PlayStation 1
Released in 1996 by Tecmo
Grade: B-
If you take the charm away from Tecmo Bowl, what do you have left?
Where it falls in the series
It’s the third generation of a Tecmo Super Bowl game with the same exact title. It goes like this:
- Tecmo Bowl, NES, 1989
- Tecmo Super Bowl, NES, 1991
- Tecmo Super Bowl, Genesis and SNES, 1993
- Tecmo Super Bowl II: Special Edition, Genesis and SNES, 1994
- Tecmo Super Bowl III: Final Edition, Genesis and SNES, 1995
- Tecmo Super Bowl, PS1, 1996
- Tecmo Bowl Kickoff, Nintendo DS, 2008
- Tecmo Bowl Throwback, PS3 and Xbox 360, 2010
Praises and gripes
The mechanics of the game are just like the previous version, but they sure feel different with PS1’s typically choppy 3D graphics. That old 2D look seemed to pair perfectly with the game’s simplified physics, shallow AI, zig-zag running, and two-button control. This time around, something definitely seems off.
Despite that, I ended up enjoying it. Passing the ball is simple fun, dropping back and quickly choosing a receiver and firing. If you let plays develop too long, your receivers just stand there in a crowd of defenders. Sometimes you can luck out and throw to a guy who’s already off-screen who just happens to be wide open.
Unfortunately, running the ball isn’t nearly as intuitive. With the new graphics, it’s harder to see the gaps you should zig-zag through. Defense isn’t too fun either. In the Tecmo tradition, you can only control one guy once the play starts, so you don’t always get in on the action. There’s hardly any control other than a button-mashing tug of war to wrestle a guy down.
I do like that the game is fleshed out with realistic formations and plays on both offense and defense. Compared to the early Tecmo games, this one is defensive and slow. It’s unintentionally hilarious when you run free and clear for an 80-yard touchdown … in slow motion. It’s made even funnier by the constant sounds of players clashing, like a dumb kid is playing kettle drums in an echo chamber.
Those old charms that gamers are nostalgic about — the retro music and the campy cutscenes — are gone. The presentation is murky by comparison. Other little Tecmo quirks have stayed in though, like the simple kicking meter and bad translation in the menus. A punt is a “puntkick,” man-to-man defense is “normal,” and a substitution is a “member change.” You can switch the camera to a Madden-style vertical view, or even a diagonal view (if you’re a lunatic or something), but I found that the old side-view still works best.
The game really didn’t change that much, just how it looks. It’s still kind of fun in its dumbed-down way. I wonder how good it would seem if they used their new 32-bit graphics for a fresh-looking 2D update, instead of hurrying into a 3D world before the gameplay was ready for it, like every other developer in 1996.