But five years have past since Nintendo 64 owners had a go with the cartridge version of Acclaim's football franchise, and now -- with the arrival of the next-generation consoles -- the company has gone back to the drawing board. Enter NFL Quarterback Club 2002, the result of a two-year development cycle at Acclaim's Austin Studios. Headed by former Retro Studios' Football 2002 leads, the pigskin sequel promises the same trademark graphic quality that made the series a standout on Nintendo's previous platform, but with new and improved play mechanics to rival the best John Madden and EA have to offer. And GameCube owners can look forward to this one this December in the US.

Features

• Return of the NFL Quarterback Challenge mode, featuring 4 head-to-head events: Speed and Mobility, Accuracy, Long Distance Throw and Read & Recognition
• Play as active or retired Quarterbacks in Challenge Mode or create your own QB
• Unlock retired greats like John Elway, Dan Marino, Steve Young, Jim Kelly and Phil Simms by winning QB Challenge events and adding them to your team rosters
• All 31 NFL clubs and over 1500 NFL players
• All 31 NFL stadiums beautifully rendered with animated crowds and real time field deterioration
• Play by Play from Kevin Harlan and color calls from Bill Maas
• TV style presentation for tight gameplay and player close-ups
• Player models feature blinking eyes, jaw motions, facial expressions and removable helmets
• Over 1500 all new motion captured animations like wrap tackles and player celebrations
• Real life player face textures for over 350 star players
• Sideline action features players and coaches interacting
• Player injuries, penalties and weather conditions affect season play and individual player performance
• Five modes of play: Season, Exhibition, Challenge Mode, Playoffs, and Pro Bowl

Gameplay
For QB Club 2002, Acclaim Austin has gone back to the basics and aimed to deliver what made the franchise popular to begin with. To that end, the game of course features the full NFL license for all 31 NFL teams and stadiums, real players, statistic tracking, and more. But in addition to everything else, QB Club 2002 also boasts the return of QB Challenge mode -- a feature that remains exclusive to the franchise. Players can go head-to-head in four events including speed and mobility, accuracy, long distance throw and read and recognition. In a nutshell, players choose their favorite quarterback, head out to the field, and throw the ball at various static and moving targets -- the most accurate hit wins. A screenshot strip below shows it all off in action.

Above: Three different events from the QB Club Challenge Mode

The GameCube version of QB Club 2002 is a direct port of the PS2 game and will not feature any drastic changes. Though Acclaim has released movies of QB Club 2002 running on PS2, it has not yet presented a playable burn so it is difficult to determine at this time how well it will ultimately play and control. As soon as we can go hands on with it, we will of course update this preview with the appropriate information.

Graphics
QB Club 2002 features very impressive visuals. Detailed polygonal models come to life courtesy of 3,000 polygons, the digitized faces of players, realistic texture work and more 1,500 motion-capture animation routines including different tackles and celebrations. Stadiums are constructed of roughly 23,000 polygons, according to Acclaim. Everything seems to be in working order, with fluid and realistic player animation -- moving eyes, jaws, and helmets that actually pop off the heads of athletes -- and proper collision detection, which was a noticeable flaw of previous QB Club offerings. Visually speaking, in fact, the franchise should have no trouble whatsoever competing.

Outlook
The QB Club franchise has to reestablish itself in the football arena, and this latest version could be right on track to do it. Already realizing some very impressive visuals -- massively detailed players, animation and environments -- and featuring a tantalizing QB Challenge Mode, Acclaim has demonstrated that it isn't playing around. We only hope that when the 2002 version hits GameCube in December it will deliver the same ambitious caliber for gameplay mechanics as it has for graphics and options.

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