NES

Tecmo Super Bowl

This game is pretty much the best ever football game on any system. It keeps track of stats and has league leaders for most categories. The game play is great and the graphics are fine for a nintendo game. Although the computer is easy to beat at the beginning of the season, it gets tougher during the playoffs.

Like the first Tecmo Bowl, the field is viewed from the side, but it looks sharper and more realistic. Cheerleaders line the top of the screen and the first few rows of fans are visible. Interspersed with the on-field action are dramatic cut scenes that highlight diving catches, punts, sacks, and touchdown celebrations. During field goals, you get an awesome view of the ball sailing through the uprights. Field goal kicking uses an accuracy meter instead of a power meter, which is far more challenging and satisfying. Receivers automatically leap for high passes, and many passes are tipped (which unfortunately you can't catch). As usual, there's some provocative cheerleader graphics shown during half-time. Why modern football games haven't adopted this cheerleader "feature" is beyond me! Packed with features and infinitely playable, Tecmo Super Bowl is without a doubt the ultimate football game for the NES.

I’ve played many of the Madden NFL games and lost interest in each of them because of my ability to craft a system capable of draining all the challenge from them, turning games into lengthy periods of mind-numbing repetition ending with an 80-point win. I can’t do that with TSB and that’s why I’ve never lost my desire to play it. Not only is this the king of retro football games, but in my eyes, it’s easily the greatest of all time.

While the original Tecmo Bowl may be remembered as the first great console football title, it's successor, Tecmo Super Bowl, is the franchise's crown jewel.

Whereas the Madden franchise has to have a new incarnation every year to keep its fans, Tecmo Super Bowl transcended roster changes and continues to be a dominating presence in many people's minds when it comes to football games. If you haven't played this game, you have missed something, and I suggest you go out and buy a copy of this game immediately.

One thing that the new football games have over this classic is the replay value. I mean, the silly football action will never leave us, but there’s not much incentive to play many seasons and unlock a bunch of generally useless crap. So, this game gets an average replay value score. Although it is fun to decorate your "crib" in ESPN NFL 2K5.