Game on

By chris jackson with help from wildcat football beat reporter dan rosen Catalyst

Send comments to: catalyst@wildcat.arizona.edu

Nicholas Valenzuela Arizona Daily Wildcat UA football players junior wide receiver Dennis Northcutt (left) and sophomore quarterback Ortege Jenkins play GameBreaker Ô99 on the Sony PlayStation at their house Dec. 1. Jenkins celebrates after he had beat his teammate and roommate, Northcutt, in a close overtime victory. Northcutt had the opportunity to play and beat both Daily Wildcat Co-Sports Editor Chris Jackson and Reporter Dan Rosen in GameBreaker Ô99.

Dennis Northcutt kicked my butt the other night.

No, it wasn't because of something I wrote about him this year. And it certainly wasn't out on the gridiron.

Nope, it was on "NCAA Game Breaker 99," a new college football game for Sony PlayStation the catalyst staff gave me.

My only instructions upon receiving the game from the catalyst folks was to have an Arizona football player review it. Who better to evaluate the game, which aims to simulate play in various NCAA matchups, than our very own Wildcats?

The first player I found was junior quarterback Keith Smith, but since he wasn't "a video game addict" he passed it on to junior wide receiver Northcutt and his roommate, sophomore quarterback Ortege Jenkins.

So I grabbed Northcutt one day in McKale Center and asked him if it would be cool for myself and my ambivalent football-writing sidekick, Wildcat football beat reporter Dan Rosen, to come over and play he and OJ.

He said sure, and after rounding up photog Nick Valenzuela, we headed way the heck up Campbell to a really, really nice little condo off Skyline Drive. When we finally arrived, the dynamic duo were already locked in a PlayStation battle.

OJ passed the controller to Dan up only 6-0 as the 1997 Tennessee Volunteers (the Peyton Manning team) against Northcutt's 1979 Marcus Allen-led USC Trojans.

Here's Dan's take on what proceeded to happen:

"On the actual gridiron Deno would run circles around me, and I kind of expected that to happen with a controller in his hand. But, after learning how to play the game Northcutt felt the pain, as I told him. He was damn good but it turned out that he just played defense at the end of a game as well as UCLA did Saturday."

Dan ended up beating Dennis 31-30 on a last second 40-yard touchdown that Dan is sure Dennis would probably deny having ever happened.

"No!" Dennis yelled, jumping off the couch. "Man, no way! No way he caught that ball!"

Then it was my turn. Note to anyone and everyone: never play a UA football player in a video game right after he was just beaten in that manner.

Dennis took care of me, rather quickly and painfully, Dan took the controller again and proceeded to throw five interceptions on five possessions. He was Florida State 1993 lead by Charlie Ward and Dennis was Washington's 1991 team.

After rolling over the journalists, the real football players took the controllers in a battle of the best.

OJ played with Tennessee 1997 again while Dennis took the '91 Huskies once again.

In a battle that kept everyone in the room on the edge of their seats, OJ pulled out a thriller in overtime by kicking a field goal to defeat his receiver 17-14.

For the game, both football guys agreed it was a fun game to play, with a good mix of plays, easy to understand controls, plenty of teams to choose from and, if they really wanted to, they could even play as themselves.

I did play as Dennis and OJ on the game, and all I can say is, thank the lord they don't have me controlling their moves in real life.

Wildcat sports reporter Chris Jackson's New Year's Resolution is to live to see May 21 when the new "Star Wars" movie comes out, since that's all that's worth living for. Well, that, and his 21st birthday.

Based on the fact that Jackson has lived nearly 21 years, and managed to see all of the other movies in the "Star Wars" movies, and shows no signs of ill health, Catalyst predicts 100 percent.