Venture: A Game Odyssey

Our impressions of a game we've never played before.

I know absolutely nothing about football, to the extent that before playing a game entitled “10 Yard Fight”, I had no idea it was about the sport. Now, I have nothing against football. However, I do have something against most sports games (one exception being “Ice Hockey” for the NES, and a couple of others.) So when I found out that “10 Yard Fight” was a sports game, I was skeptical.

The few sports games I like combine very simple gameplay with even simpler controls, so I was interested to see if “10 Yard Fight” could get the classic sports formula right. And for the most part, it does. It has a nice, clean, top-down perspective that scrolls along with the play.

The controls are simplistic, using only 1 button to pass on the offense while the same button tackles on defense. After playing a few games, I have come to the conclusion that it achieves exactly what I want from a classic video game rendition of football: it's simple, sometimes even to an extent of stripping down an otherwise complicated sport.

I was expecting a good port of a 1984 arcade game that I admittedly haven’t played since I was too young to understand it. But I do remember shaking off tackles, which I was greatly looking forward to; albeit with concern that the directional pad of the NES pad would pale in comparison to the coin-op’s joystick.

I discovered I was right on the NES pad issue, wiggling the pad is much tougher than a stick and sometimes the players didn’t quite move in my intended direction. This game was clearly designed around a joystick, but besides the interface, the game seems pretty close to the original.

I appreciate the simplicity of early sports games. You do not select plays, you just pick the point from where your receiver runs up the field and choose to either pass or run. Interceptions occur from time to time if opposing team members are in the path of the throw.

The defense picks a player to control before the ball is hiked then tries to cover the receiver or go for a sack. Defensive players can also perform a leaping tackle, but if you miss it takes a second to recover. Other than kicking field goals, which is a timing challenge, this description covers the entire game.

10-Yard Fight is super slow, slow enough to turn most players off completely. The game moves at a snail’s pace. However, if you have an affinity for classic games or never cared for modern sports games like Madden, it’s good for an hour or so of Rah Rah Sis Boom Bah!

-matthew taylor

-blake leftwich