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Good: Tons of depth, plenty of options, watch games from TV perspective

Bad: Far too menu-based, too much micromanagement, online play

Can't Wait For: Mike Holmgren's Pro Skater

It's right around this time of year that I go into full-blown NFL fever mode. Preseason games start next month, the new Madden is on the horizon, and I can start getting my hopes up about the Chiefs only to get them terribly crushed later on. I hoped NFL Head Coach would help me pass the time until the season, but it's unfortunately less of a football game and more of a menu experience.

Granted, it's not billed as having football-based gameplay this isn't Madden. It's called Head Coach for a reason, and you'll quickly learn how tedious and painstaking the job can be. Those hoping to turn on the game and start coaching on the field right away are going to be sorely disappointed. The main mode starts shortly after the Super Bowl, and there's plenty to do before your team is ready to hit the field in August.

As the opening video explains, you play as a former offensive or defensive coordinator (your choice) from the Super Bowl-winning team. After your success in this capacity, teams start to become interested in your services as a head coach. You can create your own coach using the extremely limited options available (I played as Samuel L. Jackson) and then start calling up teams to do phone interviews. I naturally picked the Chiefs as my first interview, but I soon had offers from the Bills, Texans, Packers and Saints. The Bills offered me $12 million, but I stayed loyal and took the paltry $5.6 million from KC.

After you're signed on, you're free to move in and clean house as much as you want. I started by firing Gunther Cunningham and then started axing every staff member that greeted me with "Hey Chief!" The roster is very out-of-date, and I had to manually hire Herm Edwards as a coordinator. To give you some sense of how "recent" this roster is, T.O. is still with Philly and Culpepper is still a Viking.

The time between the beginning of the career mode and the first regular-season game is filled with a ridiculous amount of micromanagement and menu-navigating. Get used to seeing your office, because it's the screen you're going to be seeing the most of. You can promote coaches, meet with scouts, modify your playbook, adjust salaries, hold staff meetings, etc. etc. etc. I'm a huge football fan, and this really did nothing for me. I'm sure there's someone somewhere that would absolutely love this level of control in a coach capacity, but I just wanted it to end as soon as possible so I could get on the field.

Once you've played through an hour or two, you'll most likely have a team put together that you can start practicing with. You can run drills and increase the attributes of whomever you'd like. It's not just limited to your first-string stars, you can work with the third-string guys as well. I wanted to test the A.I., so I made my first-string offense attempt a Hail Mary against my third string-defense that wasn't prepared for a long pass play. Three times in a row, the benchwarming third-stringers shut down Trent Green and my first-string superstars. Naturally, this didn't make me feel too good about the artificial intelligence.

All of my excitement for the regular-season dissipated once I actually started the first game. There really isn't much to it besides choosing plays and watching the action. In fact, since the play-select screen automatically goes to the suggested play (the equivalent of Ask Madden), it's entirely possible to just sit back and press A the whole time and be entirely effective.

Online play sounds intriguing in concept, but crashes and burns in execution. All of the decisions, training, and work you've done in your career mode is irrelevant. It's just a matter of picking a team and hoping they win with the plays you pick. If you're the 49ers and you're playing the Steelers, there's no chance in hell you're going to win.

During most of the game, you're just looking at menu screens and the office environment. Naturally, this isn't too interesting in the visual sense. On the field, you might as well be looking at last year's Madden. Nothing is new, but the player models and environment get the job done. One of the good things about not participating in the actual onfield play is the fact that you can view the action from a TV-style perspective (or one of the many other camera options).

All of the audio is ripped directly from Madden, outside of a few voice samples along the lines of "Sure thing, coach." Because of the lack of commentary during the games, you're bound to hear a lot of repeated phrases from the stadium announcer. I can't tell you how many times in a row I heard the same "First down KANNNNNNSAS CITY!" clip. The NFL Films highlight music is constantly playing in the office, and sadly ends up being one of the most exciting things in the game.

I'd imagine this game might be fun for the guy from Stump the Schwab, but for your average football/Madden fan, there's just not enough interactivity and far too much busywork. It's a novel concept, and I might be interested in future installments if they make some serious changes to the format of the title. As for now, I'm just going to hold out and wait for Madden.

Graphics: 7.0

Sound: 7.0

First Play: 5.0

Replay Value: 6.5

Gameplay: 6.5

Overall: 6.4