Tecmo Super Bowl
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Tecmo Super Bowl | |
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| Developer(s) | Tecmo |
| Publisher(s) | Tecmo |
| Platform(s) | NES, SNES, Sega Genesis |
| Release date(s) | 1991 |
| Genre(s) | Sports, American football |
| Mode(s) | Single player, multiplayer |
Tecmo Super Bowl, or TSB, is an American football video game for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) 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 real players. (previous games used the real teams or the real players but not both). 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 Although the game is in some ways considered outdated, it was very successful in the final years of the NES[1] and enjoys an extensive cult following.
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[edit] History
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Please help improve this article or section by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page. (June 2007) |
After the initial success of Tecmo Bowl, Tecmo followed up with the release of Tecmo Super Bowl in 1991. The original Tecmo Bowl was licensed by the National Football League Players Association, while NFL Football for NES managed to obtain only a team license.[citation needed]. Tecmo Super Bowl added the NFL license making it the first NES game to feature both actual NFL teams and players of the time. Also unlike the original Tecmo Bowl, which had twelve teams, Tecmo Super Bowl features all 28 teams. In 1997, both Electronic Gaming Monthly and IGN, video game publications, named TSB one of the top 100 video games of all time.[1]
Tecmo Super Bowl is still played today. There are national tournaments around the country. More info can be found on www.knobbe.org and www.tecmo.us . Tecmo Super bowl is also played online using Emulators and Roms. There are over 100 players online who participate in leagues, tournaments, and pick-up games. You can play with the original rosters, updated, past, college and many other rosters available. www.tecmo.us and www.sois.com/tpc
[edit] Gameplay and features
Every team in TSB was modeled after a real life NFL franchise. The teams used the same logos and the same city affiliations used by the NFL. As in real life, each team had its own offensive playbook, but unlike real life the defense must simply be chosen from the offensive team's plays in an attempt to anticipate specific plays (thus, there are no specific defensive plays or formations).
In the original NES Tecmo Bowl, each team had 20 players on its roster, with nine players for offense, nine players for defense, a kicker, and a punter. In Tecmo Super Bowl, each roster had 30 different players. Each team had eleven defensive players, which could not be substituted, nor injured. Each team had seventeen offensive players, which included eleven starters and six substitutes. At any given time, eleven players were on the field for each team, consistent with NFL rules. A kicker and a punter were also on the roster.[2][3]
In addition to using real teams and players, TSB incorporated the full-length 1991 NFL regular season schedule for the game. The playoff format, including the Super Bowl and the post-season Pro Bowl game, was also used.
Tecmo Super Bowl retained the arcade-style football gameplay of the original which included the ability to break tackles (many players had "94" hitting power ratings, giving them the ability break any non-sliding tackles). However, the game added new features, such as statistics tracking that included All-Time NFL season records, expanded and editable playbooks[4], the ability to substitute players, varying conditions of players, fumbles, and player injuries. As it had previously, the game used cutscenes for important events like touchdowns and halftime shows. Tecmo Super Bowl also added cutscenes when injuries or big plays occurred.
[edit] Sequels
A Super Nintendo version of Tecmo Super Bowl was released, which fixed many bugs and added some new features. Real logos were added, especially adding team logos to the endzones in place of the Tecmo logo. Touchbacks were made possible. Fifteen minute quarters were made possible for preseason and Pro Bowl modes. Quarterback calls were also added. The game also provided three consecutive seasons.
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.[citation needed]
There are numerous sites and message boards dedicated not only to the original TSB but also roms which contain current day rosters while maintaining the original gameplay. Also there is a mod that has NCAA Football rosters from 1990.
Tecmo Bowl: Kickoff is the Nintendo DS adaptation of the original video game developed and published by Tecmo and was released in the Fall of 2008.[5]
[edit] See also
[edit] Footnotes
- ^ a b IGN's top 100 Games (ranked 24) retrieved 2006-10-31
- ^ In the first game, each team had eight players on the field.
- ^ Jim Kelly, Randall Cunningham, and Bernie Kosar were represented by generic names: QB Bills, QB Eagles, and QB Browns, respectively. This was due to the fact that the players were not members of the National Football League Players Association's marketing agreement. This prevented the NFLPA from licensing the players' likenesses.
- ^ Tecmo Bowl had four plays in the play book while Tecmo Super Bowl had eight
- ^ Harris, Craig (2008-05-01). "Tecmo Bowl Returns". IGN. http://ds.ign.com/articles/870/870922p1.html.
