NFL Football Guide 1.00 By Andrew M. Evans aka AndrewM (AndrewM@NESHQ.com)

NFL Football Guide 1.00 By Andrew M. Evans aka AndrewM ([email protected])

Version 1.00 Released April 16, 2007

Looking for anything NES? Visit my hopefully-but-probably-not comprehensive NES
Site at www.neshq.com!

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= Table of Contents =
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Section 01 ----- Revision History
Section 02 ----- Disclaimer
Section 03 ----- Introduction
Section 04 ----- Game Selections
Section 05 ----- Teams
Section 06 ----- Team Ratings and Editing
Section 07 ----- Basic Controls
Section 08 ----- Offensive Formations
Section 09 ----- Offensive Plays
Section 10 ----- Offensive Strategy
Section 11 ----- Defensive Formations
Section 12 ----- Defensive Plays
Section 13 ----- Defensive Strategy
Section 14 ----- Special Teams
Section 15 ----- High Scores
Section 16 ----- Closing Notes

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= Section 01 - Revision History =
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04/16/2003 v1.00 Original FAQ

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= Section 02 - Disclaimer and Requisite Legal Junk =
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This FAQ is intended for private use and may not be reproduced on any sites or
in any publications without my prior consent, which I may or may not (I don't
see why I wouldn't) grant by having you e-mail me at [email protected]. If you
should fail to do so and I see my FAQ posted somewhere I shall be forced to
sue you into litigation Hell with my army of high-powered lawyers. Actually,
this whole bit is a bunch of ballyhoo. If you want to post or reproduce this
FAQ go right ahead and do so, just leave me my credit and the shameless
self-promotions for my NES Site, www.neshq.com (in case you have yet to see!).
Oh yea, and if you somehow get hurt using this FAQ I am in no way responsible
(is this even possible?). As a matter of fact, by even opening this file you
have officially absolved me of any responsibility in my entire life. Ok, well
it was worth a shot......

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= Section 03 - Introduction =
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And a good day to you sir! Welcome to my NFL Football FAQ. Just a little
background before we get to this business at hand. In case you've been ignoring
me up to this point (maybe not a bad decision on your part!) I'm Andy "AndrewM"
Evans and I run NES HQ (www.neshq.com). I'm writing this FAQ both to place on
NES HQ and as part of the ongoing NES FAQ Completion Project. If you've got some
spare time on your hands you should check it out and possibly even write an FAQ
for one of the many games that are FAQ-less.

But anyway, you probably aren't reading this FAQ to hear about me (unless you're
a creepy Internet stalker, and if you are I'd have to say that I think there has
to be a better way of getting information on them than reading FAQs they've
written). I came across this game on the aforementioned NES FAQ Completion
Project and decided that I'd check it out. As a huge football fan I figured,
before even playing the game, that I'd write an FAQ for it. After all, how bad
can a football game be? The answer to that question is actually quite simple:
VERY BAD.

NES Football is one of the few NFL-licensed NES football games and so I expected
something decent, or at least passable for the times. Boy was I disappointed.
NFL Football is one of those games that just seems like the programmers missed
the crucial aspects of the game. In my experience a sports game can be very
enjoyable even if lacking in sophistication, realism, or both so long as the
game is fun to play. NFL Football lacks sophistication as the players are
unnamed, there's no season mode, no stats, etc. It lacks realism because the
mechanics of aspects of the game are just off. Passing, which will be covered
later in this FAQ, is a major problem.

The game had a couple innovative features, but the way in which they were
programmed resulted in them not working nearly as well as they could have
worked.

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= Section 04 - Game Selection =
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At the main screen you are greeted with several options:
1 Player Game - 1 human vs the computer opponent
2 Player Game - 1 human vs the computer opponent
1 Player With Handicap - 1 human vs the computer opponent
2 Player With Handicap - 1 human vs the computer opponent

The Handicap basically means that you get one team upgrade for free. This will
be explained in more detail in Section 6.

At the Game Select screen you are again greeted with several options:
AFC Game - Both teams must be AFC teams
NFC Game - Both teams must be NFC teams
Interconference - One team must be from the NFC and one from the AFC
Super Bowl - Seems to be the same as Interconference.

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= Section 05 - Teams =
================================================================================
NFL Football is nice because as an officially licensed NFL product you actually
get to select from real NFL teams. So even if the gameplay is crap and the game
itself isn't much fun you're at least motivated to play well since it's your
team out there. Teams in NFL Football are as follows:

NFC Teams:
49ers
Bears
Buccaneers
Cardinals
Cowboys
Eagles
Falcons
Giants
Lions
Packers
Rams
Redskins
Saints
Vikings

AFC Teams:
Bengals
Bills
Broncos
Browns
Chargers
Chiefs
Colts
Dolphins
Jets
Oilers
Patriots
Raiders
Seahawks
Steelers

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= Section 06 - Team Ratings =
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One of the more innovative features of NFL Football is the ability to upgrade
and, to some degree, customize your team. Unfortunately this reveals another
problem with NFL Football, which is that all teams are given the same starting
attributes. You have the option to choose one of six team packages. All of the
packages end up equaling out, so choose your team package carefully. I
recommend using this to play to your own strengths as much as possible - if
you've mastered passing then choose a team with a good QB and WRs. Likewise,
if you've totally shunned the passing game you'll want to select a team package
with a strong RB. Team packages are as follows:

| Q | R | W | T | O | D | L | D | S | |
Team Package | B | B | R | E | L | L | B | B | T | K |
------------------------------------------------------
Package #1 | A | B | A | B | C | C | C | C | C | B |
------------------------------------------------------
Package #2 | C | B | B | C | A | B | C | A | B | C |
------------------------------------------------------
Package #3 | B | A | C | C | B | A | C | B | C | B |
------------------------------------------------------
Package #4 | B | B | C | C | C | A | A | C | B | B |
------------------------------------------------------
Package #5 | B | C | B | A | C | B | B | C | C | A |
------------------------------------------------------
Package #6 | A | C | C | B | C | C | B | B | A | C |

The choice for which package to use seems obvious, at least to me. Package A
looks to be the best package since the big three (QB, RB, WR) all have either
an A or B. This is the only package where the QB, RB, WR, and TE ratings all
have either an A or a B rating and only one of two packages that doesn't have
at least two Cs in the offense.

A couple other important notes on this... I have found the ratings to mostly
affect speed, and the C rating of the offensive line in package 1 doesn't seem
to have any real affect on their ability to block, so I highly recommend not
basing any package selections or upgrade choices on the offensive line.
Additionally I've found most defense on the game to very difficult, whether
you're playing pass coverage or trying to sack the QB. As a result of this I
strongly recommend pouring all points into the offense, specifically the QB, RB,
and WR.

After selecting a team and selecting a package you will be given the option of
upgrading your team. This is a double-edged sword, however, as upgrading your
team increases your team's chances of fumbling or incurring a penalty. Using a
non-upgraded team you won't fumble at all and can possibly incur two penalties.
Each upgrade raises these limits by 3 penalties and 2 fumbles so that a team
with one upgrade can incur a max of 5 penalties and 2 fumbles. A fully upgraded
team (2 upgrades) can incur a max of 8 penalties and 4 fumbles.

So with that in mind is upgrading worth it? I would always say yes, as that
extra speed boost on offense will pay back in spades.

With those technicalities out of the way upgrading is very simple. You may:
Upgrade two C players to B players or
Upgrade one B player to an A player.

Do note that upgrading from a B to an A player counts as two upgrades and does
incur the two upgade penalty.

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= Section 07 - Basic Controls =
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The controls for NFL Football are much harder than they should be, one of the
reasons this game is so poor in my eyes. Oh, and the manual doesn't really
explain what does what very well either. Good thing I'm here to help you out or
you might not play this game and actually go do something productive.

Play Selection - Play selection is one of the trickier aspects of the game.
In order to select a play you have to use the D pad + B and then use the D pad +
A. This gives you a total possibility of 16 plays on offense and 16 on defense.
On offense this is tricky enough (since the manual doesn't tell what button
combinations do what), but on defense this is even tougher since you have to get
your play in before the offense calls theirs. Note that not calling a play on
defense (or not getting yours punched in on time) results in you going to a 3-4.
Offensive and defensive formations and plays will be described in their
respective sections.

Offense - Another horribly programmed aspect of this game is the offensive
controls. After selecting a play press A to hike the ball. From here you can
either run the ball with your QB or press B to bring up the passing options.
When you do press B the passing options come up and the game goes into slow
motion while you select a target and pass. Each target shows a direction over
his head. To pass press that direction on the D pad and the A button at the
same time. To get out of the slow motion screen you can press B again and the
game will return to normal speed.

Defense - Defensive controls are pretty simple - use A to dive and when
defending a pass in the close-up screen use B to jump.

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= Section 08 - Offensive Formations =
================================================================================
NFL football has five offensive formations, which actually aren't bad
considering the time at which this game was created. Below are the five
formations and a rough diagram of what they look like:

I:
x x x x x x x
x x

x
x

T:
x x x x x x x
x x

x
x

Shotgun:
x x x x x x x
x

x x x

2 TE:
x x x x x x x
x x x

x

Pro Set:
x x x x x x x
x x

x x

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= Section 09 - Offensive Plays =
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I wanted to list the formations before the plays section. What follows below
is a list of the offensive plays that can be run, the formation that they're run
in, and the key combination used to call that play. Note that the key
combinations have U, D, L and R which are directional pad up, down, left and
right. I tried to name the plays as best I could, but the combination of this
game's age and poor programming make naming actual plays difficult. So something
that is possibly supposed to be a screen ends up getting called 'short pass'
instead.

Key Combination | Formation | Play
----------------|-----------|--------------------
BU+AU | I Form. | Pitch Left
BU+AR | I Form. | Short Pass
BU+AD | I Form. | FB Lead Sweep Right
BU+AL | I Form. | Pitch Left
BR+AU | T Form. | Sweep Right
BR+AR | Shotgun | Deep Pass
BR+AD | Shotgun | Shotgun Run
BR+AL | Shotgun | Short Pass
BD+AU | 2 TE | Short Pass
BD+AR | Pro Set | Short Pass
BD+AD | 2 TE | Run Left
BD+AL | 2 TE | Medium Pass
BL+AU | Pro Set | Medium Pass (?)
BL+AR | T Form. | Draw
BL+AD | Pro Set | Pitch Right
BL+AL | Pro Set | Run Left

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= Section 10 - Offensive Strategy =
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"Thou shall not punt'" In the absence of a real, true offensive strategy for
this game you should always keep this creed in mind. Real men don't punt in
football games, and I expect no less from you. Even if you wanted to I'm not
quite sure how to punt anyway.

But seriously, there isn't a real great strategy to winning this game - it's not
Madden 07 so you don't have to switch up plays to keep the defense honest or try
to trick the defense by calling an audible. The best recommendation I can give
in regards to offense is to find a couple plays that work well for you and stick
to them. I'm not sure if it's just me or if it's the game (although I'm leaning
towards the game), but I've found that the plays are more or less an even split
between being effective and being complete junk. That being said, it's entirely
possible that the plays I run well other people can't run so well. So yeah, the
whole point of this convoluted paragraph is to say that you should find the few
plays that work well for you and stick to them. Don't run a crappy play in order
to keep the defense honest.

I'll start you out by giving a few plays that I've personally found to be the
best. The [BU+AU] Pitch Left to be the best outside running play. The Deep
Shotgun Pass is, in my opinion, the best passing play in the game. I've also
found the Draw to be the one play that always gains yardage.

One other note in here about passing: passing is horribly implemented in this
game. The game goes to slow motion when you go to pass, which isn't such a bad
idea. However, the game stays in slow motion DURING the pass, and as a result
of the way this is programmed, the defense always closes more yardage than it
should while the ball is in flight. Because of this you should always try to
limit passes to receivers who are VERY open and always avoid throwing across the
field.

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= Section 11 - Defensive Formations =
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As with the offensive formations, NFL Football surprised me by offering a
variety of defensive formations. Even more surprising was that they offered a
number of different plays within those formations. There are seven defensive
formations, three of which are special teams formations. These formations are
listed below:

3-4:
x x x x x
x x x
x x

x

3-4 Off-center:
x x x x x
x x x
x x

x

4-3:
x x x x x x
x
x x
x x

4-2:
x x x x
x x x x x

x x

Punt Block:
x x x x x x x x x x

x

Punt Return:
x x x x x x x x

x x

x

Kick Block:
x x x x x x
x x x x

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= Section 12 - Defensive Plays =
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Below are a list of the 16 defensive plays that can be called. Like the
offensive plays, U, D, L, and R represent up, down, left, and right
(respectively) on the D pad, so that BU+AR would represent pressing B and Up and
then pressing A and Right.

Key Combination | Formation | Play
----------------|-----------|--------------------
BU+AU | 3-4 | Attack Right
BU+AR | 4-3 | Blitz
BU+AD | 3-4R | Standard*
BU+AL | 4-2 | LB Attack Left
BR+AU | 3-4 | Standard*
BR+AR | PB | Punt Block
BR+AD | PR | Punt Return
BR+AL | PR | Punt Return
BD+AU | KB | Kick Block
BD+AR | 4-2 | Blitz
BD+AD | 3-4 | Man Coverage
BD+AL | 3-4R | Zone
BL+AU | 4-3 | Zone
BL+AR | 3-4 | Blitz
BL+AD | KB | Kick Block
BL+AL | 4-2 | Run Stop

* I used the term standard for this. In these two plays two of the LBs attack
the backfield and two drop back into coverage.

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= Section 13 - Defensive Strategy =
================================================================================
I consider defensive strategy to be fairly easy to cover for NFL Football since
it's such a simple game to begin with. With that in mind there are two main
components of defensive strategy in NFL Football: formation/playcalling and
player usage.

Formation/Playcalling should be pretty straightforward. You obviously want to
call plays and formations that seem like a good defense two what the offense is
going to run (duh). In 2nd and long you don't want to call the kick block.
Likewise, on third and 1 you don't want to call the 4-2. My rule of thumb is to
call a 4-2 on any down where the offense has over five yards to go. The reason
being is that the extra defensive back helps with pass coverage. Other good
plays to run for pass coverage are the 3-4 standard (6 people covering the
pass), the 3-4R Zone, the 4-3 Zone and possible even the 3-4 Man Coverage. Run
stoppage should be done by using anything but the 4-2 formation or anything
with a zone.

Player usage should be dictated by who you're most effective with. I, for
instance, have found it nearly impossible to sack the QB while playing defense,
so I favor dropping into short pass/run coverage with a linebacker. On the
whole I recommend using a formation based on the criteria above and then
using one of the blitzing linebackers for short coverage and run defense.

One last note on defense that may seem obvious but bears repeating regardless
is that if you've upgraded your defense use the formation that puts the best
players on the field. If you've got A linebackers and C DBs and DLs then use
the 3-4 for pretty much everything. This may seem minor, but each of the
formations has plays for run defense, pass defense, and standard defense. Be
sure that you use the formation that maximizes your good players and it will
give you that much more of a competitive edge. However, it should also be said
that if you're really that busy looking for a competitive edge in NFL Football
it's time for you to seek some new hobbies.

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= Section 14 - Special Temas =
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Special teams in NFL Football are really nothing special. HAH, what a great pun!
Ok, maybe not so much... Really though, special teams are pretty basic.

Kicking Off - Your kicker will run to the ball, whereupon you have to decide to
go for a long kick (A) or an onsides kick (B). You can also use up or down on
the directional pad to give your kick a little more accuracy.

Receiving Kicks - There's no great strategy for this like there are on other
football games. Be sure you start running to the ball immediately since the
game won't automatically catch the ball for you.

Extra Points - Kick the ball early to avoid getting your kick blocked.
Seriously, it's much easier than it should be to get a kick blocked.

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= Section 15 - High Scores =
================================================================================
I always try to include a high score section in my FAQs. If anyone has a high
score e-mail it in to me and I'll update the FAQ accordingly.

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= Section 16 - Closing Notes =
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Wow, this FAQ topped out at over 500 lines. Scary. Well, apparently I have too
much free time on my hands, despite my own claims to the contrary. This section
is really for the usual stuff, so:

Please don't steal my work. I wasted more of my life on this FAQ than I'd have
cared to, so if you'd like to post this FAQ anywhere or use any part of it feel
free to do so, but shoot me an e-mail and leave the FAQ 100% INTACT AND
ORIGINAL. Those are my only stipulations.

Last but not least - don't hesitate to visit NES HQ at http://www.neshq.com,
which has a wealth of NES-related information on it.