"five 'bots tangling with pasta"
I think of pasta as meatballs and spaghetti. I think a great game would involve the human players having balls (like 2000)
and the spaghetti being a new game object similar to a pool noodle. The pool noodles would be randomly placed around the field.
"a game piece obsessed with a shovel's show"
I think this refers to the balls that the human player will have. A shovel's show is that you can throw objects with it.
The human player will be throwing the balls at a scoring goal.
"and seeing Montana's green heights"
I liked how it was suggested that Joe Montana played for Notre Dame. Take a look at this picture of
Notre Dame Cathedral. I think the main scoring goal will look similar to Notre Dame Cathedral. I wouldn't be suprised if we saw a hanging bar this year.
This game sounds very similar to 2000, just add pool noodles.