NES Play Action Football (NES) Playthrough
121A playthrough of Nintendo's 1990 license-based football game for the NES, NES Play Action Football.
In this video, I play through the "Power Bowl" playoffs as San Francisco.
Though Nintendo never made one themselves, NES Play Action Football was the second football game the company published for the NES. The first, Tose's adaptation of Irem's 10 Yard Fight (https://youtu.be/f9JhCp3X8II), set a new standard for football video games when it launched alongside the NES in 1985, and while NES Play Action Football doesn’t quite manage to repeat that success, it is one of the better representations of the sport to be found on the console.
NES Play Action Football, also developed by Tose, was a huge step forward from the comparatively primitive 10 Yard Fight in terms of its presentation and the sophistication of its gameplay mechanics. It features eight teams, each identified by city owing to the lack of an NFL license, but the game does carry an NFLPA license, so players are referred to by name and have stats that reflect the 1989 season.
The action is slower and more deliberate than you'll find in Tecmo's games - NESPAF leans into simulation more than it does arcade-style action - but the sizable playbook, substitution options, the 4-player gameplay, and novel presentation make for an appealing proposition. Several animated cutscenes and digitized voice clips are used to give the game an entertaining TV-style presentation, and the clever use of an isometric perspective allows the game to cleanly display all twenty-two players onscreen at once with very little of the NES's usual flicker or slowdown.
Tecmo Super Bowl (https://youtu.be/IyHhFg3wod4) surpassed in it most ways when it came out the following year, but NES Play Action Football is still a great pick for anyone who's looking for a more methodically paced experience, or for an 8-bit football cart that can be played with three friends.
(It's also one of the few games to feature Nester, the doofy Nintendo Power kid! Does anyone know if he was ever referenced in any other NES games besides this and To The Earth?)
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