Well, its a top-down B&W football game, but it can be fun.
Predating Madden's football (i tihnk) this is actually kind of fun. You control some incredibly slow-moving football players of the white-shirted variety, facing off against some black-shirts. absolutely no racial undertones here. *scoff* Anywho, there's the standard "hit the middle of this meter for kick power and accuracy" type kick-control, still used today. The players appear as little circles with funny wing-like protrusions (shoulderpads), as you'll be seeing them from above. There are 6-8 teams to choose from, and 3-4 different modes in which to thrash the PC or a linked friend. Tournament and single game provide the meat. Tournament offers a ladder-style bracket, and you will face off against the various other teams after selecting the one you'd like to lead to victory. When in the huddle (at least i assume the guys huddle; it doesn't really show), you have 8 plays to choose from. in some crazy play-selecting madness that'll undoubtedly screw with you for a while, the play selection is mapped to the d-pad. Basically, you have 4 plays displayed. if you want the 5-2 defense, you hit up. if you want the 3-4, you hit down. It can take a bit to get used to. To cycle to the team's other 4 plays, just press A. on offense the selections are usually a punt, Field Goal try, and 2 standard plays on the 2nd page. The teams all seem to have different combinations of an 12-or-so play playbook.
plays include:
Short, medium, and long passes (more later)
Shovel-pass type thing
Dive (more later)
Sweep
off-tackle (or some other run)
Field Goal
Punt
Lead Option (still haven't figured this out)
and some i may have forgotten.
the pasing system took me a while to get down solid; once you do, though, you'll be pretty much unstoppable. Just hit A to snap the ball, then (if i recall correctly) push the D-Pad in the direction you want to throw and hit A again.
however, you actually can go through the entirety of a tournament mode without passing, or, heck, even running a play aside from dive.
You see, if you press the B button to cause your controlled player to Dive, he'll pretty much just magically go throuh the rest of the players as all time stops around him (he'll be the only one moving.) In this manner, you can pass through Defensive linemen like semi-annoying 300-lb cobwebs for 3-4 yard gains every play. do the math: 3 yards a play by 4 downs is 12 yards: you'll almost always make it. I literally have done an entire tournament doing nothing but that single play. :D.
tackling is questionable: you pretty much have to dive at someone to stop them, and for some unknown reasons the ball carrier runs at about 75% of everyone else's speed, no matter what. by rapidly pressing the A button you make him run slightly faster, but its almost negligible when the other guys can catch you in 5-10 yards anyway. Basically, everyone is Really Slow. Its like the ball weighs 60-70 lbs. and everyone has ankle weights.
upon scoring, an two-frame animation (heck, its basically a GIF) of either your place-kicker swinging his leg, a Wide Receiver catching a ball, or a guy pumping his fist in the air, along with some crappy flashing TOUCHDOWN lights. the scoreboard will then be displayed.
I have no idea as to why, but this is the only color in the game if you play it on a GBC/GBA/SP/Micro. and its in three or so colors: green, blue-ish, and orange-ish. yeah. mostly green.
In the end, its still a pretty fun old-skool Footbal title, but it is rather terribly easy once you know how to pwn, the graphics are pretty bad by comparison, and in general everyone moves like Bush trying to escape the sticky, waist-deep aftermath of the Iraq war- slowly, awkwardly, and with little annoying beeping sounds every time they take another step.
o.k., bad analogy. oh well.