The 7 Best American Football Games Ever

ESPN NFL 2K5

ESPN NFL 2K5 is hands down one of the best football games of all time (I played) if not the best overall.

Seriously! This game had everyone glued to their PS2 controllers back in 2004. It had all popular teams like the Patriots, the Steelers, and the Eagles, just to name a few. Though, in my opinion, the best feature of the game was that it allowed you to play with other players in split-screen mode.

Sure, the graphics are a bit dated by today's standards. But that didn't matter back then. So long as we got to play with our favorite team we were happy. Graphics weren't a prerequisite to having fun, good gameplay was. And the game had that in ample supply. Which is why it's the best football video game of all time.

Madden NFL 07

Madden NFL 07 is by far the best Madden NFL game of all time.

Not only did it bring a breath of fresh air to the Madden series, but it also had one of the coolest new features. Four-player co-op. Yes! Madden 07 had a four player option. This shocked gamers back in 2006. In a good way of course.

There's nothing more fun than getting together with a few buddies. Picking out your favorite teams, duking it out on the field. And finally settling the score of which team is the best. Madden 07 allowed players to do just that, which is why it's the best entry in the Madden franchise by far.

Personally, I believe that this is one of the best EA games of all time. Sadly, they don't make the Madden games like they used to anymore.

Tecmo Super Bowl

Funny. One of the best football video games of all time wasn't even made by an American developer, but a Japanese one.

Tecmo Super Bowl did alright in its native country, but it really took off overseas once it finally made its way to the US. According to many, this is one of the best 90s games of all time, and that's saying something.

Looking back at it now it's easy to see why the game got so popular. Very few games at the time allowed you to control multiple teams. Gamers were entranced. Here were all their favorite teams, all gathered in a single game. That's what made Tecmo Super Bowl so cool. It was simple but beautiful.

NFL Quarterback Club 99

This game. This game is special. Undeniably, this is one of the best American games of all time.

It came out a few years after Tecmo Bowl. But, seeing as this is the 90s we're talking about, technological progress could be seen in weeks, not years. And boy, did the developers push the technology to its limits. Even though NFL Quarterback Club 99 looks like it came out in the mid-2000s, it actually came out in 1998.

That right there is a testament to the love and effort that the developers put into the game. Nostalgic players coming back to the game have even reported that the game still holds up after two decades, which is simply astonishing. What a great game!

NFL Street

Do you love football but hate those pesky coaches? Then NFL Street is the game for you.

NFL Street has a simple premise. Football is entertaining. Whiny coaches are not. Remove the whiny coaches and all you have remaining is the entertaining part... and a lot of violence. A formula that technically makes NFL Street eligible to be one of the best fighting games of all time.

Forget playing as your favorites and forget Tom Brady. They don't exist. Your goal in the streets is to climb the ladder from no-name nobodies to the ultimate team. How you go about achieving that is entirely up to you. It'll take blood. It'll take swear. And, it sure as hell will take a lot of tears... But, it'll be a lot of fun.

Mutant Football League

Who said that football video games had to be realistic to be fun?

That's what I love about Mutant Football League. It takes everything that's fun about American football and cranks it up to 11. You have multiple teams comprised of mutants, ghouls, and monsters alike, all duking it out in the stadium. There's blood, there's gore, there's explosions, and, there's a lot of fun.

NFL games can learn a lot from Mutant Football League. You don't need all those burdensome systems and useless mechanics to be one of the best football video games of all time. All you need is to give the player total freedom and a ball to play with. It's that simple.

Blood Bowl 2

Blood Bowl 1 was a great game, however, it's Blood Bowl 2 where the series really took off.

I'm a big fan of Warhammer and especially Warhammer video games. The franchise has undeniably spawned some of the best fantasy games of all time. That being said, it definitely took me a while to get accustomed to Blood Bowl, as it isn't your typical Warhammer game.

For starters, player proportions are everywhere. You have hulking giants fighting against puny dwarves and everything in between. And the on field gameplay is more akin to a land battle than a sports match. But hey, that's what makes the game so good. If it weren't for that, it would be just another football game.