Quick Hit Football
| Quick Hit Football NFL | |
|---|---|
 Quick Hit Football in action | |
| Developer(s) | Play Hard Sports |
| Producer(s) | Jeffrey Anderson |
| Platform(s) | Adobe Flash, Unity Player |
| Release | September 2009, September 8, 2010 (NFL) |
| Genre(s) | Sports simulation |
| Mode(s) | Single-player, Multi-player |
Quick Hit Football (QHF) was a free online American football game. The Quick Hit company was started in 2008 by Jeffrey Anderson,[1] and went public in September 2009. Quick Hit Football offered single player against CPU opponents and multi-player against human opponents. Quick Hit Football was based on user play-calling. On September 8, 2010, the NFL was integrated into Quick Hit Football and was granted the official license from the NFL. A few months later, on December 22, 2010, Quick Hit Football was offered in High-Definition 3D, allowing greater immersion of the participant in the game, while maintaining a realistic sense of play with graphics likened to those found on Madden 64. Following this, new games and challenges were offered to the players such as NFL season games, as well as single player games vs. teams inspired by legendary football coaches such as Bill Cowher, Tom Landry, Vince Lombardi, Brian Billick, Dan Reeves, Marty Schottenheimer, and Dick Vermeil.[2]
Gameplay
Quick Hit Football gameplay revolves around the user's coaching ability. The user may call a play from the QHF playbook, and then use any boosters that the user wishes to buy. Any boosters received may be used once in each game. A booster must be used before the play begins. When calling the play, a user may scroll through a list of plays, or filter through the plays in three ways: Type, Category, and Key Player.
Once the play starts, the user becomes a bystander and is not allowed to control any player movement. Scoring follows NFL football rules. As in NFL football, the team with the most points at the end of regulation wins. Single-player regulation consists of four two-minute quarters, while multi-player games feature four two and a half minute quarters.
During the game, a user's team receives fantasy points based on the performance of the players. These points help the user improve the team, allowing QHF players to reach higher levels. To level QHF players up, a user spends 1,000 Coaching Points (CP) to move a player up one level, though they may choose to move a player up multiple levels in one transaction.[3] Additionally, Coaching Points and another currency, Quick Cash (QC), can be purchased in various increments from $5 to $50. "Legend" players cost extra but automatically leveled up with you as you progressed in the game and became very popular.[4]
CP and QC can both be used to purchase new plays from the store, including contributions from ex-NFL head coaches Dan Reeves, Marty Schottenheimer, and Dick Vermeil.[5] Both currencies can also be used to purchase new players, which range from customizable nobodies to NFL legends such as Warren Moon, Jack Tatum, Barry Sanders, and Jack Youngblood, who have a higher skill rating than the average player and also automatically level up with you for free. NFL legends are rated on a 10-star scale, with 10-star Elite players being available for purchase only with QC, that is, real money.[6] QH added several new gaming modes from shorter 5 minute Blitz games to longer 5 minutes per quarter Marathon games.
Critical reception
IGN stated that Quick Hit Football "offers an authentic, strategic football game without the twitch and complexity." [7] However, IGN also said that, "The look of everything in QuickHit Football isn't super-detailed, but that's only because the system requirements are a browser, an Internet connection and Flash player. When you zoom in on the field you'll definitely see added detail to the players, but nothing in the game will knock your socks off." [8] Game Informer said in its preview that the game provides "ease of play calling, and surface decisions that allow you to get in and play quickly" while also adding "more depth for hardcore players" [9] GameSpy suggested Quick Hit Football "offers an authentic, strategic football game" and said that, "The game is designed for football fans who want the depth and appeal of fantasy sports with the interactivity and polish of high-end console products." [10]
Shut down
While the game had a dedicated community, it was very expensive to operate. Quick Hit Football required a slew of engineers and large banks of servers to support all of the features it once offered, all of which cost money that struggling corporate owner Majesco didn't have and the game couldn't earn, even with the expensive NFL license and related marketing. As part of the then new Majesco cost cutting plan it was announced on July 15, 2012 that on August 17, 2012 Quick Hit Football's servers would be closed and the game would end.[11] However, on the day of its shutdown, an unspecified agreement was reached between Majesco, the game's operators, and the game's creditors, MMF, ensuring that the football title would live on, at least temporarily. Majesco's continued fiscal woes resulted in a new extreme cost cutting plan, one prong of which resulted in their Foxborough Massachusetts Social Games Division to be shuttered on January 7, 2013 resulting in the job losses of all 13 developers, and all Facebook and other Internet games being wound down within two months. Thus on March 22, 2013, the game clock finally ran out for Quick Hit football.
References
- ^ "Quick Hit Starting Line Up" Archived January 15, 2010, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ http://techcrunch.com/2010/09/08/quickhit-football-nfl-game/
- ^ "Quick Hit Game Guide" Archived January 20, 2010, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "QHF Store"[permanent dead link]
- ^ "QHF New Plays"[permanent dead link]
- ^ "QHF Free Agents"[permanent dead link]
- ^ "Quick Hit Football" Summary. IGN.
- ^ Ahearn, Nate. "Quick Hit Football Hands-on" IGN. June 4, 2009.
- ^ "A New Football Experience" Game Informer. September 2009.
- ^ "Quick Hit Football"[permanent dead link] Game Summary. GameSpy.
- ^ [1]