College Football: 5 Best college football video games of all time

5. GameBreaker ’98

Sony’s GameBreaker ’98 wasn’t the first college football release for the PlayStation 1, but it was an excellent release. GameBreaker used an improved graphics engine over the EA series that was on the SEGA Genesis. While GameBreaker, released in 1996 for the 1995 season, wasn’t beautiful it was new and by the ’98 edition they had the graphics upgrade down.

The positives were the inclusion of 112 Division I-A teams, full rosters, marching band music, and 2,000 plays. The graphics were much better than the EA counterpart and the ’99 version had Keith Jackson on the call. Another fun feature was having a GameBreaker player which eventually carried over to EA as an Impact Player that would outperform other virtual student-athletes on the field.

However where the game failed was in not focusing on a “Dynasty” mode. EA’s NCAA Football ’98 took on that game mode and recruiting became the focal point of college football video games. Where the NFL Combine and NFL Draft are specific to the professional football games- to recreate a college football experience recruiting is a vital aspect. Serious college football gamers need to be able to build those lowly one-star programs up from the bottom to win the national championship and that’s done on the recruiting trail.