NFL 2K1

Sega exclusive

NFL 2K1 is the follow-up sequel to the popular NFL 2K for the Dreamcast. NFL 2K1 provides several upgrades to the series, including individual team playbooks, an improved passing model, an improved running game, and online play.

Released: 7 September 2000
Platforms: Dreamcast
Genres: American football Simulation Sports
Developers: Visual Concepts
Publishers: —
Perspective: Third person Bird view / Isometric
Themes: Non-fiction
Country: United States
Age ratings: ESRB E

About

NFL 2K1 is a 2000 American football video game developed by Visual Concepts and published by Sega for the Dreamcast. It is the second installment of Sega's NFL 2K series, and features remediation as well as multiple in-game product placements, such as Dreamcast ads in stadiums. It was followed by NFL 2K2, the last game in the series to be released for the Dreamcast, in 2001.

In the early 2000s, SegaNet was shut down and the online features of the game were shut down as well. However, in July 2017, the game's online features were brought back thanks to DreamPi. The rest of the 2K titles on the Dreamcast have since had their online components revived and are playable online today.

Keywords

soccer
football
american football
nfl
online
platform exclusive
polygonal 3d
year in the title
difficulty level
commentary
national football league
text dialogue

Media

The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Reception

NFL 2K1 received "universal acclaim" according to the review aggregation website Metacritic. Rob Smolka of NextGen called it "A great-playing game, both online and offline, and a significant advance over last year's version." In Japan, where the game was ported for release on March 29, 2001, Famitsu gave it a score of 32 out of 40.

Atomic Dawg of GamePro said in one review, "In a world of video game football, NFL 2K1 is Super Bowl-bound—with topnotch replay featuring online gameplay [...] and a vicious all-pro difficulty level. Any Dreamcast football player who passes up this game should be fined." In another GamePro review, Cheat Monkey said, "Football fans looking for a realistic videogame should look no further.

Legacy

NFL 2K1 has been retrospectively noted for its role in the development of online console sports games. In a 2005 retrospective on the NFL 2K series, GameSpot described the network-enabled Dreamcast as signalling the end of console football's previously offline nature, with NFL 2K1 becoming the first Sega sports title to fulfil the system's promise of online play. The publication noted that Sega introduced online sports gaming ahead of Sony, Microsoft and EA Sports, and regarded services such as SegaNet as an indication of the direction in which sports games were heading.