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NFL Head Coach

EMAIL PRINT pc

7.6 User Score:

Mixed or average reviews

Based on 19 critic reviews
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Based on 3 votes
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Game Info

Publisher: Electronic Arts

Developer: EA Tiburon

Genre(s): Sports Management Simulation

Players: 1

ESRB Rating: E (Everyone)

Release Date: June 20, 2006

Summary

NFL Head Coach reinvents football gaming by introducing the first 3D strategy sports game that challenges gamers to build and manage every aspect of a football team from the ground up. A simple conversation system and an engaging 3D graphical interface allow users to immerse themselves into the lives of an NFL head coach. As head coach, you develop a team strategy, execute it on and off the field, and try to build a winning organization year after year. Your status as a coaching legend will rise and fall based on all of your actions as you strive to become the greatest head coach of all time. Behind the desk, on the practice field, or while wearing the headset on game days, take the reins of your favorite NFL team and lead it to victory. [Electronic Arts]

Cheat Codes & Hints: GameSpot Hints & Cheats

Also On The Web: Official Website

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

WHAM! Gaming

This really is only for a defined group of hardcore football fans, but those fans won’t find anything close to this anywhere else.

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Cheat Code Central

When Head Coach hits, it slams it out of the ballpark. Excellent structure and balance in the practice periods before game day ensure that you take your time and prepare extensively, while tasks at the front office put you in control of every aspect of the franchise.

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Detroit Free Press

EA Sports is best known for its other monster football game, "Madden NFL." But where "Madden" lets you control real-life players and plays on the field, "Head Coach" takes you behind the action, putting you in the Gatorade-scented shoes of a coach you create from scratch.

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Gaming Age

It is nice to see EA Sports use their license for something a bit different.

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Strategy Informer

A game specifically catered to football enthusiasts who are not really on the nitty-gritty of football technicalities. Creativity and the spirit of the football game are the very elements that EA and Tiburion had wonderfully weaved into this All-American game.

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IGN

As it stands, NFL Head Coach will appeal to die-hard fantasy football fanatics and Madden franchise mode junkies, and to little else. Still, that's all EA ever wanted.

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GameSpot

Still, while Head Coach is ultimately an imperfect football-management simulation, it is also, almost in spite of itself, a frequently fun one. Those with a penchant for serious football management are most certainly going to find things to like about it.

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Gamer 2.0

There are a lot of great ideas in NFL Head Coach, but quite a few of them aren’t executed to perfection.

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Games Radar (in-house)

Chances are that NFL Head Coach won't cure your football jones unless heavy-duty statistical simulators are up your alley. On the other hand, there's so much to do - and gobs of hours that can be invested - that it's likely to keep fantasy football maniacs going for months (or at least until the next Madden comes out).

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GameZone

A decent product that has a few adjustments that need to be made. I am sure that the next revisions of this game will definitely become a really great product that people will be waiting in line for every year like Madden and the NCAA football series.

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Gamers' Temple

NFL Head Coach brings football sims into the 21st Century, but it still won’t appeal to many people beyond hardcore sports sims fans.

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Game Informer

Even though you are the coach in this game, you're still little more than a bystander. [Aug 2006, p.84]

GameSpy

The online multiplayer mode is worth playing, and it's a fun game to play when you want to give your thumbs a break from Madden. However, Head Coach should have learned a lot from the two-dimensional predecessors and web-based fantasy football games whose audience it's attempting to appeal to.

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PC Gamer

I'm sure that coaching in the NFL is one of the world's most grueling desk jobs, but the whole idea behind sports management games is to indulge fans after they get home from work, not make them feel like they've swapped one desk for another. [Oct. 2006, p.106]

1UP

NFL Head Coach is a game you really want to like, but ultimately it's a poorly executed great idea.

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Computer Games Magazine

The most egregious crime is the game's interface. It's a monstrosity of a design, one full of unnecessary busywork. [Oct. 2006, p.69]

G4 TV

There’s something decidedly satisfying seeing your hard work and meticulous planning pay off with a trip to the Super Bowl. But that trip is fraught with so many pitfalls – the most annoying being the rigid scheduling issues – that you’ll need superhuman patience to see it through to the end.

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eToychest

NFL head Coach is obviously targeted toward a very niche group of extreme football enthusiasts, but the game, such as it is, has been made into such a laborious, oftentimes arduous affair that even the target audience is likely to be turned away.

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The Onion (A.V. Club)

The load times between each task are inexcusable, but worse yet are the games themselves, which you barely have to orchestrate.

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What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this game is 7.6 (out of 10) based on 3 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Joel D. gave it a9:
I think this is a wonderful game, been playing it pretty much none stop since the day I bought it which was 2 weeks ago.

M Z gave it a4:
I wish I would have waited for version 2. I was hoping it would be just a expanded Madden Franchise mode. The interface is laborious. I wish I would have waited for version 2. I was hoping it would be just an expanded Madden Franchise mode. The interface is laborious. Things can be quite annoying, if not confusing. I’d also like to insert my standard gripe about there not being a manual. Are copywriters just not in the budget for today’s game or do they want to whore us out of a few more bucks by putting out a game guide that has padded info just to make it thick. How about next time you charge us an extra $5 to buy the game and include a manual, not a pamphlet. It’s pretty hard to get a feel for your team. There are no pictures and the stats are hard to research for each player. Again, it has a horrible interface. I did enjoy the draft part which was very nicely done. The presentation here was very nice and it felt like a good sim. I also prefer the practices and workouts in the off season. I like the idea of putting the players through the drills to boost their stats and prepare them. It works much better and feels better than mini games in Madden. Games aren’t much fun either. You give each group of players strategies, but it again is hard to manage. You end up adjusting things while your coordinators make the calls. I would still like to see every play; even if I let my coordinators make most of the calls. In my opinion, they will hopefully take the good things from this game and mash it with Madden this year. I’d rather get that and play in coach mode during the games, but have a Coach style draft and practices. Bear in mind that I did not purchase the last Madden and the one before was for the PS2. I am now switching over to the PC again. I want to return to the days where I was President, Gm and coach, but didn’t control the players. Bottom line is the interface made me feel like I was playing an online Flash game.

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NFL Head Coach

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What The Critics Said

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