Tecmo Super Bowl is a fantastically high-paced football sim with reality-suspending elements and season-long rewards. The game features rosters and teams from the 1990 NFL, including players like Bo Jackson, Joe Montana and Lawrence Taylor. It may not seem like much now, but TSB was the first football video game to feature actual teams and accurate rosters at the same time. TSB was ahead of its time, and it wasn’t until the late 90s when editions of Madden would come close to matching its magnitude.
While the bright jersey colors and magenta end zones are pleasing to the eye, the graphics are not particularly impressive overall. It is the cut-scenes that really dazzle and produce a high-tempo atmosphere: quarterbacks barely avoiding their passes being blocked, wide receivers and defensive backs soaring to catch or defend a ball in the air, and linemen break through to block a field goal or PAT. TSB’s programmers did an impressive job of simulating 11-on-11 arcade action using the limited NES hardware. One of the very few flaws is a flashing of avatars when too many converge on one tile.
The tunes during gameplay are very energetic, although there aren’t too many being that this is a sports game with just a few game modes. Soud effects are limited, but effective. Jingles play during first downs and touchdowns, giving the auditory palette some variety.
Some of the quirkier aspects of the game are its most memorable, whether it’s lineman who grapple then throw their man ten yards, a quarterback’s 100-yd bomb, or a kicker’s 70-yd field goal. Another difference from real football is that there are no penalties. Not even a delay of game, so you can wait before a play and listen to the quarterback bark, ‘hut, hut, hut,’ to your heart’s conent! Excluding penalties from gameplay produces a fast-paced environment where the outcome is decided by the gamer with the controller and the players on the field, not some referee meticulously looking under a hood at an instant replay challenge.
There are some other quirks to the game that don’t add value to the experience, but neither do they affect gameplay enough to be considered glitches. The first is what is sometimes referrred to as a ‘chop-block.’ On certain run plays, a lineman for the running team will sort of stick himself on the ground just past the lower outside linebacker, causing any defender who comes in his vacinity to get chucked seven yards away. The other neutral quirk to the programming is the way statistics are accumulated in season mode. The quarterback rating system is particularly strange; although impractacle, it is certainly fun to achieve that coveted score of 250+ rating.
Overall, I give Tecmo Super Bowl a perfect 10, because I will never get sick of it. Whether it’s the original on console or a rom created with hacked material, I can’t seem to get enough. Sure, the game has some blemishes, but for the most part they are the kind that endear the gamer to the time period.
But did you already know about this game and wish to be connected with others who love it? Then you need to expose yourself to the online Tecmo community where there are discussion forums, rom downloads, and anything else Tecmo-related you can imagine. You will find info on Tecmo Super Bowl’s sequels from other systems, as well as its prequel, Tecmo Bowl.
So go to Tecmobowl.org. Go there now.
Other interesting links:
Go to TecmoGeek.com for quick info on player ratings.
Go to GameFAQs for one of the earliest comprehensive FAQs for the game.
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Update: I recently made my first youtube video ever, which I recorded with an emulator. It features one of the many excellent TSB roms out there. Welcome to the Ultimate Tecmo Challenge!
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