When I first saw that this game was going to come out, I was pretty excited to see a remake...
One thing I quickly noticed was the fictional names, as well as fictional logos and different team colors. Unfortunately there's no way to change this, except for the names. The ratings are also locked in, so that won't change too. I was able to find a guide to rename all the players to their true names, but this game uses the 1993 rosters from the SNES version of the game, not the 1991 version from the NES featuring Bo Jackson and etc. So that's something people need to know before they get this. Still a great game nevertheless, but people may be turned off because Tecmo had to use generic names for the rosters since EA is hogging the NFL license.
Thankfully the guide was easy to follow, but doing the work was pretty annoying after a while but very rewarding in the end. You don't have to do them all at once, I found that doing 3-4 a day was a quick way to do it, and it only took about 15 minutes per session. Sometimes I'd do 3-4 in the morning then 3-4 at night or something like that. This helped a lot when playing and also online. It also made this game last much longer for me personally since I have the real names, and I can know who is who exactly. It helped on Defense and it helped on Offense.
This game has the "Preseason Mode" where you play an exhibition match using any team. An "All Star Game" featuring the AFC and NFC... but these conferences were renamed since they don't have the NFL license. As well as a Season Mode, where you can either choose "Competition" or "Casual". In the Competition version you can only pick one team and you cannot switch. You can't redo games, and if you quit a game or ps3 turns off from let's say a blackout, you'll find that when you reload your season it'll be a loss that's 6-0, and you can't change that. With Competition mode your stats are posted on the leaderboards to compete with others' seasons. One thing I'm not sure about is, do you have to successfully win the Super Bowl for your stats to count? Or does it matter after a regular season? Casual version is the same as Competition except you can re-do games, switch teams in the middle of the season, and you can play 3 seasons at once, but it does not count towards the leaderboards. There was also a glitch that I only came across in one game, it's never happened since then but what would happen is I would be defense and all of a sudden the opponent/CPU is ready to make a play. Then everyone on both sides disappear, and the screen starts moving towards the opponent's endzone, then all you see is "Touchdown" and the opponent actually gets credited with it. I reset the game, and hasn't happened since, but it is something to be ready for.
Online: A big feature I was excited for, one huge problem. When I first played I joined a game, it was extremely laggy for me. One moment I see Vai Sikahema of Philadelphia trying to move northwest to dodge the tacklers, and one moment he's going, then all of a sudden he just moves up and it's called out of bounds. After that I tried to host a game instead of joining and it was totally fine. But for those who join... expect some lag. Another heads up, the people online seem to only play as 1) San Francisco 2) Dallas 3) Buffalo... rarely you'll run across someone else playing as any other team. I personally play as either Philadelphia or Detroit. But that's pretty much it for this review.
Still a great game, but things like the Online Lag, fictional names, and that bug may turn people off. For only 10 bucks to relive the sports game that set the pace for all other sports games to come, is totally worth it. I highly recommend you rename the rosters to the real ones for a better expierience. I only wish Tecmo allowed a "Create a Team" or a "Team Edit" feature, but they didn't because in fears it would cause the same problem as Tecmo Bowl Kickoff on the DS in which people edited and maxxed out all stats and just went online giving a very unfair advantage.