Tecmo Super Bowl

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Tecmo Super Bowl
Developer(s)	Tecmo
Publisher(s)	Tecmo
Platform(s)	NES, SNES, Sega Genesis
Release date	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 players (with the player rosters and attributes based on those of the 1990 NFL season).^{[citation needed]} Although the game is in some ways considered outdated, it was very successful in the final years of the NES^[1] and enjoys an extensive cult following.

Contents 1 History 2 Gameplay and features 3 Sequels 4 Glitches 5 Tecmo Tournaments 6 See also 7 Footnotes

[edit] History

Please help improve this article or section by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion. (June 2007)

After the initial success of Tecmo Bowl, Tecmo followed up with the release of Tecmo Super Bowl in 1991. The company was able to obtain a license from the National Football League Players Association, making it the first game to feature both actual NFL teams and players of the time. Previously, in 1989, NFL Football for NES managed to obtain only a team license.^{[citation needed]}

In 1997, both Electronic Gaming Monthly and IGN, video game publications, named TSB one of the top 100 video games of all time.^[1]

[edit] Gameplay and features

Tecmo Super Bowl expanded on the features used first in Tecmo Bowl. To do this, TSB replicated certain aspects of the National Football League's version of American football.

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 and defensive playbook.

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 roughly 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 games, 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; Christian Okoye was perhaps the strongest). 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.

John Carney, Junior Seau, Jeff Feagles, and Morten Andersen are the only players in the NFL featured in Tecmo Super Bowl who are still playing as of the end of the 2007-08 season; Vinny Testaverde appeared in 5 games for the Carolina Panthers and at the end of the 2007-08 season retired. TSB was well represented in Super Bowl XLII with both Feagles and Seau in the game.

[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 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[1] 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, due for release in the Fall of 2008.^[5]

[edit] Glitches

• If you slide-tackle a running back during a play where the quarterback pitches the ball to the running back before he receives the ball, the ball will fall to the ground but the referee will blow the ball dead. However, if you just try to wrestle the running back down, the quarterback will still pitch the ball and it will be ruled a fumble.

• Some statistical categories stop calculating your stats if they get too high over the course of the season.

• If no teams clinch their division until week 17, the playoff bracket will display every team to be the Buffalo Bills.

• In the NES Tecmo Super Bowl version, Bobby Hebert was not included on the Saints roster because he had held out that season. You instead got to use Steve Walsh, who looked like Bobby Hebert in the picture... or John Fourcade.

• If a defensive player intercepts a pass but later fumbles the football on the same play, the interception is not recorded as part of the player's defensive statistics.

• If a player scores a touchdown but drops the ball after the "TOUCHDOWN!" message is flashed across the screen (e.g., he is hit by an opposing player as he crosses the goal line), the touchdown still counts, but it will not be counted in the player's offensive statistics.

• After an offensive player has fumbled the ball on a given play, he will not be credited statistically with a rushing or receiving touchdown even if he later recovers a fumble on the same play and scores a touchdown. Also, anytime an offensive player fumbles the ball, the statistics from that play are not recorded. So, for example, if a player rushes for five yards before he fumbles, neither the carry nor the yardage will be counted towards his rushing total. Similarly, if a player fumbles the ball after catching it, the reception and receiving yardage do not count towards the player's total, and the attempt and completion do not count towards the quarterback's total.

• The rules for ball placement are incorrect. In a football game, the football is placed on either hashmark or between the hashmarks based on where the ball was last possessed by an offensive player. In Tecmo Super Bowl, the ball is placed on whichever hashmark the ball last went beyond—even if no offensive player possessed the ball. So, for example, if a play begins on the left hashmark but the quarterback throws an incomplete pass over the right hashmark, the ball will be spotted on the right hashmark even though it would be re-spotted on the left hashmark in a real football game. Also, if an incomplete pass is so far out of the screen that it "jumps" to the opposite side of the screen (either top or bottom), the ball is placed on the hashmark to which the ball jumped, not the hashmark it last passed over.

• The ball-carrier can easily get away from the defense and score by running diagonally from sideline to sideline.

[edit] Tecmo Tournaments

Soon after its release, "Tecmo Tournaments," as they were called, started in arcades and bars in the early 1990s. Eventually the tournaments would pop up in many dorm rooms across the country. The largest to date, held in 2006, had over 4000 entries and a grand prize of $10,000. [2] Similar tournaments continue to be held to this day.

[edit] See also

• Tecmo Bowl: Kickoff

[edit] Footnotes