Red Zone (card game)

Red Zone is an out-of-print collectible card game by Donruss and NXT Games. It was first released in October 1995.[1] The game's base set consists of 336 cards sold in 80-card starter decks and 12-card booster packs.[1] An expansion called 1995 Expansion Teams was released in December 1995 and contained 98 cards and focused on the Carolina Panthers and the Jacksonville Jaguars.[1] In early 1996, Donruss sold its sports card and card-game properties to Pinnacle.[2][3] NXT Games also had to renegotiate their licenses for Red Zone and Top of the Order with the NFL and MLB, but new iterations of the game never materialized.[3]

Gameplay involved a player draft (not to be confused with the drafting format of CCGs) and chose one of eight offensive or defensive plays.[1] Each player would then draw a card and the color denoted on that card would determine the final result of the play.[1] The game was criticized for being "tedious and repetitive, and the actual players you used only rarely made a difference."[1] Once you had players with high ratings there was no reason to use players with lower ratings, except in your play deck.[1]