Game Statistics

• Five game modes.
• Four difficulty levels.
• Eight teams.
• NFL Player's Association license.
• Compatible with the NES Four Score and the NES Satellite.

Game Design
NES Play Action Football is similar to most other football games in terms of game design. Each play you pick an offensive or defensive play and your opponent does too. If you have possession of the ball you have four chances to move the ten ball yards. If you are defending, you must stop the opposition from moving the ball. That is NFL Football.

What separates NES Play Action Football from other Football games is that it attempts to be a simulation as well as an arcade game at the same time. Each team has several executable offensive and defensive plays. To be successful, one must be able to understand and correctly follow their team's playbook. Several football games handout penalties and the like, but in NES Play Action Football there are no stoppages for penalties you just play. This keeps the game moving and there is little time taken between plays.

One must also credit IRD for attempting to eliminate the cheapness in this game. Several football games simply allow you to use the same play over and over again to win. In this game, you will run into some problems if you do so. If the same offensive play is repeatedly used, the computer will select a defensive play to counter that play. This could lead to a sack or even a turnover. Also, if you use one player too much he will get fatigued and you will have to take him out of the game. However, not all cheapness can be eliminated from a game. If you are playing against a friend who has little experience with the game, it is really easy to be cheap.

While NES Play Action Football does have its shortcomings, it is one of the best Football games on the NES.

Graphics
This game has simplistic graphics. There are several players on the field and all the separates them is their team colours. Character animation is rather simple. There are basically two running frames and other basic animations for catching, passing, diving and setting up at the line of scrimmage. While the graphics may not be impressive during game play, there are several cut sequences (for touchdowns, turnovers, field goals and interceptions) that are very impressive. This game runs at an impressive framerate considering the amount of characters that are sometimes on screen.

Sound
This game has good music and rather unimpressive sound effects. The music is catchy and puts you into the football mood. The audio clips for the cuts scenes are especially excellent. Certain aspects of this game's sound effects bother me. While all of the objects sound effects are what you would expect from an NES game, the voice clips this game has leaves something to be desired. During certain point in a game the referee will say things. They sound just terrible. The most notable bad voice clips are for the words "touchdown" and "first down." Touchdown sounds more like "touch-en" and first down sound more like "buzz-en." Not good.

Control
This game's control style is more complicated then it needs to be. The camera angle in this game is an overhead view at a 45° to the field. This means that to make your player run forward, you must press UP + RIGHT on the control pad. This makes the game rather difficult to control at the start. Selecting plays is very simple, if fact you do not even need to look at the instruction manual to select plays in this game. When you first play this game, the controls are difficult to handle, but after a while, you will have not problem with the game's controls.

Satisfaction
Sports game fans will like this game; it is an entertaining football game. The game does have a NFL Player's Association license but not an NFL team license. You can play as the best players from 1990 but on made up teams. It feels strange. There are 4 difficulty levels to choose from which helps keep even the best gamers entertained. The 4-player mode adds a nice multiplayer touch.

Replay Value/Game Length
This game will keep you entertained for a while. There is no season mode, but there is a rather challenging playoff mode that has a password feature. It is always fun to come back to this game a play an exhibition game or two every once and a while..

Overall
One of the best football games on the NES is NES Play Action Football, it is fun and it is entertaining. The casual gamer may want to check this game out.

Review by Player Guy Forever

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