Subsequent updates haven't improved the defense dramatically. But at least now, you can call running and kicking plays in X's & O's Football, adding a little variation to the gameplay. You can only kick extra points--field goals are for the weak-willed in the world of X's & O's--and the running plays won't gain many yards, but I find it a more enjoyable simulation with these options.

Skyworks makes a lot of football games, including , which I recently revisited. But there's more to life than just tossing the old pigskin around--there's also kicking and running. To that end, Skyworks offers , a kicking game, and , where you're attempting to avoid enemy tacklers who'd like nothing better than to lay you out with a crippling injury.

(Image Caption: The Lonely Kicker: In Field Goal Frenzy's Classic mode, you've got to successfully split the uprights from different distances and angles. But make sure to pay attention to the wind.)

Of these two games, Field Goal Frenzy is the more enjoyable offering, though it has plenty of shortcomings. You're a lonely placekicker who's either got to split the uprights from different angles in a set amount of time (in the game's Arcade mode) or from ever-increasing distances with only a set number of misses (in Classic mode). It sounds easy, until you have to account for the wind, which can blow in different directions and at different strengths from attempt to attempt. I was not very good at judging the wind, which severely impacted my enjoyment of the game. Sometimes, I would forget to take the wind into account and watch helplessly as the football was carried away from the upright by what were apparently hurricane-strength gusts. Other times, I'd over-compensate for the wind and shank my ball wildly. It's all very frustrating. More to the point, despite its name, Field Goal Frenzy doesn't feel very frenzied. Even with the 45-second clock in Arcade mode, there's only so many kicks you can attempt. Even if I ever master the wind, my score can only go so high.

(Image Caption: Run for Your Life: In Speedback, you've got to elude tacklers on your way to the end zone, but it's hard to do with such tiny controls.)