Presentation was gold in that era of sports titles. Immersive intros, music, little details.

I would rather play this than any the past 10 Maddens

I like how they had Mark Brunell throwing right handed 😂

For a game in 2001, this game looks fantastic. The Graphics has aged really well.

I really appreciate these retrospectives of lesser known sports games

Man seeing Brady is simply wild. Can’t believe he’s finally called it a career

Man banger after banger. Thank you SDTV

Had this game as a kid and would spend hours rotating it in between NFL GameDay, NFL 2K2, Quarterback Club and Madden 2002...The fun part about having multiple football titles at that time was where one game lacked, the others may have prevailed

When you posted on Twitter that this was coming, I got very excited. I actually *reviewed* this back in the day and was blown away by the presentation. That aspect still largely holds up more than 2 decades later, despite Visual Concepts outclassing it not long after. Berman and Jackson are authentic on commentary, even if the script is a bit thin… and those stat overlay and the score bug are so spot on for ESPN of the time period. Konami did a great job in presentation with other ESPN-licensed titles, too… notably ESPN NBA 2Night 2002 and (surprisingly) ESPN X-Games Skateboarding.

This channel not having more subscribers is a fucking crime.

Konami made an nfl game, who would’ve thought

I had this game on my PS2. Very underrated. The presentation was ahead of its time. It wasn't a great game but it had a lot going for it. I actually bought this over Madden because of the ESPN presentation.

If we're taking about Konami sports games, we gotta talk about the "NBA In The Zone" series. Really underrated series.

It's interesting how 'American' this game seems.....every Konami NBA game I've ever played always feels sooo 'Japanese', they usually even have a GAME OVER screen when the game ends

Same devs that made NFL 95, Primetime Football, and NFL 98 on Sega Genesis. Definitely looked like a franchise that had a lot of potential.

I forgot this game even existed until now. I miss the early 2000s with all the sports gaming options

Next gen brought us good graphics and disappointment.

In the 80s Konami ruled the world

The intro alone gets me hype. Sad that the current gen games don't even come close

Love all these reviews as of late. 👌

this game don’t look too bad, it was made in 2001 lol

Love these videos! Your analysis is so on point

This wasn't as bad game as people made it out to be. NFL 2k5 and NFL blitz make me happy today.

3:39 starting here I'm noticing that the Packers roster from that era is instead on the Lions. On a separate note, worth noting that Konami didn't just venture into the NFL and NBA with the ESPN license like you mentioned. They went into winter sports, track and field, golf, NHL and even having a game exclusive to MLS, the only games where you could play as MLS teams separate from EA's FIFA games, and unlike MLS in the FIFA games, Konami had all the MLS stadiums at the time. Looking back at it just shows how different the league was back then.

Just goes to show the level of competition if a game from 21 years ago with better presentation and gameplay than modern Madden games does horribly with sales and critics. Let's just put it like this, if Madden came out with what they do today in 2002, Madden would've been where Konami's franchise is.

With Super Mario Bros that came out recently and you being a GameCube fan, I think retrospectives on the Mario sports games would be awesome.

Yay! You finally featured my all time favorite classic game! Thank you for giving this a feature video and its due! I actually had to argue with the guy in EB Games that I wanted this and not Nfl2k2 when I bought my Ps2!

I mean, Konami made some pretty decent sports games every so often. NBA in the zone, winning 11. But it was always an uphill battle with football back then.

There was so much choice back in the day with reputable companies competing with each other. Even if there were clear standouts at least the alternatives were playable and gave you a different flavour for if you wanted a change.

Hell yeah I love these football 🏈 videos game reviews been subscribed for a good min never a bad video 👍

I've been waiting for a video on the Konami ESPN saga of games! Such an underrated game imo!

damn i honestly had no idea konami made an NFL game that's very interesting honestly, great video softdrink keep it up!

Wow I didn't even know about this game. Its quite a surprise to see Konami take a chance at a NFL Football. ( I know they did Double Dribble and Blades of Steel back in the NES era. ) Still for 2001 the graphics look incredible for its time. 😲 If its cheap I may try to pick this up sometime just to hear some classic Chris Berman lines. 😃 Thanks for making this video SOFTDRINKTV.

I’ve never heard of this one… this is a gem 💎

This game was a hidden gem! Keep the videos coming Softdrink.

You on a roll bro keep ‘em coming don’t stop. Let’s hit blitz 04’ the nba ballers series nba jam 04’ etc you know what you got here 🔥🔥🔥

I sank all my childhood into this. Glad to see some attention brought to it

I miss going to the video store (😳) and seeing a variety of sports games. So many options. Geez Tom Brady was in this game!

this wasn't the only American football game konami made in the 2000s, they also made Disney Sports Football (or Disney Sports: American Football as its called in japan to avoid confusion with the soccer football title)on GBA and game cube in 2002 as part of their short-lived Disney Sports series that lasted til 2003, the gameplay is arcadey as expected as your playing with teams made up of Disney characters. and this was made before nintendo advancing the Mario sports games during the mid-2000s with well known titles like super mario baseball or mario strikers. one could also imagine, would Konami try their hands at a american football video game again and have it be successful as PES. one could wonder.

lol I remember this game. I was going to buy it at gamestop and even the employee was like dont do it. 🤣🤣🤣🤣

I was actually going to mention the Konami sports games when you did a video on the lesser known NBA games developed by Sony. The NFL QB Club series dating back to the 16-bit era would be a good retrospective as well (but those later games are awful!)

I remember playing this game for hours on end every weekend. So much nostalgia with this video.

That theme song brings back memories. Coming home from school and watching primetime Monday afternoons

Dope video, I totally forgot about this game.

im earlier than a referee calling roughing the passer for Tom Brady

Yo! Big supporter of your channel and content! We got similar game taste lol a dope video would be NFL Xtreme and NFL Xtreme 2. First football game I had on ps1 😂

I never played this game but I definitely played their NBA 2Night games (NBA 2Night 2002 to be precise) I hope you can make a video one day about that game

I remember The first time I played this... My Homies mom copped him this instead of Madden but we were blown away!

Hey have you did a review on NFL quarter back club 2002 yet? It was pretty good

beginning had me feeling like i was watch an OG nfl game on espn....👀

I see the work SoftDrink keep it up!

Madden "16" The Last (O.k) madden!!!

The game messed up Mark Brunell on the Jags, he should be left handed.

Konami finally made it with NBA Starting Five 2005, one of the best NBA games ever released. Sadly it was only released in Japan. Such an underrated game!

Man I dont remember this game, and I have always been into football and football games. But back then you had Madden, NFL 2K, GameDay, NFL Fever etc etc. Oddly during the PS1 and N64 era we really didn't play Maddens, I don't even remember playing Madden at all during that era...I remember playing Quarterback club.

Sad that this game in some aspects is more ahead of the time than Madden 23..

I don't remember this game but it looks really crisp, like a PC game. Thanks for reviewing this!

Your video soundtracks 🔥🔥🔥🔥

I actually miss the days of 700 competing sports games

Sean Taylor was a fumble machine :D i had alot of glory with him and the first person football was awesome and i loved it... still we don't have another first person football game

You have great content and I never played this one I never seen it in stores if I did I probably would have bought this game

I seen that game years ago going through the gamestop pre-owned aisle. Are you planning to do a rise and fall of PES soccer? Used to be decent soccer/association football game.

are you going to do a review on the new PGA Tour game (or maybe a rise and fall video on the series)?

The wrap up tackle looks nice

This game is worth it just for the NFL Primetime theme and overlay. I used to love that show, total classic. Sadly it's no longer needed, but I still love it's music.

I'm honestly surprised that ESPN itself was never able to claim the right to be able to make an NFL video game

Nice video softdrink. This game has always intrigued me

0:56 NFL 2K3 used ESPN but I guess not “fully” since Suzy Kolber and Chris Berman weren’t in the game yet and had the fictitious Michelle Wes(t)fall and Clark Dishman in their places respectively. NFL PrimeTime 2002 was definitely a stepping stone for the excellent ESPN presentation style in 2K3-2K5 despite PrimeTime’s clunky gameplay.

I knew of Tecmo creating NFL games on the NES but never knew that Konami created any NFL games. I heard of NFL GameDay but never played it. So this is the younger brother of ESPN NFL 2K4 and 2K5.

Had this when it came out and actually picked it back up again a few months ago...decent game except the passing sucks..menus can be bit of a pain also

I miss these games

Small details made such a huge difference cheerleaders refs throwing flags miss that stuff

You should have done a video about the Tecmo series as well

Just got it and I'm LOVING this game

Konami also made a soccer game that focused exclusively on MLS that year called ESPN MLS Extratime 2002.

great video! however, there was some knitpicking with the statement that refs were too much for the ps5. EA said that players were complaining about the refs getting in the way. Blame the players on that one not EA

Watching Wiggy catch a TD from Brady and then doing a backflip was 🤣

That theme song still slaps.

Do you have plans to make a history video on NFL Quarterback club games?

My brother and l loved this game. Golden age of espn too

I had this on PC. Even when that was my "Peak" Madden PC world for me, I enjoyed the presentation enough to like the game. But yea the gameplay wasn't as good as Madden back then.

This was one of my favorite football games

2K football was kind of my start to football games outside of N64. The old football games has so many play options

5:05 that catch 😂

Crazy how much better the graphics were than the ps2 maddens

i am again asking what is the music @8:22 mark thank you,, awesome vid

I owned this for a little while. Gameplay didn't measure up IMO, but there were some good ideas. I recall late in games, you'd get a prompt asking if you wanted to either run the clock down if you were ahead or if you were behind, whether to call timeout or let the clock run.

Graphics back then looked incredible for this game

ESPN presentation was first used in 2K football with NFL 2K3

Ah the good ole days when we had options 😩

I love Konami's sports games. Their "Pro Yakyuu Spirits" series of Japanese League baseball simulators is consistently one of the best baseball games ever - the batting physics (the way the ball comes off one's bat based on where the bat makes contact with the ball) are, in my opinion, so much better than "The Show" - and their PS1 remake of "Blades of Steel" was a load of fun. I seem to recall that they made some NBA games too. Sadly; I either forgot or never knew that they made an NFL game. Thank God for emulators. You can run PS2 games on an Android phone these days and that's exactly what I'm going to do after pressing Send on this comment. Thanks for the video. I really enjoyed it and I learned something new.

i forgot i was watching a game review when u were doing the contracts it looked like 2002 espn

Consistent uploads 👀

In all honesty…if Konami were to make a game today, it would blow any attempt from EA or 2K, out of the water. Their soccer and baseball games are top notch. They pay attention to all of the small details of the sport when it comes to gameplay, and their graphics have never been an issue. This is coming from someone who is begging for another 2K football game. I still play All Pro Football 2K8….

Does the game allow you too edit and or change player numbers? I hated how some of the NFL games then didn't

I remember getting this game just because Edge was/is my all-time favorite Colt

Konami was probably sick to their stomachs watching Sega stroll along and basically just scoop up the game they made, tweak it, and make people fall in love with it xD

I can’t believe that I never saw this one back in the day

Nfl 2k was already out before this doing this but good video

I recently played nfl 2k5 on an Xbox emulator, my God the graphics are leaps and bounds better than the ps2 version lol