You take a look at this game and see the NFL logo and you get excited, especially back in 1989. You mean I can be the Bears? I can be the Patriots? All 28 NFL teams? A dream come true!
But then you see another logo, the LJN rainbow and you get this sinking feeling. Trepidations that will turn out to be well-founded.
In all honesty, this could have been a real cool game with a little more polish. It's terrific how the teams wear their proper colored uniforms and with no players you can really use your imagination.
But the gameplay is surprisingly brutal. It's very slow and sluggish and even if you have a great quarterback he can throw about ten yards or so. You can tell that Walter Payton retired by the time this game released because you can forget about any running game.
Even worse is if you don't have the manual you won't be able to tell what play you just called! It doesn't show you any play art, just an NES controller that lights up when you press a combination of buttons.
It's really too bad because this game has a lot of potential but it just feels extremely rushed and undercooked.