Should you be looking for a solid old school football game, or simply a classically fun NES game, Tecmo Super Bowl is it
User Rating: 8.7 | Tecmo Super Bowl NES
“Touchdown! Mosi Tatupu.” Only in Super Tecmo Bowl--excuse me, Tecmo Super Bowl (TSB)--can you hear and see those lovely words. Where the original Tecmo Bowl enthralled fans by creating an arcade-like football game complete with licensed players and teams (although not all), Tecmo Super Bowl carries that torch and is a pioneer of many modern football game features. TSB’s gameplay is very similar to its predecessor. You call play plays using combinations of the D-pad and A/B buttons. Run plays are simple hand-offs, pitches, or end-arounds, and pass plays require you as the quarterback to select an open receiver and get him the ball. What adds a new dimension to that gameplay is the presence of full 11 v. 11 games, customizable playbook, injuries and fatigue, and a full season complete with stat-tracking and a Pro Bowl. The in-game playbook is double the size of the original, and the complexity of the offenses and defenses has increased dramatically. No more handing the ball to Walter Payton and demolishing people with Mike Singletary all game long. No longer does winning or losing depend on the 25% chance of picking the right play. You have to come in with a scheme, with knowledge of your offense, and how your opponent plays with his strengths and weaknesses. The balance of the game has increased the quality and genuineness of the gameplay. TSB is to my knowledge one of the first games to have the complete NFL season. You can manage your team and simply simulate their games, dealing with injuries and poor performance, or you can play every game of your teams’ schedules, hoping to pit rivals in the playoffs or Super Bowl. This game was made before the expansion of the wild-card round, so the playoffs seem abbreviated, but the length of the season will surely build up intensity for the 2 or three playoff games you’ll play. The injuries and fatigue play a huge role when playing through a season. Want to run Barry Sanders every play? It will cost you: he’ll be hurt in two games, and you’ll be forced to substitute him for one of the players available on the bench. One knock is that fatigue and injuries are programmed to occur at certain times. No matter how many times you run Barry Sanders or Thurman Thomas, they always seem to get hurt around the same time every year. Rest assured, though, if you run too much they’ll get hurt sooner. The in-game statistics really add another dimension of goal-setting. Can I break 500 yards rushing? Can Derrick Thomas get 50 sacks this year? Those numbers may sound ridiculous but setting small goals such as those add further value to the game. The music is very memorable, as many of the Tecmo games from this generation were. You’ll have the touchdown music and voice-over “Touchdown!” engrained in your mind before long. You may choose to turn it off after a while simply because of the repetition, but the music adds to the semi-comedic, high action experience. The graphics are a big step up from its predecessor, and it does no good to compare them to any of the current titles, so suffice it to say they are what they are. They represent very well, though, on the NES—it’s a long way from 10 Yard Fight my friends. Despite not being Madden, it’s still fun to see your players get knocked off the ball and fall 5 and 10 yards away. Then to see them get up to give chase, and you’ll be waiting for the pursuit speed boost to kick-in, which is another boon to the game’s balance. During school my friend’s and I would load this game up and have tournaments of 10 to 12 people. It was a great time, and the fun was not only the consistently close matches, but the camaraderie that surrounds any multiplayer gaming experience. Even though only 2 people can play at a time, even watching another game makes is entertaining (games last at most 15 minutes), particularly when you have the winner. The single player campaign and the versus option are equally fulfilling. Should anyone be interested in a solid old school football game, or should you simply want a classically fun game for the NES, look nowhere else.
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