Tecmo Super Bowl

Tecmo's opening screen

Tecmo Super Bowl, released for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) video game console system in 1991, was one of the first sports video games with real National Football League (NFL) (American football) teams and real players. The game was published and developed by the Japanese video game company, Tecmo. The game is based on the performances of the individual players and teams during the 1990 NFL season. Although the game is somewhat primitive by today's standards, it was very successful in the final years of the NES. It remains fairly popular after 15 years and enjoys an extensive cult following.

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 managed to become a great success because of the game's cross 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 (because those players were not members of the National Football League Players Association union, and their likenesses were not allowed to be used). Each team had 11 players on the field at a time, just like in real football. There were separate rosters for Offense and Defense, plus the ability to substitute players on Offense, with the exception of offensive linemen.

Bo Jackson goes to work

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 never been seen in a video game at that time. 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. New innovations were added such as statistics, more 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).

Randall Cunningham -- er, "QB Eagles" -- was one of the deadliest players in Tecmo

Tecmo tried to capitalize on the success of Tecmo Super Bowl in 1992 by releasing a National Basketball Association (NBA) basketball game, called Tecmo NBA Basketball, for the NES (and later the Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis video game systems). It 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" is without some problems in realism. The length of the quarters in a game are 5 minutes, and this can not be changed. It is easy to throw a ball 100 yards with even an average quarterback like Mike Tomczak; little-known nose tackle Bob Nelson is one of the fastest players in the game; the backs and receivers of the New York Giants are explosive, despite the fact the team actually adopted a ball control scheme; there are no touchbacks on kickoffs - they are required to run the ball out of the end zone; on punts there are no fair catches; and Dan Marino has greatly exagerrated abilities in the SNES version, often running for as many yards as he throws (in his real life career, he averaged less than 1 yard per carry). Other players also have greatly exagerrated abilities in the different versions of the game, such as Bo Jackson, Randall Cunningham, and Jerry Rice. Due to the enhanced traits of players, it was possible to rack up points and statistics of another stratum when compared to reality. Furthermore, the user's automated defensive players consistently miss in their slide tackles--often sliding 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. 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 in certain college campuses.

In recent years, Tecmo Bowl was re-released on full-color screen cell phones and a handheld TV game.