Here’s something weird: we can’t figure out how you can play as Mike Vick in Mike Vick: GameTime (Free), an arcade-style football game that has Mike Vick’s name attached to it. Well, that’s kind of a lie. You play as Mike Vick for about 15 seconds in the tutorial. After that, though? We haven’t seen him, which is kinda crazy since, you know, this is a video game with Mike Vick’s name on it. Figured that needed to be re-iterated because, what?
Instead of Mike Vick, GameTime thrusts you in the shoes of a nobody. Like, a legitimate nobody, a randomly generated character on a made up team that consists of you and a trio of made up receivers. You’re then tasked with winning five or seven tournaments against several other fake teams with fake players. We’ve played 2.5 of these so far and still no Mike Vick. Weird!
The other weird thing? These guys really stink. You don’t feel like you’re playing at a pro level when you’re randomly generated quarterback is throwing loose spirals all over the place. Shouldn’t the game be more about training up your auxiliary cast while living out a weird power fantasy as Mike Vick, a prolific NFL player?
[A side-note: As you play, you kinda get married to these fake dudes since the cash you win by competing in the game (or buy) can be used to buy different kinds of enhancements to make them not-so-stinky. So, even if Mike Vick suddenly becomes playable, I think I might have a hard time ditching these fake guys now. I’ve built them up. I spent real cash on them, too, so we’ve kinda bonded in a way.]
But anyway, where is Mike Vick in his own football game? What do I have to do to unlock or earn him? Is there a cheat code? Do I have to beat all the tournaments? Do I have to spend money or something? This just seems so… off. EDIT: You have to unlock him. More info below.
If you’re wondering, by the way, how this is as a football game, you might wanna give it a shot while it’s still free. The animations, the collisions, and the AI are horrendous, BUT I’m really digging its style of arcade football. It’s all 4-on-4 and you play as the offense exclusively. Every time you get intercepted or the defense forces a turnover on downs, they score. Each match lasts about a minute total. Also, the passing mechanic is really, really good. You actually lead your receiver when you throw, which is something the Maddens of the world still struggle with.
UPDATE: Mystery solved and boy were we close. Creator KBJ games says Vick is available after you beat the “pro" tournament. In order “to get to Pro, you must beat the Rookie, Sophomore, and Veteran bracket," KBJ tells us. Neat, but still … weird.
