Tecmo Super Bowl, is an American football video game for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) and Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) that was first released in 1991. Developed by Japanese video game company Tecmo, it was one of the first sports video games that used the names and attributes of real National Football League teams and players (with the player rosters and attributes based on those of the 1990 NFL season). Although the game is in some ways considered outdated, it was very successful in the final years of the NES IGN's top 100 Games and enjoys an extensive cult following. It is, in fact, an excellent illustration of why balanced rulemaking and intuitive controls -- rather than mere graphical prowess -- is at the heart of enjoyable gaming.
After the initial success of Tecmo Bowl, Tecmo followed up with the release of Tecmo Super Bowl in 1991. The company was able to obtain the NFL's team license, making it the first game to feature all 28 NFL teams of the day. It became a great success because of its mixture of realism and gameplay. TSB also included the real players of each team, rated realistically, with the exception of Jim Kelly, Randall Cunningham, and Bernie Kosar, who were represented by generic names: QB Bills, QB Eagles, and QB Browns, respectively. This was because those players were not members of the National Football League Players Association's marketing agreement and their likenesses were not allowed to be used. Each team had 11 players on the field at a time, as in real football. There were separate rosters for offense and defense, plus the ability to substitute players on offense, with the exception of the offensive line.
Another groundbreaking feature was the full-length NFL regular and postseason schedule for 1991 (including the Super Bowl and Pro Bowl games). These are now common ideas, but they had only rarely been seen in a video game at that time, and certainly not at all for the Nintendo Entertainment System. Tecmo Super Bowl retained the arcade-style football gameplay of the original, including the unique ability to break tackles, but it was more refined and deeper than its predecessor. It added new features, such as statistics, eight plays compared to four in the previous version, editable playbooks, fumbles, and player injuries. The game's use of detailed cutscenes for important events like touchdowns, halftime shows, injuries, and big plays was also unprecedented at the time.
Lastly, the game flourished in part because it adopted a trait from its original arcade-bound predecessor: whenever the human-controlled offensive player was wrapped up by a defender, the gameplayer could rapidly hit the "A" button to break the defender's tackle. While not at all difficult against the CPU, this aspect of the game was central to its popularity in head-to-head mode. Games between human counterparts would often be decided, in effect, by the physical test of which player could press "A" more rapidly, and thus (either) shirk the tackler or bring the runner down. The introduction of this "real world" skill to the game is an oft-overlooked, but critical, aspect that few video games have incorporated before or since. It made each controller akin to a mini-Nintendo Power Pad.
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 publications Electronic Gaming Monthly and IGN.
CPU difficulty
If a human player is successful in season mode, the CPU player becomes increasingly difficult. While this is not uncommon in video games, a notably weak Week 1 opponent may be very difficult to beat in Week 17, a theme uncommon in real NFL football. Furthermore, the automated defensive players consistently miss in their tackles--often diving too early. Finally, if a user manages to break away from the computer's defense, the user can easily continue to avoid the computer's defensive players by zig-zagging. Although it may seem like the computer would present no challenge due to these flaws, randomly players for the computer will perform better than their statistics indicate they will. For example, Bob Nelson and Howie Long, two good overall players, often find themselves essentially snapping the ball from center and mowing over any offensive linemen that come in between them and the Quarterback, making it difficult to complete any passes. Due to the enhanced traits of these players, it is also possible to rack up points and statistics of another stratum when compared to reality.
Enhanced/Unrealistic Abilities
This game was noted for the unrealistic abilities of certain players, namely Joe Montana and Bo Jackson. In the case of Montana, he could complete passes in excess of 60 yards to Jerry Rice almost every time. For Jackson, his combination of speed and superior ability to break tackles made him unstoppable, with reports of some players racking up 1,000 yards in a single game with him. One superb running back that constantly devastates computer and man defenses is Christian Okoye. Known as 'The Nigerian Nightmare', Mr. Okoye mocks all other running backs desire for good or excellent health to be an impact player. When Okoye's health is bad, he still remains one of the most dynamic players in the game. His speed combined with his remarkable power running enables him to not have to acknowledge defenders, but simply destroy them and continue gaining yards.
Tecmo Ethics
Tecmo super bowl is often times claimed as the 'most competitive man versus man controller controlled game ever invented.' This competitive spirit leads to much controversy over how and when man versus man games can be fair. With offensively and defensively stacked teams such as the San Francisco 49ers it is often times disturbing when one person always plays with the 49ers. Or perhaps, if one person always plays with the Giants and wrecks havoc on your quarterback by means of Lawrence Taylor. It can also be stated, that playing left to right (with the screen) versus playing right to left is much easier, due to the repetition of playing against the computer (by default left to right) and commonly reading various types of books from left to right. These common advantages often times lead to the usual better player, getting beat by a far less superior man opponent.
Picking teams randomly and alternating who gets the first controller versus who gets the second controller is typically the best technique while trying to solve who is the better tecmo player. Playing best of 5 or a possible best of 7 series will even out the odds of good and bad random picks of teams such as the San Francisco 49ers and the New England Patriots, respectively.
Sequels
Some gamers believe the added realism of the second and third installations in the series made them better football games, but it is possible that they suffered from 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.
The original Tecmo Super Bowl game remains popular among video game fans. NES emulators and ROM editors allow people to update the game's rosters to current NFL players. The game has also developed a cult following on certain college campuses and on websites where online leagues are common.
In recent years, Tecmo Bowl was re-released on full-color screen cell phones and a handheld TV game.
SNES Version
Some of the problems with the NES version were fixed on the SNES version.
- Touchbacks are now possible
- The endzones now have team logos instead of just the TECMO logo.
- Exhibition and Pro Bowl mode now can have fifteen minute quarters.
In addition, the graphics were enhanced for the SNES version due to the system's 16-bit capability.