I saw two different reviews of Ten Yard Fight for the NES. One was trashed due to poor content and low word count. The other was criticized for 290 words or so.

Here's the deal: Ten Yard Fight has little to offer. There's not much to talk about or discuss.

The game is a football game (American football), featuring a field that goes vertical instead of horizontal, like Tecmo Bowl and other games.

Gameplay: The game is simple. On offense, you are the quarterback and you can snap the ball at any time. You can wait as a tailback motions from left to right or right to left before you snap the ball. There is only one eligible receiver, usually in the form of the A button, and one halfback available for an option, in the form of the B button. All 8 other players are blockers.

On defense, you can be usually either a defensive end on the strong side or the weakside linebacker/corner. The computer does not allow you to make any pre-snap adjustments and the option to change defensive player only occurs after the ball has been snapped.

Once the ball is in play, it's simply following blockers and dodging diving defensemen if you're attacking up the screen and diving after the ballcarrier if you're on defense. There are passes that can be intercepted or caught but the main play selection relies on running. The defense is a bit faster than the offense.

The graphics are terrible. There's only smudges of color schemes for the players, the down and distance take a few minutes to understand, the hashmarks are tough to tell where a first down would actually be and the extra point and field goal graphics make kicking so simple, I couldn't miss a kick if I tried.

The sound is 1980s NES without the fun. They are bad. Turn the sound off and listen to a TED talk or music and enlighten your mind while wrapping it around a bad example of an early football game.

The game is fun for five to ten minutes and then it becomes repetitive. There's no creativity, there's no scratching plays in the dirt, you're basically running around defenders or stuffing a run as a defender. The offense of the other team is terrible and turning up the difficulty only means the other team is faster, not better. That's enough to get beat at the higher levels.

Would I spend time on this game? Sure, when I was 9 years old and it was the best option available. I remember buying 10 Yard Fight for three dollars at a FuncoLand, which was the precursor to Gamestop. And even then I thought it was terrible. I switched to Blades of Steel quickly.

Try it, check it off the list of 'games played,' but don't spend much time. Within ten minutes you'll have the entire experience offered by Ten Yard Fight.