Tecmo Super Bowl

The Good
Based on the original Tecmo Super Bowl for the Nintendo Entertainment System, this genesis port is true to the original. Plain and simple, this is fun, fast-paced, arcade-style football at its best. First off, you've got all the teams (think early 1990's here), tons of statistics for individual team players, ability to change team players, ability to change your playbook at any time during the game, frequent animated scenes during plays, and fast-paced play with energizing sound-effects and music. You can select the weather conditions for the game and time allotted for each quarter. Passing plays, running plays, dives, touchbacks, fumbles, interceptions, sacks, and timeouts, the game has it all.

The Bad
Really not many complaints here. The game is meant to be played in a fast-paced, low "strategy" manner. For example, you can only control one defensive player per play (and selected ONLY before the offense snaps the ball) so you cannot select another defensive player who may be closest to the ball after the snap, you cannot call audibles; and when you choose a long-yardage passing play (a bomb), you're receivers will disappear of the screen since you can only see about 30 yards of football field at a time. When you play the game, you'll see very quickly that it's played and controlled in a very different manner than the Madden football series (and other football games) where the gameplay is much slower BUT with much more control of plays and players (offensively and defensively) and strategy is much more important. In essence, these games are geared more toward football "purists" whereas Tecmo Super Bowl is geared toward those who may not even know much about football in general and may not even care to learn but want the simplicity of play.

The Bottom Line
Anyone who likes football video games will like this (maybe even love it!). Set apart from most other football games like the Madden series, Tecmo Super Bowl gives you the opportunity to make big plays without having to deal with formations, intense strategy decisions, and slower game play. For a fun, fast-paced, arcade-like football game, Tecmo Super Bowl is a nice change of pace in the large pool of football video games.