The Pro Bowl turned out to be a shootout in Hawaii as Brandon Marshall caught a record four touchdown passes during a 59-41 victory for the AFC over their NFC counterparts.

Marshall caught six TD passes for the Miami Dolphins during the season, but caught a Pro Bowl record four scoring grabs out of his six passes for 176 yards during the game.

The All-Star game in Honolulu reflected a season where records were broken with plenty of scoring action - the AFC's 59 points being a new Pro Bowl record while the combined 100-point tally was the second highest.

Marshall had set out to star during the game, and it was clearly his day when he grabbed hold of a 47-yard TD pass from Andy Dalton - which came via a deflection while he was already lying on his back.

"This is my playoff," Marshall said after winning the MVP award. "I came in with the goal of trying to win the MVP. You never know when you're going to be back so. It's an honour."

Quarterbacks

Drew Brees, Aaron Rodgers and rookie Cam Newton all three two TD passes for the NFC, with tight end Tony Gonzalez and receivers Larry Fitzgerald and Steve Smith having 100-yard receiving games.

Arizona's Fitzgerald caught three TD passes while Smith, Greg Jennings and Jimmy Graham caught the other NFC scores.

Dalton threw two TD passes as did Philip Rivers and Ben Roethlisberger for the AFC, who scored the only rushing score of the game through Baltimore's Vonta Leach.

36 first-time Pro Bowlers played in front of the 48,423 crowd, with Bengals triggerman Dalton looking a lot more composed than fellow rookie QB Newton, who struggled for arguably the first time in the entire season after making such an impact for the Panthers.

Newton was picked off three times, including on his first series of action when he missed a wide open Gonzalez and landed his pass right at San Diego safety Eric Weddle - who picked him off again leading to a touchdown for Kansas City's Derrick Johnson.

Scoring

In a game obviously played at half speed at the line, there were plenty of points to be had, with Rodgers and Roethlisberger, the two quarterbacks from last year's Super Bowl, exchanging two TDs each as they played the first quarter.

Rivers and Brees, who enjoyed a record-breaking season with the New Orleans Saints, did the same in the second quarter to leave it all tied up at 28-28 at the half.

Sebastian Janikowski scored the only field goal of the game at the start of the second half, and after Smith had caught a pass from Carolina team-mate Newton, Marshall then got his lucky break to put the AFC ahead 38-35 lead late in the third quarter.

Leach ran in his score from a yard, Marshall caught his fourth TD pass, from Dalton, before Newton's interception was eventually ran in by Johnson as the AFC forged into an unassailable 59-34 lead.

Fitzgerald caught his third late on but it was to be the AFC's day in the game which is a prelude to next week's Super Bowl in Indianapolis.