So guys, in an attempt to make my writing better, and an attempt to practice my critical thinking skills, i'll be making large posts analyzing some of my favorite games of all time. So here's the thread where I'll post some of my way too long ramblings about games and how I perceive them.
My first post is about Tecmo Super Bowl on the NES, probably my favorite sports game ever made. Please critique and find flaws with my writing, If you find errors or bad writing tell me, since I obviously need to practice my writing, hence why im posting here. So I hope you guys enjoy this!
Tecmo Super Bowl
I remember a fuzzy time in my childhood, packed upstairs usually with some kind of snack, and an NES controller. Although I was born in 1991, and it was around 1995-1996 that I started to actually play video games, I still vividly remember the times playing Tecmo Bowl on the NES with my brother. I would always find a team to try and beat my brothers dreaded Bo Jackson offense, but nothing could ever defeat the dreaded Bo Jackson. Tecmo Bowl was an American Football (henceforth called football for the rest of the essay for all you confused europeans) released on the NES in 1989. It featured 12 NFL teams (The names of the teams were different, but the players on the team and the cities were all the same) each with their own unique players and playbook. This gave every single team some type of individuality, much like how a fighting game has different characters, in Tecmo, each team did something different, and excelled at different things. The San Francisco team was an incredibly well balanced machine that had its offensive focus on passing the ball, Chicago was very similar but was better on the run due to Walter Payton. While these two teams were both incredibly well balanced, some would still choose LA team, due to the effectiveness of Bo Jackson. Some would even pick the New york team due to the incredible Lawrence Taylor. Each team had its own reasons to play, and although a few teams were clearly the cream of the crop, you could win with any and all teams if you were better. Tecmo Bowl is still lauded today for being a great game, but it isnt the highlight of the series.
In December in 1991, the greatest sports game of its time was released for the NES. Tecmo Super Bowl took the foundation of what made Tecmo Bowl so great, and improved everything about it. The first, and most notable thing was that tecmo Super Bowl had every single NFL team in the game, full names and all. All 28 current NFL teams were represented, which compared to the meager 12 teams in the previous version, is astounding. Each team had its logos, nickname, and starters available to play. The next was the increase of 4 plays to 8 plays, which opened up the game a lot more for offenses. This was also helped by fully customizable playbook, every single play in the game was able to be used by every single team. The graphics were improved, the sound effects were improved, and finally the game play was improved.
We unfortunately only had Tecmo Bowl for most of my early childhood. By the time the N64 had come out, we had never tasted the great nectar that was Tecmo Super Bowl, but my brother surprised me one day, and had purchased a used copy of the game off of Ebay. It was love at first play. We each picked our teams, I being a Packer fan chose the Green Bay Packers, featuring Don Majkowski, Sterling Sharpe, and of course, the Tecmo legend, Bob Nelson. My brother picked the team he was always comfortable with, the Bo Jacksons err I mean the Los Angeles Raiders. What I found in this game though astounded my young mind. I loved every single second of gameplay, and I basked in its glory for the rest of my life. But this isnt about my experiences with Tecmo Super Bowl, i want to explain to you what made this game so incredible, that even today, it still holds up. Its almost asinine to think that a 22 year old sports game would still hold up considering its almost always a drag to play older Maddens, but time has aged Tecmo Super Bowl like a fine wine.
You would think that after over 20 years of game production, and technology, we would see a plethora of football games that were much better than Tecmo Super Bowl. While some would argue that some of the mid 2000 Maddens, NFL 2k5, and Blitz games are better, I would argue against that. While the Maddens, and 2Ks might be better simulations of the sport, I dont think that they surpassed the gameplay of Tecmo Super Bowl. Tecmo Super Bowl for the NES was controlled with a mere 2 buttons, and a d-pad, and yet remains way more complex in gameplay then the Maddens of the world. But what makes Tecmo that much more complex than the Maddens and the NFL 2K games. Theres a series of design decisions that are just perfectly crafted out to be as fun as possible. Sure, these mechanics might not be realistic, but games arent about realism, and almost every single design choice found in Tecmo Super Bowl was astounding. Im going to mostly focus on the game play, and not on the fact that it was the first sports game to ever have every team from the league, and basically every starting player in the sport. I could go on about how incredible it is, but that doesnt age the game at all. What ages the game so well are the design decisions that follow; the zig-zag and running in open field, the long throw, defense, customized playbook, the music, and finally how awesome the players were to play as. Each of these things define Tecmo Super Bowl to me and leave it in a class of its own for football video games.
The Art of Zig-Zagging
Most football games nowadays to replicate the feel of the game have made it very simple to just have your runner hit the hole, see if he can break, maybe juke, or spin, and go off to the races. The running play is thus a short spurt of skill, followed by a lot of holding the sprint button as you run down the field. Players do not miraculously catch up to you, and if they do, its most likely because their speed stats are astounding. Tecmo Bowl decided to give realism the middle finger and invent an awesome comeback feature. Running in tecmo was a lot easier in comparison to running in Madden or in 2k. You have a better ability to move vertically and laterally and make the opponent miss. This leads to large holes, and large plays.
Tecmo in their creative genius developed a system to counteract this problem, as a football game like this would not be a fun one to play defense on. So they implemented a system where your defenders would gain momentum, especially the one controlled by the player. So even in the beginning of the play if you found yourself running the ball down the field with Bo Jackson, the fastest offensive player in the game, you would still be in constant danger, as the defenders would run with incredible speed straight at you. This comeback mechanic would be incredibly stupid if it wasnt for the zig-zag. The Zig-Zag is the way you run the ball in Tecmo in open field, as you have 6-7 or of the fastest players on the field, you must run in a zig-zag pattern to do two things. 1, you sometimes slow the opponent down for a split second, as the game slows down a defensive player if they change direction, and 2, you have to gode them into diving at you, limiting the number of players youre going to have to deal with. Suddenly, long runs in Tecmo no longer are that of the Maddens of the world, where only a short burst of talent is needed, suddenly, the long runs become a game of bullet hell, where instead of small projectiles, football players running at incredible speed want to tackle you. This is where the skill of the game comes in.
In this video, you can see the player in this video, Bo Jackson, perform an incredibly crazy play. Although, im pretty sure this is tool-assisted, you can do all this if you are good enough at the game;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8PBvOxicz-0
The zig-zag increases the skill necessary in this game tenfold. Every single play will most likely require a zig-zag at some point, as you fight for every single yard. No longer will it be you just running straight while holding the sprint button, now, not only does the defensive player get a chance at the comeback, but the offensive player gets a chance to dodge those players. None of the players feel like theyve lost, and both of the players playing are able to show off skill to help them out. Games are won and decided by the zig-zag, and its surprising that no other arcade football game had this mechanic.
The Long Throw; The Majik Man to Sterling Sharpe
One of the most underrated parts about this game is the ability to throw the ball as far as you want. Yes, you can literally throw the football from one end of the endzone to the other, but whats so incredible about that. Well, let me give you a look at some of the other Tecmo games at the time. In tecmo Bowl for instance, you could not throw the ball as far as you wanted, same with tecmo Super Bowl for the NES, and you might be asking why thats such a bad deal. Well, the unfortunate AI issues present for the NES did not allow for fluid passing. If you wanted to throw the ball on a fly route (long straight route from the receiver) the player didnt have the wherewithal to stop his route at the 30-50 yard passing limit. The player instead would just stop his route, instead of going. In Tecmo, this is a cardinal sin, for by the time you throw the ball, the defense would have accumulated enough momentum to catch up to your receiver and intercept the ball. This made fly routes fairly useless, which is a shame because they open up the field. this limitation was ended in the NES version of Tecmo Super Bowl though, and the effects are incredible.
First of all, I dont think theres anything cooler than throwing a 90 yard bomb for a touchdown to a wide open wide receiver. Next, this opens up the passing game quite a bit, now excuse my terrible art for a second.
In this picture, the offense is represented by a white circle, while the defense is represented by black squares. Now, this is important to note, but you may only use 1 defensive player throughout the entire play. So lets say that the defensive player picked the linebacker represented by a black circle.
So now, the offense decides to call a pass play on first down, the defense picks a run play thinking the offense might be thinking of running (well talk about play strategy later). This choice will leave the outside wide receiver wide open who will just happen to be running a fly route, while everyone else on the offense runs routes such as those.
Theoretically if no one on the defense is covering, we have this much of the field open to be passed, and the defender must choose whether he wants to cover the deep player, or one of the undercover players. This play theoretically will leave this much of the field open to pass on
Generally the player will cover the deep player as to not get burned, and hope the Qb will either get sacked, or throw a bad pass. If completed, the defensive player with mass amount of momentum will have the time to go and tackle the player with the amount of time necessary before the other player scores. If they choose to ignore the deep passer, then the pass will go flying to the receiver, and that will be a 70 yard bomb. But whats bad about limiting the amount of yards passed you may ask. Well, it gives defensive players too many options, and makes passing the ball even more difficult. Lets take the same route, but say that the QB can only pass it a certain amount of length, this would be the amount of area that the defense would have to cover;
This almost halves the amount of screen that is necessary to defend. While tis might not be an issue in a game like Madden, the defenders do not gain momentum in those games. This makes the deep ball irrelevant in all ways. Suddenly, the defender can practically cover every single player, as theres nothing to keep him honest since the receiver will stop and run back to get the ball. With the amount of speed you can produce in the Tecmo games, this is a passing nightmare that leads itself to the passing game being not as good as the running game. When youre in an offense that needs the passing game to give players like Bo Jackson some space and to keep the defense honest, you need a large vertical passing game.
DE-FENCE
You would think that with all of these things helping the offensive player, defense would be horrendous to play, but you might be surprised by the low scores in a lot of competitive Tecmo matches. The defense has a ton of options available to them to succeed in this game. Weve already gone over how important momentum is in this game, each defender had that ability, but sometimes thats not enough, especially with Bo Jacksons sick zig-zagging ability. But fear not, you have the ability to do something great. you have the ability to playcall against the other team.
Now in Tecmo, both sides are given the ability to call plays, although on defense, you do not pick defensive alignments, you pick plays from the offensive playbook that the other team is running. The goal in this is to pick the same play as the other player, and if you do, your players become super speedy gods of destruction and will almost instantly tackle the opposing player for a loss. This turns the game into a tactical game of bluffing, as being obvious with your play calling will lead you to sacks, and tackles for loss. Also, your defense will react based on the play you picked. if you picked the wrong run play for instance, your defense will do well against the run, but will not cover anybody, but if you pick a passing play, your opponent can run very easily, while having most of his players covered. One of the most important parts of Tecmo is strategy of plays, and when to call them.
Has Bo Jackson been running all over you in the game, make sure you pick a running play and try to stop that monster. If you notice your opponent picking running plays to counteract your offense, throw with Jay Schroeder, and rip them to shreds with the passing game. Suddenly, Tecmo Super Bowl becomes a game of deception, almost a game of chess, as you must think carefully of what your opponent is going to do before hand before picking your play. And with this in mind, you can stop Bo Jackson, Joe Montana, and the many other ludicrous players in the game even without playing the game. Strategy and skill are intertwined just like it is in real football, and every play call counts. But let me get to the next point and talk about the playbook.
Playbook Customization
This is the part where Tecmo gets deep. One of the best features of this game is the customizable playbook. Playbook customization becomes an important part of a balanced offense. In football, you never want to telegraph the play youre going to perform, and its no different in Tecmo. In Tecmo, since theres a limited number of plays, you must be able to hide your offense. This forces players to pick plays that all have similar formations, as to not give away the play youre picking.
If you only have one play in your playbook with a shotgun formation, and you pick that play, your opponent will know what play is going to happen and have his player cover the play well. Surprise is important for Tecmo, as you want to keep your opponent guessing to make sure the player doesnt read exactly where your player is going. This provides an incredible amount of depth and customization and even more deception to the game, and provides almost an infinite number of playstyles to be performed. This is one of the deepest part about Tecmo, as learning the teams is no longer good enough, you must learn every single play in the game and find a way to counteract the play.
The Music
Now, i'm no musician or music critic, but Tecmo Super Bowl had some ballin ass music, instead of writing a large portion about why Tecmo Super Bowl has great music, ill just post the some of the songs and let you decide. Legitimately, one of the best soundtracks on the NES IMO
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKSspY9Kpqc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AAaUfo9xpDs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VnERZZYbIbw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B98VClyIeHI
The Players
Much like how a fighting game is generally defined by how awesome the characters are, Tecmo Super Bowl has some of the most awesomely fun players to use in a football game. We all know the like of Bo Jackson, Lawrence Taylor, and other NFL superstars in real life. Tecmo Super Bowl makes you remember the awesome players of the game. This isnt some random occurrence, since the defense is given so many tools to stop you, and the offense is given so many tools to get past you, you ride these players for all their worth. Christian Okoye could break tackles like nobodies business, Curt Warner would always return kicks for TDs against you, Dan Marino had laser passes, and every important player had its own defined characteristics that made them unique. This adds so much to the depth of the game, and replayability as you want to try out every single team and player in the game. Not only that, you discover players, and find out which players to use and which players to avoid. While madden and other football games do this somewhat well, Tecmo does it the best, as you cant just use your best player over and over again like you could with Vick in Madden 2004. A good opponent will read your offense and develop better strategies to stop them. For as good, and fast as Bo Jackson is, nothing is faster than a defensive player with the momentum of a train.
Conclusion
Tecmo Super Bowl is legitimately one of the greatest games ever made. Much like how Rock Band and Guitar Hero could get people hyped on music they never liked, so can people who dont like football enjoy Tecmo Super Bowl. Tecmo managed to create something thats fun and easy to get into, while at the same time being an incredibly deep and sophisticated competitive game. Its so deep that even 22 years later, there are still still competitive leagues in existence that play this game online through emulators. Heck, Tecmo Madison, the largest Tecmo Super Bowl event managed 56 players for a 22 year old football game. If that doesnt show the lasting appeal and greatness of this game, then i dont think anything will.
My first post is about Tecmo Super Bowl on the NES, probably my favorite sports game ever made. Please critique and find flaws with my writing, If you find errors or bad writing tell me, since I obviously need to practice my writing, hence why im posting here. So I hope you guys enjoy this!
Tecmo Super Bowl
I remember a fuzzy time in my childhood, packed upstairs usually with some kind of snack, and an NES controller. Although I was born in 1991, and it was around 1995-1996 that I started to actually play video games, I still vividly remember the times playing Tecmo Bowl on the NES with my brother. I would always find a team to try and beat my brothers dreaded Bo Jackson offense, but nothing could ever defeat the dreaded Bo Jackson. Tecmo Bowl was an American Football (henceforth called football for the rest of the essay for all you confused europeans) released on the NES in 1989. It featured 12 NFL teams (The names of the teams were different, but the players on the team and the cities were all the same) each with their own unique players and playbook. This gave every single team some type of individuality, much like how a fighting game has different characters, in Tecmo, each team did something different, and excelled at different things. The San Francisco team was an incredibly well balanced machine that had its offensive focus on passing the ball, Chicago was very similar but was better on the run due to Walter Payton. While these two teams were both incredibly well balanced, some would still choose LA team, due to the effectiveness of Bo Jackson. Some would even pick the New york team due to the incredible Lawrence Taylor. Each team had its own reasons to play, and although a few teams were clearly the cream of the crop, you could win with any and all teams if you were better. Tecmo Bowl is still lauded today for being a great game, but it isnt the highlight of the series.
In December in 1991, the greatest sports game of its time was released for the NES. Tecmo Super Bowl took the foundation of what made Tecmo Bowl so great, and improved everything about it. The first, and most notable thing was that tecmo Super Bowl had every single NFL team in the game, full names and all. All 28 current NFL teams were represented, which compared to the meager 12 teams in the previous version, is astounding. Each team had its logos, nickname, and starters available to play. The next was the increase of 4 plays to 8 plays, which opened up the game a lot more for offenses. This was also helped by fully customizable playbook, every single play in the game was able to be used by every single team. The graphics were improved, the sound effects were improved, and finally the game play was improved.
We unfortunately only had Tecmo Bowl for most of my early childhood. By the time the N64 had come out, we had never tasted the great nectar that was Tecmo Super Bowl, but my brother surprised me one day, and had purchased a used copy of the game off of Ebay. It was love at first play. We each picked our teams, I being a Packer fan chose the Green Bay Packers, featuring Don Majkowski, Sterling Sharpe, and of course, the Tecmo legend, Bob Nelson. My brother picked the team he was always comfortable with, the Bo Jacksons err I mean the Los Angeles Raiders. What I found in this game though astounded my young mind. I loved every single second of gameplay, and I basked in its glory for the rest of my life. But this isnt about my experiences with Tecmo Super Bowl, i want to explain to you what made this game so incredible, that even today, it still holds up. Its almost asinine to think that a 22 year old sports game would still hold up considering its almost always a drag to play older Maddens, but time has aged Tecmo Super Bowl like a fine wine.
You would think that after over 20 years of game production, and technology, we would see a plethora of football games that were much better than Tecmo Super Bowl. While some would argue that some of the mid 2000 Maddens, NFL 2k5, and Blitz games are better, I would argue against that. While the Maddens, and 2Ks might be better simulations of the sport, I dont think that they surpassed the gameplay of Tecmo Super Bowl. Tecmo Super Bowl for the NES was controlled with a mere 2 buttons, and a d-pad, and yet remains way more complex in gameplay then the Maddens of the world. But what makes Tecmo that much more complex than the Maddens and the NFL 2K games. Theres a series of design decisions that are just perfectly crafted out to be as fun as possible. Sure, these mechanics might not be realistic, but games arent about realism, and almost every single design choice found in Tecmo Super Bowl was astounding. Im going to mostly focus on the game play, and not on the fact that it was the first sports game to ever have every team from the league, and basically every starting player in the sport. I could go on about how incredible it is, but that doesnt age the game at all. What ages the game so well are the design decisions that follow; the zig-zag and running in open field, the long throw, defense, customized playbook, the music, and finally how awesome the players were to play as. Each of these things define Tecmo Super Bowl to me and leave it in a class of its own for football video games.
The Art of Zig-Zagging
Most football games nowadays to replicate the feel of the game have made it very simple to just have your runner hit the hole, see if he can break, maybe juke, or spin, and go off to the races. The running play is thus a short spurt of skill, followed by a lot of holding the sprint button as you run down the field. Players do not miraculously catch up to you, and if they do, its most likely because their speed stats are astounding. Tecmo Bowl decided to give realism the middle finger and invent an awesome comeback feature. Running in tecmo was a lot easier in comparison to running in Madden or in 2k. You have a better ability to move vertically and laterally and make the opponent miss. This leads to large holes, and large plays.
Tecmo in their creative genius developed a system to counteract this problem, as a football game like this would not be a fun one to play defense on. So they implemented a system where your defenders would gain momentum, especially the one controlled by the player. So even in the beginning of the play if you found yourself running the ball down the field with Bo Jackson, the fastest offensive player in the game, you would still be in constant danger, as the defenders would run with incredible speed straight at you. This comeback mechanic would be incredibly stupid if it wasnt for the zig-zag. The Zig-Zag is the way you run the ball in Tecmo in open field, as you have 6-7 or of the fastest players on the field, you must run in a zig-zag pattern to do two things. 1, you sometimes slow the opponent down for a split second, as the game slows down a defensive player if they change direction, and 2, you have to gode them into diving at you, limiting the number of players youre going to have to deal with. Suddenly, long runs in Tecmo no longer are that of the Maddens of the world, where only a short burst of talent is needed, suddenly, the long runs become a game of bullet hell, where instead of small projectiles, football players running at incredible speed want to tackle you. This is where the skill of the game comes in.
In this video, you can see the player in this video, Bo Jackson, perform an incredibly crazy play. Although, im pretty sure this is tool-assisted, you can do all this if you are good enough at the game;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8PBvOxicz-0
The zig-zag increases the skill necessary in this game tenfold. Every single play will most likely require a zig-zag at some point, as you fight for every single yard. No longer will it be you just running straight while holding the sprint button, now, not only does the defensive player get a chance at the comeback, but the offensive player gets a chance to dodge those players. None of the players feel like theyve lost, and both of the players playing are able to show off skill to help them out. Games are won and decided by the zig-zag, and its surprising that no other arcade football game had this mechanic.
The Long Throw; The Majik Man to Sterling Sharpe
One of the most underrated parts about this game is the ability to throw the ball as far as you want. Yes, you can literally throw the football from one end of the endzone to the other, but whats so incredible about that. Well, let me give you a look at some of the other Tecmo games at the time. In tecmo Bowl for instance, you could not throw the ball as far as you wanted, same with tecmo Super Bowl for the NES, and you might be asking why thats such a bad deal. Well, the unfortunate AI issues present for the NES did not allow for fluid passing. If you wanted to throw the ball on a fly route (long straight route from the receiver) the player didnt have the wherewithal to stop his route at the 30-50 yard passing limit. The player instead would just stop his route, instead of going. In Tecmo, this is a cardinal sin, for by the time you throw the ball, the defense would have accumulated enough momentum to catch up to your receiver and intercept the ball. This made fly routes fairly useless, which is a shame because they open up the field. this limitation was ended in the NES version of Tecmo Super Bowl though, and the effects are incredible.
First of all, I dont think theres anything cooler than throwing a 90 yard bomb for a touchdown to a wide open wide receiver. Next, this opens up the passing game quite a bit, now excuse my terrible art for a second.
In this picture, the offense is represented by a white circle, while the defense is represented by black squares. Now, this is important to note, but you may only use 1 defensive player throughout the entire play. So lets say that the defensive player picked the linebacker represented by a black circle.
So now, the offense decides to call a pass play on first down, the defense picks a run play thinking the offense might be thinking of running (well talk about play strategy later). This choice will leave the outside wide receiver wide open who will just happen to be running a fly route, while everyone else on the offense runs routes such as those.
Theoretically if no one on the defense is covering, we have this much of the field open to be passed, and the defender must choose whether he wants to cover the deep player, or one of the undercover players. This play theoretically will leave this much of the field open to pass on
Generally the player will cover the deep player as to not get burned, and hope the Qb will either get sacked, or throw a bad pass. If completed, the defensive player with mass amount of momentum will have the time to go and tackle the player with the amount of time necessary before the other player scores. If they choose to ignore the deep passer, then the pass will go flying to the receiver, and that will be a 70 yard bomb. But whats bad about limiting the amount of yards passed you may ask. Well, it gives defensive players too many options, and makes passing the ball even more difficult. Lets take the same route, but say that the QB can only pass it a certain amount of length, this would be the amount of area that the defense would have to cover;
This almost halves the amount of screen that is necessary to defend. While tis might not be an issue in a game like Madden, the defenders do not gain momentum in those games. This makes the deep ball irrelevant in all ways. Suddenly, the defender can practically cover every single player, as theres nothing to keep him honest since the receiver will stop and run back to get the ball. With the amount of speed you can produce in the Tecmo games, this is a passing nightmare that leads itself to the passing game being not as good as the running game. When youre in an offense that needs the passing game to give players like Bo Jackson some space and to keep the defense honest, you need a large vertical passing game.
DE-FENCE
You would think that with all of these things helping the offensive player, defense would be horrendous to play, but you might be surprised by the low scores in a lot of competitive Tecmo matches. The defense has a ton of options available to them to succeed in this game. Weve already gone over how important momentum is in this game, each defender had that ability, but sometimes thats not enough, especially with Bo Jacksons sick zig-zagging ability. But fear not, you have the ability to do something great. you have the ability to playcall against the other team.
Now in Tecmo, both sides are given the ability to call plays, although on defense, you do not pick defensive alignments, you pick plays from the offensive playbook that the other team is running. The goal in this is to pick the same play as the other player, and if you do, your players become super speedy gods of destruction and will almost instantly tackle the opposing player for a loss. This turns the game into a tactical game of bluffing, as being obvious with your play calling will lead you to sacks, and tackles for loss. Also, your defense will react based on the play you picked. if you picked the wrong run play for instance, your defense will do well against the run, but will not cover anybody, but if you pick a passing play, your opponent can run very easily, while having most of his players covered. One of the most important parts of Tecmo is strategy of plays, and when to call them.
Has Bo Jackson been running all over you in the game, make sure you pick a running play and try to stop that monster. If you notice your opponent picking running plays to counteract your offense, throw with Jay Schroeder, and rip them to shreds with the passing game. Suddenly, Tecmo Super Bowl becomes a game of deception, almost a game of chess, as you must think carefully of what your opponent is going to do before hand before picking your play. And with this in mind, you can stop Bo Jackson, Joe Montana, and the many other ludicrous players in the game even without playing the game. Strategy and skill are intertwined just like it is in real football, and every play call counts. But let me get to the next point and talk about the playbook.
Playbook Customization
This is the part where Tecmo gets deep. One of the best features of this game is the customizable playbook. Playbook customization becomes an important part of a balanced offense. In football, you never want to telegraph the play youre going to perform, and its no different in Tecmo. In Tecmo, since theres a limited number of plays, you must be able to hide your offense. This forces players to pick plays that all have similar formations, as to not give away the play youre picking.
If you only have one play in your playbook with a shotgun formation, and you pick that play, your opponent will know what play is going to happen and have his player cover the play well. Surprise is important for Tecmo, as you want to keep your opponent guessing to make sure the player doesnt read exactly where your player is going. This provides an incredible amount of depth and customization and even more deception to the game, and provides almost an infinite number of playstyles to be performed. This is one of the deepest part about Tecmo, as learning the teams is no longer good enough, you must learn every single play in the game and find a way to counteract the play.
The Music
Now, i'm no musician or music critic, but Tecmo Super Bowl had some ballin ass music, instead of writing a large portion about why Tecmo Super Bowl has great music, ill just post the some of the songs and let you decide. Legitimately, one of the best soundtracks on the NES IMO
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKSspY9Kpqc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AAaUfo9xpDs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VnERZZYbIbw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B98VClyIeHI
The Players
Much like how a fighting game is generally defined by how awesome the characters are, Tecmo Super Bowl has some of the most awesomely fun players to use in a football game. We all know the like of Bo Jackson, Lawrence Taylor, and other NFL superstars in real life. Tecmo Super Bowl makes you remember the awesome players of the game. This isnt some random occurrence, since the defense is given so many tools to stop you, and the offense is given so many tools to get past you, you ride these players for all their worth. Christian Okoye could break tackles like nobodies business, Curt Warner would always return kicks for TDs against you, Dan Marino had laser passes, and every important player had its own defined characteristics that made them unique. This adds so much to the depth of the game, and replayability as you want to try out every single team and player in the game. Not only that, you discover players, and find out which players to use and which players to avoid. While madden and other football games do this somewhat well, Tecmo does it the best, as you cant just use your best player over and over again like you could with Vick in Madden 2004. A good opponent will read your offense and develop better strategies to stop them. For as good, and fast as Bo Jackson is, nothing is faster than a defensive player with the momentum of a train.
Conclusion
Tecmo Super Bowl is legitimately one of the greatest games ever made. Much like how Rock Band and Guitar Hero could get people hyped on music they never liked, so can people who dont like football enjoy Tecmo Super Bowl. Tecmo managed to create something thats fun and easy to get into, while at the same time being an incredibly deep and sophisticated competitive game. Its so deep that even 22 years later, there are still still competitive leagues in existence that play this game online through emulators. Heck, Tecmo Madison, the largest Tecmo Super Bowl event managed 56 players for a 22 year old football game. If that doesnt show the lasting appeal and greatness of this game, then i dont think anything will.