I'd personally give this game more than a 3 because I enjoyed it, but I still rarely ever play it. This game doesn't use scaling. It freezes, places a bracket on the action and switches to a completely new BG and sprites.

I rented this one night when it first came out, and I was able to crack the password for any team for any game all the way up to the Superbowl. I sent in my password to EGM hoping for a free game. Instead they published it in Mega Play. They gave me credit, but no free game. Bitches.

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WTF... a 3 who reviewed this game it a great game why give it a 3 i love this game its very nice to play i give this game a 10 out of 10

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You play something other than ShadowDancer! LIES! What happened to the real Daminmance??!!

I would say that this game is more of a 6 or 7. Its not really that great of a game to get ahold of when you first play it, but once you realize that if you find the homerun play (works every time), its fun. I have scored over 200 in a game. Other than that the game is rather difficult, but once you get a grip, its pretty good.

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Originally Posted by trekbone87

I would say that this game is more of a 6 or 7. Its not really that great of a game to get ahold of when you first play it, but once you realize that if you find the homerun play (works every time), its fun.

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I thought this screenshot summed up the whole "money play" aspect -- 7 pass attempts; four completions; four touchdowns. To each his own, I suppose, but I still think that lack of AI is a problem and not a positive, and that includes modern games with "money plays" as well.

LAWL at Sega's constant efforts to shove their sports lineup down our throats year after year and compete against EA's efforts. I doubt most of Sega's Genesis sports titles (outside of "World Series Baseball") moved even a fraction of the copies churned out by them. Someone please pull out some old NPD charts and prove me wrong!

I assume "Sports Talk" was the best-selling of the Joe series of titles, before the novelty wore off.

Sega's sports games - whether in-house or EA - were among their top sellers and a major advertising point for the Genesis.

Don't mind me, it's just my assumed opinion. I just wasn't fond of their sports lineup. As a kid I don't ever recall myself, my Genesis-owning friends or family regularly playing Sega's in-house sports library outside of "World Series".

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Originally Posted by Aarzak

Don't mind me, it's just my assumed opinion. I just wasn't fond of their sports lineup. As a kid I don't ever recall myself, my Genesis-owning friends or family regularly playing Sega's in-house sports library outside of "World Series".

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Really? I always thought that Sega had the superior basketball games compared to EA (although NBA Jam reined supreme).

Yeah, NBA Action was nice, but EA already had a terrific series with the ______ vs. ______ games. I'd say EA dominated just about every major 16-bit sport other than baseball, which was Sega's one great achievement. As I said in the review, I do think the later NFL games by Sega really improved greatly, but by that time I think the mainstream had already accepted Madden as the football game to buy.

I think EA had already aggressively marketed itself as the best sports game developer with EASN and whatnot and built too much of a lead for Sega to ever catch up. Mario Lemieux Hockey looked silly next to EA's NHL Hockey. I don't believe Sega ever updated World Championship Soccer in the US, either. I will say I think Sega had the best boxing games of the time, though I think that was a kinda limited market compared to the major sports.

The dismal Joe Montana's NFL Football for Sega CD and the whole developer mess early on really make me wonder if Sega even tried to claim the sports market after Sonic's success. For a system that launched with four pretty successful sports games, the company seemed to just give up after that.

Wait, you mean the first-gen Genny sports titles (Lasorda, World Soccer, Arnold Palmer, Pat Riley) actually did well and moved units? Lasorda (Super League) & Arnold Palmer were decent at best (I went through a period of playing Lasorda non-stop throughout most of 2001, got so pissed off once at the cheap A.I that I chucked my first copy out my window and almost hit someone) but World Soccer and especially Pat Riley (Super Real) Basketball SUCKED even back then. I've heard that these sports titles were budget-priced upon release. Paying more than $20 for Pat Riley in 1990 should've been a CRIME.

I believe it was Frank Eva who have Pat Riley a perfect "10" score in VG&CE. Remember that in 1989 Double Dribble was still pretty much the height of video game basketball at home, and the arcade didn't offer much more. To have a full five-on-five basketball game with good animation and those huge cutscenes in color and without any flicker was impressive for the time. Of course, it didn't take long for EA to port Lakers versus Celtics to the Genesis, which quickly upped the ante on what the public can expect from a modern basketball game.

Budget titles really didn't exist back then. That concept was brought about by the PlayStation. The closest to a budget release then was a $30 MSRP (I believe Bonaza Bros. and Flicky sported this pricing as Sega's brief attempt to offer cheaper games).