Kotaku.com has confirmed that the greatest athlete ever is returning to video games via the Ultimate Team roster in EA Sports’ NCAA 14.
“He was kind of a late addition for NCAA,” Ultimate Team producer Tom Lischke told Kotaku. “We had been trying to get Bo into Ultimate Team for years now. We thought we had him last year, but he decided at the last second he wasn’t interested.
“We’ve been chasing him for a long time. He’s such an awesome video game icon. He is The Video Game Running Back.”
(His video game character even has his own shoe.)
TWER touched on the possibility of Bo’s digital resurrection a few weeks back, just putting it out there to the universe in our interview with The Gaming Tailgate experts about another Auburn Heisman-winner’s inclusion in EA Sports’ NCAA 14.
While he technically won’t be on Auburn’s roster when you unwrap the game, player’s will be able to use the Tigers — uniform, stadium and all — in the Ultimate Team mode, pulling together a team of legends from schools across the country, including Auburn.
And—finally—including Bo.
Sorry, Barry Sanders.
From Kotaku:
Once signed, though, Jackson presented a different problem to the team: How to properly rate such a gifted performer—and someone who brings back such fond memories—without breaking the game.
“Bo has impacted other ratings decisions,” Lischke said. “Once we signed him, having him made us adjust other guys down.”
Such as? Lischke didn’t dodge the question.
“In this case it was really Barry Sanders,” Lischke said, Oklahoma State’s Heisman winner who appeared on last year’s NCAA cover and graces this year’s boxshot for Madden. “Barry was always the ultimate back in our game. But [he and Jackson] have always played differently, and that was a big part of our effort, to make them all play different. Once we added Bo to the mix, we had to make some adjustments. We had to leave room for them to feel different.”
Jackson’s default card is rated for his freshman season at Auburn. But if you can find it, or want to buy it, there exists a 99-rated card—@SportsBizMiss says EA calls it “Epic Bo”—programmed to deliver the same Heisman-winning OMGs that Real Bo delivered during 1985. You can find his individual category rankings here.
“I don’t know that there’s been another player who occupies the same mind space in the video game industry,” Lischke said. “I got excited when we added in Joe Montana for Madden Ultimate Team last year. I spent a lot of time making sure we got him right. For my generation, as video games came of age, and video game football came of age, he was all that anybody ever talked about. And even Montana didn’t have that moment.
“Maybe Michael Vick did. But Bo’s a whole other deal.”
You can read more about what went into bringing Bo back to bits here.
h/t @thejuiceisgood
Related: Tecmo Bo vs. the Mushroom Kingdom.
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[…] Sports announced this week a late addition to its soon-to-be-released NCAA Football edition, confirming the presence of former Auburn great Bo […]