John Elway's Quarterback NES Review - Average port of a good arcade title

John Elway's Quarterback is a fair football game.

You can choose teams from several NFL cities, but when they get out on the field, one team is always red and one team is always blue. There's no real NFL team names, logos, or players, either.

There is no type of season mode--you just play one game versus the CPU or another player.

The game hinges entirely on passing, as there is no running game to speak of (unless you count QB scrambles). The passing control is pretty unique, though. After you snap the ball, you press and hold the pass button to bring up a passing cursor, which you move over the player you want to throw to and release to pass the ball.

It's a little too easy, though. Passes are almost always complete, and the only way to stop the offense is to get a random interception.

This game is nothing spectacular. It can be mildly entertaining if you have a friend to play against, but it doesn't touch the Tecmo games. One thing of note--there is an option to reverse the plays on the play calling menu, but there is a glitch in the game, so when you push the reverse button, it's like you called your play, and if you complete a pass, your guy moves incredibly fast, and there's no way to catch him!

-Pricetag