Tecmo Super Bowl

"The greatest."

Tecmo Super Bowl is the greatest football game ever created. Yes, I know the year is 2002, yes, I know that the game is over a decade old. But that doesn't matter. There has never been a game that has eclipsed this game, whether it's the latest NFL2K's, or the Maddens, or even the NFL Fevers, they just can't live up to it. The game is too original, too good, and too fun...

The game is one of the most simplistic sport games out there, but you can't exactly expect a game made in the late '80's to have controls similar to the games of today.

Hike.

You'll start the game by picking your favorite team, and then navigating your way through several menus. You won't be confused. Once you start the game, you do the coin toss, and you start the game. Like I've said, you're not going to get confused by the amount of controls available, simply due to the fact you have the D-Pad and the ''A'' and ''B'' buttons at your disposal. There's no turbo feature, there's no juke or spin feature, all you can do is run and attempt to avoid the people flying at your ankles. Sure, there isn't exactly strategy involved, but it works. Then you get to choose through the ''massive'' playbook. Don't be surprised, each team has around 9-10 different plays at your disposal, and each is labeled with the name of a player. The player that is getting the ball. The player that gets the ball is usually the star of the team, like Jerry Rice, Barry Sanders, and other people. The plays are extremely basic, seeing as they're either simple pass routes, or runs right up the middle, or pitches to the outside. All the players while running the ball run pretty slow, when you actually look at them. There really isn't a distinct difference in the speeds in which they run, which is quite unrealistic, but hey, it happens. The kicking aspect of the game isn't really all that hard, or easy to master. For punting and kicking off, you just have to press a button at the part of the meter in which the most power would be reached, that's strikingly similar to the kicking aspects of today, so you aren't going to fly into there not knowing what you're doing. The field goal kicking game, on the other hand, isn't exactly hard. All you have to do is line up a little moving arrow so it's pointing between the goal posts. If you do that successfully, all you have to do is hope it doesn't get blocked, and you have a successful field goal/extra point. The simplicity of the early stages of the game were fun.

There really isn't a ''challenging'' aspect to the game, when I think about it. The game is quite easy, but some games that you play throughout the season just randomly turn hard. For example, you could be a Tecmo SuperBowl Master, and you're flying through the season, 11-0 or something, and you come across an average team. The average team rides you the entire time and ends up defeating you. Scenarios like that randomly happen out of nowhere. Sure, it's frustrating, but at least it gives the game some depth. Whenever you make a good play with a player, like a sack, safety, touchdown, etc. a little clip will show him celebrating, and it will show his name. This is good, considering at this point you know they actually took some time in including the actual players in the game, unlike some other football games of this era.

Of course, the first thing you're actually going to notice about the game is the graphics. They aren't going to blow you away, but they aren't going to scare you to no end that you'll go and hide in a box, or something. The graphics weren't great, let me tell you, but they really weren't all that bad, either. The menus only have about five or six different colors from eachother, so that is quite bland, but once you get to the game, it's all good. Each logo of each team is nicely detailed, and looks pretty similar to their actual team logo. Each teams' jerseys have two different colors to them, and those colors are the teams' actual colors, obviously. There really isn't anything mindblowing about that, because there is nearly zero detail in each player, so you aren't really going to tell the players apart from eachother. Like I've mentioned earlier, after a good play is made, a little cutscene will be shown having the player celebrate. When they get a sack or a safety, the player will stand up and triumphantly stand up and thrust his arms into the air. When a player scores a touchdown, he will leap into another teammate's arms, and they will parade around. This and the halftime sequences are pretty much the only parts of the graphical aspect of the game with any amount of detail shown. During the halftime scenes, you will get a picture of the view of the stadium (which happens to be the exact same stadium every game), and you'll get to see some cheerleaders cheering, and other things. Overall, the graphics aren't spectacular, but they certainly aren't bad, either.

You'll hear something in the game. That's what us video game players like to call: The Sound. Yes, it's pretty basic. There's nothing in this game like the music of the games of today, but you're not going to smash your TV's speakers in. There's a little tune playing once you start the game, and it continues to the point in which you start the game. At this point, you'll begin to hear the crowd start to scream, and you'll hear other things. Once you start the game however, do the real sounds of the gridiron sport come into place. You'll hear the Quarterback screaming ''Hut, hut, hike!'' and when the hike is called, the linemen will smash their sweaty bodies into eachother, screaming and grunting in the process. If you get a first down, some flashy tune/bleep will occur, signifying you've obviously done something good in the game. When in interception occurs, something similar will happen, and whatever is supposed to follow follows. So, in the end, the sound isn't all that bad, and not all that good either.

In the end, Tecmo Super Bowl is easily the greatest football game ever made, to me and I'm sure plenty of others out there. I just hope you find it somewhere in your heart to set out and find this gem of a game, and plop it into your little Nintendo Entertainment System as soon as humanly possible. The graphics and sound aren't the overpowering source of the game, it's just that the gameplay is so fun and fantastic, that it just keeps you coming back for more.

Let's bring it down.

Pros

~ Simple, easy to learn, and fun gameplay
~ Graphics are nice and simple
~ The team logos and colors are specific to their respective teams
~ The little cutscenes that are shown after good plays and at halftime
~ Cheerleaders haha
~ The sound isn't confusing, or really all that bad

Cons

~ The game(s) end
~ Graphics aren't perfectly detailed.

Gameplay: 10/10
Graphics: 9/10
Sound: 9/10

The greatest.

Good day.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 12/15/02, Updated 02/08/03