Touch Down Fever Guide 1.00 By Andrew M. Evans aka AndrewM (AndrewM@NESHQ.com) Version 1.00 Released March 24, 2007 Looking for anything NES? Visit my hopefully-but-probably-not comprehensive NES Site at www.neshq.com! --== Table of Contents ==-- Section 01 ----- Revision History Section 02 ----- Disclaimer Section 03 ----- Introduction Section 04 ----- Teams, Colors, Mascots, and Lawyers Section 05 ----- Basic Controls Section 06 ----- Offense Section 07 ----- Defense Section 08 ----- Special Teams Section 09 ----- Inconsistencies Section 10 ----- High Scores Section 11 ----- Closing Notes --== Section 01 - Revision History ==-- 03/24/2003 v1.00 Original FAQ --== Section 02 - Disclaimer and Requisite Legal Junk ==-- 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 AndrewM@Neshq.com. 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...... --== Section 03 - Introduction ==-- Are you ready for some football? If so then go outside and swat at a basketball with hockey sticks - doing so will provide you with a much more in-depth and realistic football experience than playing Touch Down Fever. This game could be adequately summarized in one word: feces. So why did I write an FAQ for it? Well as much as I'd like to claim some sort of debilitating brain disease as the culprit I have to admit that I was itching to write an FAQ since it's been a while since my last one (the urge to write NES FAQs could be classified as a debilitating brain disease in itself) and I wanted to write an FAQ to help out the NES FAQ completion project. I stumbled upon this game and I must say it's horrendous, and this is coming from the same man who wrote a John Elway's Quarterback FAQ. There are a number of contributing factors to Touch Down Fever's crapitude rating being off the charts, but the major thing that gets me is that this this waste of time was programmed by SNK, the same people who made both Baseball Stars (one of the best baseball games ever, and very advanced for its time) as well as Lee Trevino's Fighting Golf (a solid golf game). How they botched this so badly is a bit puzzling to me and I have to defer to my friend Zach's explanation which involved Tom Selleck in Mr. Baseball and how the Japanese are much more familiar with baseball than American football. What else makes it so rotten? I'll cover inconsistencies (mostly inconsistencies with the actual rules of football) later, but the game suffers from bad controls, no differentiation among teams, no real plays, and bad gameplay to name a few. --== Section 04 - Teams, Colors, Mascots, and Lawyers ==-- One of the few bright spots of this game was that the programmers took the time to place the teams from cities that actually have NFL teams. Of course the colors and mascots are off, which brings me to the lawyers part. I think that the NFL lawyers might have laid the proverbial smack down on the jokers at SNK and prevented them from using actual team names and some mascots because some of the colors and mascots are just plain goofy, as evidenced by the multiple teams sporting pink uniforms. What follows is a list of every team, their colors, and their mascot. Note that the mascot is very crucial here since it's the center of the half time show! East: Chicago - Pink uniforms. Mascot is a bear. Detroit - Light blue uniforms. Mascot is a lion. Miami - Blue uniforms. Mascot is a dolphin. New York - Light blue uniforms. Mascot is a robot that looks a lot like R2D2. Philadelphia - Purple uniforms. Mascot is a bird with a huge beak (toucan?). Pittsburgh - Grey uniforms. Mascot is a tiger. West: Dallas - Red uniforms. Mascot is a cow. Denver - Pink uniforms. Mascot is a blue horse. Los Angeles - White and black uniforms. Mascot is a dog. Phoenix - Green uniforms. Mascot is a yellow frog. San Francisco - Orange uniforms. Mascot is a gorilla. Seattle - Black uniforms. Mascot is a skating pink bird. --== Section 05 - Basic Controls ==-- The controls for Touch Down Fever are pretty much straightforward - the directional pad moves the currently selected player on the field. On offense A selects a play, hikes the ball and throws to the A receiver. B throws to the B receiver. On defense A and B don't do anything. --== Section 06 - Offense ==-- Offense in Touch Down Fever comes in equal doses of simplicity, ease, and frustration. You are afforded four plays (five including the kick/punt option), all of which do more or less the same thing - hike the ball to the quarterback and send two receivers out. The five plays at your disposal are Long Pass, Short Pass, QB Sneak, Backs, and Kick/Punt (depends on field position). I have tried experimenting with these numerous times with different teams at different field positions and with varying amounts of yardage left before a first down and I've noticed three things. Firstly what play you choose doesn't determine what formation you get, which makes about as much sense as voting Lindsay Lohan for president (the exception being kick/punt which always uses the same formation). Secondly what formation you choose has no affect on what your blockers or receivers do after the ball is snapped. In other words, there is no pass or run blocking and the receivers don't have a deep or short route. Lastly I've noticed that what play you select has no bearing on what formation the defense uses. I particularly liked when it was 2nd and 15 and I ran the long pass play only to see the defense line up in a 5-3-3 formation. Makes sense, doesn't it? And so did Bill Clinton's explanation of what constitutes sex... Despite all this you're in luck! I've put my own well being in jeopardy so that you'll have a better idea how to play this game. Here are your options: Run - Running the ball in this game is easier than it should be. The key is to always run a sweep. Any kind of attempt to diversify your running game with an inside run as this will only be rewarded with less yardage and an early tackle. Running outside should always be done with the QB or kicker/punter (see why this game is stupid? That sentence should never have to be said!) since trying to pitch to a RB is useless. Basically, call a play and sweep it outside. If you can't figure this out after about four or five downs you should seriously consider getting yourself spayed or neutered. Passing - Passing isn't really hard, it's just implemented in a way that makes it really frustrating. To explain this simply - it's very easy to intercept a pass in Touch Down Fever, all you have to is be in the flight path of the ball since the game is completely two-dimensional. So the best way to pass is to reduce the risk of throwing near the opposing team. As a result your best bet is to always pass straight and try to throw to the receiver running straight downfield, parallel to the sideline. One other important note about passing - apparently the Japanese who programmed the game think Americans are all weak and have arm strength on par with Nichole Richie, so your quarterback can't throw for more than 15 yards in a single pass. After you release the ball try to run with your receiver some to pick up extra yardage but don't run further than 15 yards downfield or the ball just stops in midair. --== Section 07 - Defense ==-- Given the dynamic gameplay and realistic physics of this game thus far you might find this hard to believe, but defense in Touch Down Fever is pretty simplistic. As noted above there's no rhyme or reason as to what defensive formation you'll get so don't sweat it. There is a heavy computer assist that takes place anytime an offensive player has the ball, so even if an offensive player is at the other end of the screen your defensive players will catch up with him shortly. Blitzing on defense is general a bad idea since it's tough to sack the QB and it's so easy to intercept the ball. Occasionally on a blitz you can actually hurry the QB and he'll throw an inaccurate pass. Remember once again ladies and gents that since this game is so basic an inaccurate pass is really only inaccurate in one dimension. Rather than blitzing I recommend using a man zone. Pick your defensive player and try to key on one of the opposing receivers. If the QB runs for it come up and stuff him on the side; if he throws it get in the flight path of the ball to pick up an easy interception. One last note on defense is tackling. Tackling is one of the few things the game implemented well. It's neither too easy nor to difficult to tackle. The only strategy here is to always tackle from in front of the opposing player since tackling from behind is like moving a fold-out couch - best done with three or more people. --== Section 08 - Special Teams ==-- Special teams in Touch Down Fever don't disappoint and are just as poorly programmed as everything else. Although it's a little amusing at first the special teams on this cow pie of a game get old really quickly. Unless you're tied or losing by 1-2 points you should never kick a field goal. And under no circumstances should you ever punt (and if you have testicles you already know this). Kickoffs - Kickoffs always seem to land at the 38. You'll probably end up somewhere between your own 40 and the 50 yard line. So far as I can tell there is no way to change the strength or direction of your kick. Punting - I've seen quadriplegics punt better! Your punter, for whatever reason, can only punt 15-20 yards, not that you should ever punt in the first place. Field Goals - Your nancy boy kicker was too busy hitting on 16 year old boys to work out in the gym. As a result he can only hit field goals from within 14 yards. This is ridiculous but... anything over 15 yards and you won't even get the option to kick a field goal. At 15 yards you'll get the option to kick a field goal but you won't make it. And as previously noted anything within 14 yards you'll always make. Extra Points - Unless you need a two point conversion to win the game, just let your kicker hit the automatic extra point. --== Section 09 - Inconsistencies ==-- There are several inconsistencies between the game and actual NFL rules. Here are a few, provided both for your amusement and as further proof that this game is worse than Paris Hilton on an IQ test: Fumbles - There are no fumbles in this game. At all. Somewhere Tiki Barber is smiling. Backwards Passes - If you pass the ball backwards it's treated as a forward pass, so you can't lose yardage or fumble a backwards pass. Ball Spot - The ball is always spotted in the middle of the hash marks. Tie - When playing in tournament mode a tie is counted as a loss. Clock - The clock is stopped whenever a first down is gained. Two-Point Conversion Glitch - My personal favorite! If you go for a two point conversion and get intercepted the ball will be placed wherever the defensive player gets tackled. I found this out by mistake when trying to let the other team score off of my failed two point conversion. Due to the CPU assist they got tackled on my five and subsequently got possession there. Weak dude. Very weak. --== Section 10 - 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. --== Section 11 - Closing Notes, Credits, and Thanks==-- I really despise this game in case you haven't noticed already. I will use this space to once again shamelessly plug my website, www.neshq.com. If you see any mistakes or have anything to add to this FAQ, e-mail me at AndrewM@NESHQ.com.