The Power Pad was released in 1988 as the Family Fun Fitness pack for the Japanese Famicom. It was originally developed by Bandai, but nintendo soon bought the rights to it, and released it in 1989 as the Power Pad, along with the game World Class Track Meet.

The accessory is laid out in front of the video display for various games, generally plugged into the second controller port, with players stepping on the large buttons to control gameplay. There are two illustrated sides to the pad: Side A, which is rarely used, has eight buttons, while side B has twelve buttons numbered from 1-12.