Tecmo Super Bowl
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Tecmo, at the time famous for the Ninja Gaiden series, released an earlier football arcade game, simply called Tecmo Bowl, in 1987. It was distinct for a huge cabinet (which featured 2-monitors), 4-player support, and the ability to break tackles which was unique in American football video games at the time. It wasn't a big success in the arcades but a sequel was released in 1989. The NES port released in 1988 fared a bit better. The NFL Players Association licensed the game, which featured 12 teams with real life American football players, but the NFL itself did not license the teams' names for the game. A second version of Tecmo Bowl with updated rosters was released in 1990. The two versions are generally known as the "Dickerson" (1988) and "Bentley" (1990) versions after the Colts running back that is featured in that particular version.
Tecmo finally obtain the NFL's team license, and it led to the release of Tecmo Super Bowl in 1991. It managed to become a great success because of the game's cross of realism and gameplay. All 28 NFL teams were featured with 30 real players rated realistically (3 players, however, Jim Kelly, Randall Cunningham, and Bernie Kosar were represented by generic names, QB Bills, QB Eagles, and QB Browns respectively), and it featured a full NFL regular season and a full postseason schedules (including the Super Bowl and Pro Bowl games) which are now common ideas that had never been seen at the time in a video game. Tecmo Super Bowl retained the arcade-style football gameplay of the original, retaining the unique ability to break tackles, but it was more refined and deeper than its predecessor, thanks to innovations such as new plays, editable playbooks, fumbles, and even player injuries.
The game was highly playable, and in 1997, it was named one of the top 100 video games of all-time by the video game publication, Electronic Gaming Monthly (EGM).
Tecmo tried to capitalize on the success of Tecmo Super Bowl in 1992 by releasing an National Basketball Association (NBA) basketball game for the NES (and later the Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis video game systems) which featured real NBA teams and players including a rare appearance by Michael Jordan in a video game, but it suffered major gameplay problems and bugs.
Gameplay problems also plagued baseball and hockey games that were released by the company after it went exclusively to Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis video game systems. They didn't seem to plague the Tecmo Super Bowl series as much, as it released three more versions on the Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis video game systems. This does not mean "Tecmo" was without some problems in realism. It is easy to throw a ball 120+ yards with even Mike Tomczack, and Dan Marino is possibly the most athletic man in the world in the SNES version, often running for as many yards as he throws. The series possibly bombed with the added realism of the second and third installations in the series. They were perhaps the best football games, with bad marketing. As a result, they weren't as popular as the original NES version. The last Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis game in the series was subtitled "Final Edition", but in 1997, it was revived on the PlayStation, to fairly minimal press, and the series faded away.
In spite of this, the original Tecmo Super Bowl game remains popular among video game fans. Thanks to NES emulators and ROM editors that allow people to update the game's rosters.
In recent years, Tecmo Bowl was re-released on full-color screen cell phones and a handheld TV game.
External links
- GameFAQs' Tecmo Super Bowl (NES) general information page (http://www.gamefaqs.com/console/nes/data/8209.html)
- TecmoSuperBowl.com Fan Website (http://www.sportplanet.com/tsb/)
- Tecmo Super Bowl Heaven (http://www.famssu.com/tecmo/)
- Tecmo Bowl Repository (http://www.knobbe.org)