NFL Tour - first look

The playbooks are simple flag football plays that you've seen before, with a few options and reverses thrown in for good measure. The passing game takes a bit to get used to as QBs will have to manually cycle through receivers to find a target, much like Tecmo Bowl. And who didn't love Tecmo Bowl? The system works well in that you have to check through receivers, much like a real quarterback, although it can prove problematic on blitzes when you need to make a play and don't feel like buttoning through your entire offense to find a hot receiver. Of course, you can toggle this option off.

ESPN talent Trey Wingo of NFL Live will call the action, and we're told he adds plenty of humor to the booth although we didn't hear him yet for ourselves. Visually, NFL Tour aims to run at 60 frames per second and already features a smooth and impressive animation set. For some reason every player model in the game was as bald as Matt Hasselbeck, but players will have plenty of time to grow their lettuce before the January target release date... just in time for the Super Bowl.

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While the gameplay is fun and addictive, especially with Michael Vick still in the game, it remains to be seen if NFL Tour will keep gamers interested after defeating the Tour mode the first time through. Without a deeper single-player game and old Street favorites like secret and legendary players, NFL Tour seems a bit slim compared to other arcade titles. But in other arcade titles you can't truck DBs into the end zone and perform a custom end zone dance, so we will have to wait and see.