Matthew Will
Editor-in-Chief
For the first time since September of 2013, we have a college football video game. Not just a college football game, but one that plays on the newest consoles – the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. Yet, this ‘college football homecoming’ falls quite short.
Released on Friday, Sept. 27 at $29.99, Doug Flutie’s Maximum Football 2019 is only available on digital platforms (PlayStation Store/Microsoft Store).
The Good:
The price is not bad for a video game of 2019, where most games sell at $59.99 to begin. It does not feel as bad to fork over this cash, especially for the enjoyment of college football.
The College Dynasty mode features 130 teams, all designed from current college teams without overstepping the NCAA’s rules on likeness or image.
For example, the team that is believed to represent Kansas State is the Kansas Capital Reapers, whose colors are purple and white. Despite it clearly not being based on real teams, it is fun to see college teams in a game again.
If you wish to change a jersey, logo, team name, location, stadium, player names, etc., all can be edited on every team. If you wished to change Kansas Capital to Kansas State, the game does not stop you.
A creative recruiting aspect makes the mode much more enjoyable, giving you the ability to call your recruits and talk up the school or your coaches or promise them a championship. But be careful, overselling the school will burn out the recruit.
The Bad:
In 2018, Doug Flutie’s Maximum Football 2018 made its debut. In this game, there were only Canadian football modes – one based on indoor Canadian Football and one based on the Canadian Football League (CFL) with none of these teams violating likeness and image rules.
In the 2019 version of Maximum Football, U.S. college football was added, bringing in a huge audience in the United States.
The problem is the development team. Well, ‘problem’ is not the best word to describe it. Small would do a bit better. A one-man development team works on the entirety of the game.
The graphics are bad. Not in a grand scheme of all-time video games, but for next-gen current innovations, they are not great.
The Ugly:
Scoring a game like this is difficult as you hate to talk down on a one-man team, but unfortunately that is the case. With graphics difficult to get past and laggy menus, the game earns a 3/10.
If you need a college football video game fix, it’s more worth your money to buy a PlayStation 3 or Xbox 360 and purchase EA Sports’ NCAA 14.