his page archives blog entries about the Budweiser Flickball game found on the ESPN website. I discovered the game in late 2003, played several hours of it that week, and quickly got sick of it when I couldn't see any real strategy to delve into. 

The game could be vastly-improved with ease: A two player version would be great, or if it went Canadian Football League rules and you only got three downs, or you could reposition your defensive players after the first shot, etc. None of that is going to happen though, and since I was almost immediately able to score a touchdown on every possession, but was never able to find a way to hold the computer to less than guaranteed field goals, the game got old for me in a hurry.

I have not mastered it though, since while my best scores are always around 64-25, the high scores are 64-0 or 64-3. There is a way to play perfect defense, even on the hardest difficulty level, but whatever it is, I've never discovered it. If anyone who knows a better way to play defense ever happens to read this, please let me know, just to satisfy my curiosity.

Updates are archived in chronological order, with the most recent added on the bottom. Scroll down to read the whole sorry saga in order.

November 7, 2003

Budweiser Flickball on ESPN is a fun little flash game to spend a few minutes on.  At least once you turn off the sound, since the announcer is just painfully annoying.  So are the voices of the AI players, but at least they only talk when you fail or they score.

The game is a simulation of table football, where you flick a folded bit of paper along and try to get it hanging off the edge, without falling over.  I used to play it with quarters (winner won the quarter) back in 6th grade, or against my dad, with a car key on a long, smooth wooden bureau in his bedroom.  We got 1 or 2 hits per turn, depending on the length of the table, and the opportunity for a field goal after the other person had 3 go off without a touchdown, which would reset it.  Field goals and extra points were usually just a smack that tried to go between the opponents hands, held about two thumbs apart.  The actual folding of paper footballs (triangles) and kicking it with a flick was too visible to get away with in school.  I also used to play it with my dad using coasters while waiting for our food at Chili's, and I even broke out the game with Malaya at Chili's last week, though we got sick of it pretty quickly.

The ESPN online version of the game has a bit different rules, in that you get four downs, and can kick a field goal at any time. The controls work a lot like a golf game, with a meter for power, and another for accuracy. You also get to place two defenders, and if you hit one your turn is over. The game goes 8 turns, and you play against 3 different difficulty level AI opponents. I don't notice much difference between 1 and 2, except that 1 will often kick field goals on 3rd down.  Both are about equally likely to hit right into one of your stationary defenders for no apparent reason, though they don't usually do so.

With a little practice it's relatively simple to start scoring 56 most games, which is the highest possible score. The challenge (such as it is) comes on defense, where you must try to line up your 2 defenders somewhere to at least inconvenience the computer when they try to score.  I had a couple of competitive games against the level 3 difficulty before I found a way to station my defenders (I'm not saying here since it would spoil any fun you guys might have in figuring it out for yourselves.) so that the computer, on any difficulty level, would usually have to settle for a field goal, with me getting an occasional stop.

What I'm wondering is how people are getting shutouts, since the highest scores are all 56-0, and if you view more of the top 100 they go down steadily, 56-3, 56-6, 56-7, etc, before a bunch of 49-0 scores.  It doesn't look like it's being cheated; the scores have a steady progression and lots of different initials.  I can almost imagine a shut out on easy: they'll hit into you sometimes and kick FGs the others, and if I got a lucky game they might kick 3 or 4 field goals and  miss all of them.  I've held easy to 6 points, so a shutout there is theoretically possible. But on hard, where they never miss FGs and virtually never hit into you?

My best effort thus far on hard was holding him to about 5 FGs and 1 TD, for 22 points.

So how in the hell is anyone getting zero? Are they cheating it somehow?  Have they found some AI bug where the computer can be tricked into hitting right at them?

I've looked around the web for some strategy or tips or tactics, but had no luck finding anything other than short mentions/links to the game.

I really don't know how it's being done, and half the reason I'm posting this is in hopes that someone who already knows will mail me to satisfy my curiosity, or else someone who reads this will go play some and find a trick to it.  If you know or if you try it, let me know how it goes and I'll update on this at some point, if I have more to say about it.

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