Tecmo Super Bowl

The Good
While I've heard the masses sing the praises of Tecmo Super Bowl until my ears bled, I must say I'm a tad disenchanted. Reviewers go on and on about control schemes, and elementary playbooks, and how easy the game is to pick up and enjoy, etc. But what seems to get missed by everyone is the monumental breakthrough by which T.S.B. was known in my college apartment: the 100 yard pass! Somehow, some say, Tecmo found away to manipulate conventional game engines and program into the throwing arm of every Quarterback super-human strength as if it were conventional, professional football. Now, in the early 90's, Joe Montana was a demi-god, and it's only fitting that his video game likeness throw a football the entire length of the field, he was a modern-day legend. But Jack Trudeau? Steve DeBerg? Dave FREIKING Krieg? These were crappier football players than I was; and I was nine. And they're chucking the rock ninety yards? Who could forget scrambling Jim Harbaugh 40 yards back to his own endzone, hurling a desperation shot with time running out, only to watch the ball spiral out of frame, zip the entire length of the gridiron, landing, almost pillow-like, into the welcoming hands of a stationary, wide-open Tom Waddle? That, my friend, is what video football is all about. The distortion of reality. That's why the Madden series remains the unstoppable power house it is today, because people want to emulate through their system what can't be done in real life. I've seen some amazing catches in my time as an NFL fan; I've seen Marvin Harrison spit in Isaac Newton's face as he contorts his body to somehow catch a football, stay in bounds, and break the plain of the endzone; I've seen these plays clear as day, from twenty different replay angles; but, I've yet to see a more amazing catch, than the ones I can throw, controlling two indistinguishable 8-bit dots, from one endzone to the other.

The Bad
The Indianapolis Colts; Tampa fans, you know what I'm talking about. The greatest football video game ever, and your team absolutely sucks.

The Bottom Line
A classic gaming experience with an untested, modern challenge.