Joe Montana II Sports Talk Football

Joe Montana Football is an American football video game developed by Park Place Productions, and published by Sega for the Genesis in 1991. While the game does feature Joe Montana as a playable character, Sega did not obtain licenses from either the National Football League or the National Football League Players Association (NFLPA), meaning no other players, nor any official team names, are used. It was the first of many Sega published football games across the 1990s prior to moving into the NFL 2K branding in the 2000s.

Gameplay – Joe Montana II Sports Talk Football

Joe Montana II Sports Talk Football games of the time, the gameplay follows a slightly simplified version of standard American Football rules. Players have the option to play as different teams, as well as select number of players. Players also have the option to turn penalties on or off. Players may also play a normal game, a mode with a two-minute drill, and the Sega Bowl mode.

Though Joe Montana Football and John Madden Football were made by the same company, Madden had realistic plays and a full roster of 28 teams, while Montana was a more arcade-style game with only 16 teams and a simplified, passing-intensive offense.^[2]

Development – Joe Montana II Sports Talk Football

Following the launch of the Genesis in the United States, Sega of America president and CEO Michael Katz planned to create a library of instantly-recognizable titles for the console by contracting with celebrities and athletes to produce games using their names and likenesses. As part of this, Sega signed a $1.7 million five-year contract with Joe Montana, despite concerns among the Japanese executives that the game would not earn enough to cover this cost.^[2]

Sega had previously developed two American football games for the Master System console, Great Football in 1987^[3] and American Pro Football (Walter Payton Football) in 1989, the latter very well-received by critics at the time.^[4][5] Joe Montana Football was originally intended to be an update of Great Football.^[3]

Reception – Joe Montana II Sports Talk Football

Although not as successful as the Madden series, Joe Montana II Sports Talk Football and the sequels helped establish the Genesis’ reputation as the top platform for sports simulations and proved to Sega Enterprises that sports games could be worthwhile investments.^[2][1] Website Den of Geek would credit both series for helping Sega gain an edge over Nintendo writing ” High school and college jocks who would normally be more likely to taunt someone who identified as a video game nerd suddenly found themselves playing for bragging rights on all-night sessions of Madden.”^[8]

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