NES box art for Tecmo Bowl, the cover of NEStalgia episode 164

164 · TECMO BOWL

▶ Game info

VerdictEssential

GenreSports

ReleasedFebruary 1989

SeasonSeason 5

DeveloperTecmo

PublisherTecmo

April 2, 2021 · 1 hr 14 min · transcript available

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Organize your own roster and write your own game plan. Match your gridiron skills against the computer or another player.

From the snap, total control of every pass, block, run and tackle is in your hands. Tecmo Bowl. The game of guts and glory!

SHOW NOTES

Tecmo Bowl Longplay

Tecmo Bowl vs RBI (GREAT WEBSITE)

Tecmo Bowl Arcade

Tecmo Super Bowl II: Special Edition

Tecmo Super Bowl III: Final Edition

Tecmo Bowl: Kickoff (Nintendo DS)

Family Fun Football

Tecmo Bowl Throwback

Buffalo Bills Season Tickets

Our verdict: Essential

Tecmo Bowl is our first football game since Ten Yard Fight, and it makes that one look like a wooden peg board game. It has real players (Tecmo had the Players Association license but not the NFL's, so no team names and no Bills, which Sean took personally), four plays, and quarters a minute and a half long. We liked it.

What makes it work

It feels like football. Quarters are short, but you can still feel a story forming: a slow start, a comeback, a long pass on third and 13. The clock stops after every play, so we always felt we had a chance to come back.
Four plays, rock-paper-scissors. Offense picks a play and defense guesses it. Guess right and your computer teammates swarm the ball, usually for a sack or an interception. Picking takes two buttons so your opponent can't see you choose.
Hidden depth. Every player has ratings, every team has its own playbook, and some kickers can't make a 50-yard field goal even with a full meter. Kevin Mack of the Browns became the run game for one of our matches, shrugging off tacklers like a greased-up Family Guy character.
Arcade mischief. Tacklers fly through the air like NFL Blitz, there are late hits after the whistle, and the halftime show has cheerleaders and a hot air balloon. Aim for 80 percent on the kick meter, since a full bar can send the ball nowhere.
Coach mode. Two players only: you just pick the plays. You could talk your dad into it.

What gets in the way

Defense is hard to love. You control one player and can only switch before the snap. Sam never knew when to switch, and the ball moved too fast to see who had it. On offense the problem reversed: juggling the quarterback and the arrow for who gets the pass meant piles of interceptions. They're common either way, which is why scores stayed around 17 to 10.
No rules to speak of. No penalties, no fake punts, no trick plays, and no coach mode against the computer. We decided missing penalties were a kindness, since a false start you didn't cause would make us tear our hair out.
Bo Jackson. He plays for the Raiders and is unbeatable, and we barely touched him. He says he never played the game.

Beyond the game

There are three versions of the cartridge. Tecmo Super Bowl II brings 16 plays, trades and injuries, and III adds audibles, which fixes several of our complaints.

The bottom line

Essential. The vote split: Mike, Sean and Sam voted yes, Joe voted no. Joe agonized over it, but with so many football games out there he saw this as a niche for retro fans. The show needed three yeses, and the third landed. Sam called it perfect for what it's trying to be. The deciding vote argued it may not even be a sports game, just a fun arcade game with football's rules, and the top of the genre on the NES so far.

Written from our conversation in this episode.

Now strap on your helmet and go for it!
Introductions
- I feel like it’s the first time in a while I don’t have any qualms with the title
- Sean, No Bills in this game...but weren’t they good during this time?
Overview
Gameplay
- Talk your game
- Picking Plays
  - only four offensive plays
- Rushing
- Special Teams
- Passing
  - Choose with A and throw with B
  - Really makes you realize the pressure
- Breaking out of a tackle
- Defense
- Season Mode
- Presentation
- Bo Jackson
  - “To be honest with you, I’ve seen a kid play that game once. I have never played that game. I still have the ‘Tecmo Bowl’ cassette, in a box somewhere in one of my storage places or in the attic. But I’ve never played the game.”
- There’s a ton of depth going on here
  - technically any other Sports game could also achieve, but hasn’t
- Coach Mode
- Roster Changes
  - The original Tecmo Bowl for the NES features Eric Dickerson as running back and Albert Bentley as a kick returner for Indianapolis.
  - A later version that was released (white and gold seal) had Albert Bentley as running back and Clarence Verdin as a kick returner, instead.
  - A year later, the Japanese Famicom version of Tecmo Bowl has many roster changes (from the same twelve teams available in the North American version) that are included in the game to reflect the year it was released (1990).
Sequels and Spinoffs
- Arcade Version first
  - The original arcade version is distinguished by a large two-monitor cabinet, support for up to four players, and the ability to break tackles.
  - Only two fictional teams can be chosen: the Wildcats and the Bulldogs.
- Tecmo SUPER Bowl
  - NES, SHOULD have the Bills this time. Will be interesting to see how they improve the formula
- Tecmo Super Bowl II: Special Edition
  - trade players
  - 37 team roster
  - defensive players can now be injured
  - fair catch and two-point conversion (which was first introduced to the NFL in the season the game was released)
  - The offensive playbook was expanded to 16 plays
- Tecmo Super Bowl III: Final Edition
  - switch out plays and another put in its place in the middle of a game.
  - Super Star Editor allows for creating players while using a limited point system
  - Free agency
  - Depending on the home team, different stadium types
- Tecmo Bowl: Kickoff for DS
  - I can’t speak to how true it stays to the Tecmo franchise, but it does add super powers.
  - A Wii version was also announced, but was quietly cancelled and retooled into a new game called Family Fun Football.
    - I didn’t know you could cancel Wii Games. There’s so much shovelware.
- Tecmo Bowl Throwback (360, PS3)
  - Game looks like trash and it was during that time where people used shitty 3D graphics and low budgets to revive classic games
EGL
- Everything I ever wanted in a sports game on the system. Feels like it definitely deserves to be up here. It’s in a league of it’s own right now for that genre.
Next week - Ultima: Exodus

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Tecmo Bowl, now strap on your helmet and go for it!

And welcome to NEStalgia, a chronological exploration of every NES game released in North America. I'm Mike. I'm Sean. I'm Joe. And I'm Sam. I feel like it's the first time in a while where I don't have any qualms with the title of a Nintendo Entertainment System video game. It's very easy. It's very to the point. It's Tecmo's Bowl. Yeah, it's a bowling game from Tecmo. No. The serial simulator from Tecmo.

It's the Tecmo Bowl, guys. Aren't you excited? Yes. I guess they couldn't say Super Bowl. Well, I guess they will eventually, so that points out of the window. But what about Tecmo Bowl is a football game, and we haven't played a football game since our very first episode, Ten Yard Fight. Sean, you've been waiting for this day, but I'm not going to go to you first. I'm actually going to ask Joe. Joe, have you been anticipating? Okay, I'm still going to talk first. Joe, have you been anticipating a football game?

Yeah. Ever since Ten Yard Fight really just opened my eyes to how good football games could be, I've been waiting for the next one. Kidding, obviously, because Ten Yard Fight was pretty bare bones. But I knew this was coming. I've heard a lot of good things about it, so I knew it was coming. And then, Sam, be honest with me. Is Ten Yard Fight even in your memory anymore? Can you even think about what we were doing in 2018?

A little bit, yeah. I remember it was vertically oriented, which is kind of weird, I guess. That's a great memory. There was a lot of tick-tick-ticking. Oh, yeah, yeah. Soundtrack. Yeah, that's right. And it's a port, right? Yeah, it was like an arcade game, but so is Tecmo Bowl. So are most of these games. But I'd have to give you a 3 for 3 on your memory. You didn't recall any misinformation. Yeah. Now, Sean, you always say go Bills at the end of our episodes. Not always, but most of the time. I'd say you have a 75% trigger rate. I'd say I've got like a 15% to 20%. Mike cuts them out for all the other ones. Yeah. We'll let people count them, and they'll get back to us with the actual percentage. But there are no Bills in this game.

Yeah. Weren't they good during this time? I mean, they were good. But this is – so if we're going to get into a little history lesson, this was released the year before the Bills did their historic four Super Bowls in a row run. They lost them all. But like this was the year before that. So I imagine that it was based off of the year prior, which this was the bickering Bills era, whereas they were pretty good, but they all kind of hated each other. And it's already a small market, so I'm sure Tecmo wasn't thinking like, that's one of the teams we got to get in there.

So I can understand the thought process, but I'm still very personally offended. I can understand. And you're not the only one from like the Buffalo-Niagara area here, but I don't think Joe is as passionate as you are. So I'm not even going to ask Joe whether he cares that the Bills are in this game. I'll tell you that I'm a Bills fan because I'm from Buffalo, but I don't follow football too much. So like, you know, when they're playing, I watch, but I'm definitely not as big as Sean on the Bills.

Yeah, I think it's funny because we've had so many episodes recently, Friday the 13th even. I know you're going to, you're like, where is he going with this? But I'm going to be serious. Like there are so many oversights in our knowledge of information. Like we didn't know anything about Friday the 13th. And to be fair, like- Just like cultural blind spots? Yeah, but like also like football. Like you're the only one who really cares. Like this is a huge American like, you know, machine, if you will. Like the, I mean the military caters to the NFL. And here we are. And we're like, I don't know. I remember, I, you know, I watched some games maybe on TV every now and again. Like we're not, we're not football fans.

Thankfully we have Sean though, who will, I'm sure, you know. I'll fill in the blanks. Yeah, a fair assessment of what we're going with. But I could have sworn that I had turned you into a football fan. And it's okay that I haven't, but I thought I did. You turned me into a football fan as much as like seeing curling on the Olympics turns me into a curling fan.

Like it's on and I watch it and I'm like, this is great and I'm into it. But I'm not checking out the stats during the week or following the storylines, you know. That's okay. Maybe it needs like a, you know, maybe Monday Night Football should become more like Monday Night Raw. You know, maybe there needs to be some scripted moments in these shows. Oh, then you'll love the XFL. I thought you were about to suggest fantasy curling.

I think you could do it. I think that's what curling needs. Yeah. Don't be surprised if we never play a curling game on the NES. There's got to be some sort of fantasy curling.

I can't imagine. Well, there's probably a fantasy league for the Marblelympics, which has curling, right? I didn't know it has curling, but I bet it has fantasy league for almost anything. They're actually not allowed to call themselves the Marblelympics anymore. That's true. Yeah. That stinks. Anyway, enough about other sports and other things and things we don't know about.

We do know a little something about NES games and we do know a little bit about how to talk about them. And we're going to prove that right now as our resident football expert, Sean, kind of just gives us a lay of the land of Tecmo Bowl, if you will. Sean, what is unique about Tecmo Bowl compared to 10-yard fight? What makes it stand out? Why are people still talking about this game today?

I think that people still talk about this game today because it actually is the sport of football more or less. Whereas 10-yard fight was sort of – it was always sort of like an outsider's assumption as to what football could be. I was actually watching some footage of – I didn't play it again because I wasn't feeling it. But I watched a little bit of footage of 10-yard fight earlier today just because I figured there would be some comparisons.

And it's just like – it's so weird looking. It looks like another – maybe this would be like how football was played 100 years from now. But it just doesn't look like it. Whereas Tecmo Bowl is – like there are plays to call that sort of make sense and the action is clearer. There's actual players that were active at the time that are shown in the game. Whereas they didn't give – they didn't have the rights to the NFL, but they had the rights to the NFL Players Association.

It's just an all-around more accurate and polished version of football. Yeah, I think we talked in the 10-yard fight episode – maybe I'm misremembering this, but something about like 10-yard fight feeling like –

like oddly reminding us of like one of those wooden peg football games. You know what I'm talking about? Yes, yes. And like when you really think about that, it doesn't really make sense. But just play a 10-yard fight. Something about it just feels like – it's just like pieces that are – it feels like a board game to me more than it feels like football. Where this feels like it's like getting closer to the strategy behind football and there's just like more – just more you can do that – it feels like it's a nice bridge between like that primitive era and like what's to come in the future for games like this, I imagine.

Yeah, I think that there's also a lot more control in this game than we got in 10-yard fight. As far as I remember. Oh, yeah. So the – basically I remember in 10-yard fight that if you wanted to just – if you wanted to make call a running play, you just had to run with the ball and there was a button to pass it to one of your like wingbacks, which is like a thing that happens in soccer but not football because you were controlling three people at a time. And – which was also strange.

So it took a lot of weird liberties and didn't really look like football. And there's a balance here though between like being arcadey and being a sports game. And I feel like that is something that other games that we've played in the sports genre have kind of either – they've either gone simulation or they just – you know, they say who cares about all the rules and everything you need to know and stuff like that. We're just going to make this a fun game to play and it's super arcadey. Now, this game has moments like that. I think about when your players during tackles go like flying in the air.

It kind of reminds me of like an NFL blitz moment. Yeah, it's very blitz. There's like – there's silly things like that and the cartoon character style is nice and cute. But then there's also like you're feeling as if you're playing – you know, I don't know. I don't play that much John Madden football.

But like this felt pretty close to that at the end of the day. Yeah, there's only four plays. But I liked how simple it was and how approachable it was because it seems like everything that you need to do in this game is clearly spelt out for you and is easy for anyone to pick up and play. And then all of the depth and hidden tricks of the teams and things you can do and, you know, balancing issues. That's all like for longtime players to kind of figure out as they continue to play the game. So there's this approachability standpoint that makes it fun to just pick up and play a game. But then there's also people who are going to want to play through all the weeks of the season and play all the various different teams against the computer.

Yeah. Well, what you said about this sort of feeling – like it's got glimpses of like what Madden will become. And I think you're right because this game actually gives you that feeling of like the actual rhythm and flow of an American football game. Like it's a pretty – like the minutes – I mean the quarters are only a minute and a half long.

But there's enough time that you can sort of feel the narrative forming where like you may have had a slow start but you can make your way back. And there are different situations for different plays. And it's not just like in a lot of sports games where you're just like spamming shoot or spamming pass and you'll eventually get there. There's actually – like it's actually a pretty varied experience that it's complex enough to give you.

Real fast though, the clock in this game, it's playing tricks on me all the time. It's the shortest amount of time I can imagine being in a football game while also having the slowest clock I've ever seen. You know, there's something about like you only get two minutes on the clock but it moves much slower than one second I got to imagine. Either that or I just am not good at telling what one second feels like. But it doesn't feel like I'm just playing a two-minute quarter.

Well, I think it's moving at a second per second but unlike NFL football, the clock is stopping after every play. Oh, maybe that's it. Yeah. It always felt like I had a chance to come back in my games and stuff like that. So I appreciate that. You know, there's something about these games being short enough to play in a burst but also not – you know, they're not an investment of your time either. Like you could just play one game against a friend and then be done with it. You know, like just settle it there. Joe, can you tell me about, you know, your thoughts on the game and the gameplay and maybe a specific game that you played?

Yeah. So I have one like – one thing that really jumped out to me specifically about a couple times that I played in which interceptions are really easy. Did anyone else get that? Did you get that? I feel like, first of all, I threw a lot of interceptions but I think I caught way more interceptions than I threw to the point where like I felt like it was – it almost made it too easy.

Did anyone else get that or am I crazy? I didn't catch a lot of interceptions but I threw a lot of them. I started to get the gist of it after a few games. I think – because me and Mike played a couple multiplayer games against each other and I just couldn't for the life of me figure it out. I was doing fine against the computer but I just couldn't intercept Mike. And I think that there are a couple – there's a couple things about interceptions that aren't fully explained. Like I think you need to just be better positioned than most people will catch on.

And maybe a lot of people just subconsciously put themselves in the correct position but for some reason I wasn't. So I was having a hard time intercepting Mike but I did eventually get the gist of it. Yeah. Well, that was one thing I was thinking of though because I didn't play against another player. I think it would probably be a lot – I think that problem would go away if it wasn't AI. You know, that's just from playing the computer.

And again, I also half the time didn't think I was going to intercept the ball and then suddenly it would just be like interception and like flashing and everything. And I was like, oh, okay, great. I guess I intercepted it. So I felt like, yeah, maybe I was kind of just – just naturally wherever I positioned myself was always somewhere that the game kind of made it a little easier to intercept. Wanted you to be, yeah.

I think it's the frequency of the interceptions though that's like the off-putting part, right? It's not that they happen. It's not like how they happen because honestly, you know, I've seen it happen where you're facing the quarterback. So it seems like, yeah, that would be like a fair catch from the defensive team to get that interception. Then there's ones where like you're like right on top of the guy and you catch it and you're like, okay, I guess. Like we're both there. I don't understand why he couldn't have caught it instead. Maybe it was left to a dice roll, if you will. You know, like the game simulates that.

Or there's other times I think Sean and I ran into one where I was behind him and I caught the ball. And I think that was just a glitch. I don't know if it's that or if it's just like, because I know that the teams and each individual players has their own stats that are running in the background. Like you're saying with the dice rolls, maybe that's part of it too. Like it's just a better defensive player that has like a wider range of like interceptionable area. I don't know. But the frequency is just higher overall than a regular game. And I think stuff like that is okay with me because, again, that's the arcadey experience of it, right?

You get, yep, it's fast moving. There's never like, honestly, if most passes were completion, these would be very high scoring games, right? You'd be seeing 40 something to 30 something final scores. Most of the games I played, it was only like 17 to 10 or something like that. Because of, not just because like the defense is like stopping and there's a lot of punting, but because there are just so many turnovers.

Right. Yeah, it almost makes me wonder if they were trying to correct the little issues that it being a video game makes it easier to score or something. And they were trying to kind of like add some RNG that makes it so it broad picture wise feels more like an actual football game. Yeah, I think it was like a balanced thing. Yeah. Even if that ends up changing some of the more specific things that don't feel natural.

Sam, was there anything specific in the games you played that you wanted to call out as like a memorable moment or something that stood out to you from a gameplay point of view?

Just that I was really bad at defense. I had to look up like strategies and I can't tell you what they are, but I just could not wrap my head around defense. Who would you play as? I played as Team New York. Oh, okay. I'm surprised. I hear that the New York Giants have a great defense in this game. I mean, my defense on their own were good, but I was just kind of struggling to the player input side of things was where I struggled. Not the... Was it the diving? Were you diving a lot to nowhere? No, I was just like it was hard for me to see who had the ball and who was throwing it because it just happened so quickly. And I didn't have that problem on offense. Like on offense, I can pick my receiver when I'm throwing it.

But... And I had no problem running the plays too. I think that was fun. But there's something about being on defense where I just could not keep track of... Like, you know how you press A to switch characters to control which defender you're controlling. And that... I feel like I never knew when to switch characters.

And it's just something that I think that I didn't play enough to get better at defense. And it would have maybe stuck a little bit better and I would have developed strategies and stuff. But for my time playing, I really struggled in that regard. And so my games were high scoring on both sides.

I had the exact opposite problem where I was too good. No, I'm just kidding. Where I was bad at offense. Like I was fine at defense. I was intercepting over and over again. But like on offense, I couldn't get anything done because of the same reason. I could... When you pass, you choose who to pass to by pressing A. And I just couldn't split my focus enough between the quarterback and the receivers. Yeah, because you're trying to scramble around and not get hit. Exactly. And like who's the arrow pointing to? Who am I going to pass to? And I end up passing a bunch of interceptions because I wasn't able to look at like who was covered and pass it quickly enough. So yeah, it's funny because I had like the exact opposite thing that I was bad at.

Now, Joe, wouldn't you argue that that experience with the passing, being the quarterback and having to like toggle between the different players, but also keep your eye on defense as they're, you know, at any moment they could sack you. Wouldn't you argue that that's like a really true experience to being a quarterback is like how just how quick these guys have to make the call to throw it to the right person? I thought about that. I thought about that a lot. And maybe it loosely translates.

But when I was really thinking about it, I was like, as when you are a quarterback and you are actually there, you still only have to look in one general direction. Or is this I just had to keep glancing back and forth to the quarterback? And you know what I mean? Like that's what was good. That's what was making me like not be able to see.

But that's still like across like nine inches. I mean, that's true. But still, I mean, I guess I guess like I said, I'm saying loosely it probably translates where it's like it's it gives you that level of difficulty. But I feel like it's a totally different problem. I just couldn't see where that arrow was pointing because I wasn't, you know, I wasn't. Yeah, I think that there's definitely some timing and reaction to get used to that really it gets you.

It gets you feeling like very present and in the moment like playing this game because you're like, all right, here's the snap. I got to get ready. Got to like make sure I know where my guys are going. You know, you're really you really have to sit down and focus when you play, which I think is fun. Sean, you don't know how big my screen is.

I could take this to the movie theater and play it for all you know. Maybe I got to really turn my whole head to look between them. One thing that I would say about playing defense in football games, I don't think it's ever been solved because I think even in even in modern day Madden, it's still like no one's really having fun playing defense because you can only control one of the 11. And so what I would do in my younger years is I would just like always just run at the quarterback and see let the computers take care of everything else. And that's sort of what I ended up doing in this game, too, because you can't switch characters. You can't switch players in the middle of a play or at least that's what I was.

That's what I figured. There might be some hidden way that you can do it in the middle of a play. But as far as I knew, you could you could switch characters before the snap. And that was it. So I basically like if I ended up as like a back or like a guy in coverage and I would try and like stick around. But it's it is a difficult thing to play defense. But for some reason, when I was playing against the computer, I barely needed to play defense because the quarterback just kept getting sacked over and over by my own computer.

Maybe it was because I was playing against Indianapolis and maybe they were just really terrible that year. But I kind of that's when I was like, I need to play against somebody. And that's why I called in Mike to be to be my multiplayer partner.

Sean, I want to go back to what you just said, though, about not getting defense right in any football game. And I think the problem there and you've described it. So I'm just going to break it down into simpler words. When you're offense, you are the hero at every time. You know, you're the quarterback when you need to pass, when you do pass it and you catch the ball. Now you're the receiver and you're going, you know, hopefully for the first down or the touchdown, you know, like you're always the important man when you're on offense.

When you're on defense, I feel like, you know, and this is probably what Sam was experiencing, too, because he was struggling with the defense. You just don't know exactly what to do with yourself. You're like, OK, do I do I just become that guy who tries to sack the quarterback every time? Should I actually follow the play that I guessed the other team picked and just try to, like, follow that one guy, which is probably the correct answer. But not a very exciting thing to do. Right. Like, it's not very exciting to just follow somebody who might not even get the ball passed to them or just be, you know, just be one of those guys at the line who.

What are they called, Sean? This is how bad my defensive lineman. Yeah. To be a defensive linesman and just, yeah, just do nothing like that. It's important and it needs to be done. But it seems like the real way to solve this. And again, I'm not sure if this would work, but you need to be the hero at every minute during the defense, too. You need to be able to, like, switch to switch characters to the, you know, like if you want to be the guy who tries to go for the interception, you won't know which one that's getting passed to. But if you see it happening, I don't see why you shouldn't be able to. And maybe the game could even be smart enough to know that if you pick the switch character button,

you want to be switched to the one that's most active to the ball. And a lot of times in this game, my biggest complaint was just that, like, I'm out of this play and it's up to the computers now. You know, like that you're you were running past the 50, past the 40, past the 30. I wasn't in that play anymore, but my computer teammates, it was up to them to, like, run up to you and catch you.

And, you know, maybe that's how it has to be because you're just one man on this team in the grand scheme of things. But it felt weird. It felt weird to not be in total control of your team. And defense, it's a hard thing to translate because in the actual sport, I think that trying to understand defenses is like galaxy brain compared to understanding, like, offense. Because you've got different kinds of coverages. And what this kind of game, what this game does is it just breaks it down into four plays. And I know that that's like, why is it only four plays? But I think that that's like all that this game can handle in terms of, like, variations.

Because it ends up being like a four-way rock, paper, scissors. And it sort of balances out the fact that you can only be the one defensive player. So that, like, if you were savvy enough to, like, by the situation, pick the play to counter that specific play that the computer ended up running, then your computer teammates will be much more responsive and, like, sort of cover your back more.

Because the other computers players are sort of playing into your hands when you, like, correctly guess that play. So I guess there's, like, they tried to balance it that way.

But I still think that I share your frustration with not being able to switch in the middle of a play. And for only having four plays, I think that's actually fine in the scope of what this game set out to be, right? Like, you wouldn't want to actually be able to flip through a playbook and decide your move. That would, you know, I don't even know how they would do that. But, like, I just don't think that's worth it here.

The problem does come with the rock, paper, scissors thing. But I suppose, you know, there's a strategy to that. And I think we saw that best in our multiplayer game, Sean, because you sort of started reading me pretty hard as we continued to play.

And I'd like to think that, you know, at a certain point, you just won't think I'll hit run two anymore. But I just kept doing it and you just kept picking it and I just kept getting sacked. Well, at a certain point, like, you know, like in a regular football, if you're down 30 points and you like you're not going to run. But so the situational game planning sort of translates into this game. Like, I think the computer follows a pretty rational game plan as well. Like if it finds itself in a third and 13, it's probably going to try and go for a long pass.

So, like, yeah, if you know the sport, you'll be able to, like, control it correctly situationally, which I also like about it. Yeah, I'm glad. I think one of you said, you know, it was like a rock, paper, scissors.

And that's exactly what I was thinking, too. And I thought that it worked really well for me just because, you know, if I were to pick up like a Madden game, how do they even do it in a Madden game? How do you pick a play in like a more current football game? Like, you mean like if you're playing against another person or just in general? Just in general. Oh, there's... Is it like just a long list of plays or... You can group them by formation or by, like, play type or you can hit the pick for me button. Ask Madden button. Yeah. Yeah, ask Madden.

But, I mean, yeah, there's an actual, like, I think there's like 60 or something plays per team. Yeah. Because, you know, for me, someone who doesn't play football games or really watch a ton of football, it was nice to, like, start out with like, okay, well, it's just like, it's this little rock, paper, scissors type thing.

I was thinking that, like, that someone like you, Sean, or someone who is more into it would have found that a negative, though. I was thinking that, you know, it's like rock, paper, scissors, it's a nice little simple version of the game. But, um, I assume people would have wanted a more robust strategy element. Or maybe it's just... I mean, I would have... This game is doing one thing and other games are doing another and they both work, but... Yeah, it would have been nice to see, like, oh, I should pick cover two or, like, I should do an all-out blitz or somewhere in the middle somewhere. That would have been cool. But I think that, like, they've already simplified this game to be an arcade experience.

I can kind of, like, if it's going to be a defensive play to counter a run, then it's probably going to be, like, the equivalent of, like, a cover one or something. Like, I know these things don't really make sense to you, but, like, I can kind of... I mean, I understand it to an extent. I just, just for me, as far as, like, playing a video game, I'm like, I'm not looking to get too deep with it. But I just assume people who are more into it would want to.

Yeah, like, I guess it would make more sense that, like, if I'm trying to counter this pass play, because I think they're going to throw a pass, then I'm, like, I'm basically just going to say, I'll drop my guys into coverage. And that's, and that's basically what you're picking by selecting, like, counter this pass play. So it's kind of like a roundabout way of doing it. I'm sure they could have created the art to show these plays, like, these plays that they weren't just, like, counter this, to counter that, and actually be a defensive play.

But I don't hold it against it. Right, yeah. I mean, I guess there's a difference between, like, being able to just add more plays, but also designing the game properly so it still kind of has that balance that you would get, like, in real life. Because I was also thinking, you know, to pick any play, it takes two buttons.

Yeah. And why not just make it one button? Why not just make it one button? You can have six or seven plays instead of just four that way. Well, that, I think, is an interesting, not to steamroll this, but I think that the two-button thing is designed for multiplayer. Because, like, when you're playing a multiplayer, like, couch multiplayer game, like, with Madden, like, there's four face buttons, and there's usually four plays on the screen at a time.

So that you're not tipping your hand to your opponent. It was just, like, press the face button. You don't have to move a cursor to select it and tip off your opponent. So I think that since there's only two buttons on the NES controller, that whole two-button combination to make up to four selections is just a way to keep your play call secret.

Yeah, that makes sense. So I appreciated that. Just knowing what we know about the defense of the game, too, and our personal complaints with it. I'm sure some people love the defense in this game or whatever. But it feels like once you open up the ability to have even more plays at your disposal, this rock-paper-scissors mechanic we keep referring to, where if you guess the play of your opponent correctly, that, like, your computer players and you will just be in a better position at the start of the play. I think that's kind of what you need.

You know, that balance of, like, well, if that's the system that they set out to do, the less plays available, the more, like, equal opportunity it becomes. You know, if there's 16 plays to choose from, defense only gets worse because now you only have a 1 in 16 chance of picking the correct play. Yeah, or it would just be, like, a spectrum of how well you do. But, like, even when we were playing coach mode, there were times that I correctly guessed your play, but, like, it was just unlikely for it to be successful. But it did, like, kind of be successful a couple times, if you remember. So I think it still does that. Like, it's just simplified. You don't need 16 plays to play this game.

So let's talk about some of the, you know, arcade-y fun moments of this game. You know, we talked about how the NFL Blitz style, like, players falling all over the place and being thrown in the air and stuff like that. You can also break out of tackles at any given point, and your dives are pretty ridiculous. Were there anything else, maybe presentation or in the gameplay that stood out to you guys as, like, well, you know, this isn't how football's done, but it's fun this way? I like that you absolutely smash kicks when you're kicking. Like, they just go forever, you know? If you fill up the bar all the way, you just send it. I love that.

Yeah, that was another thing, actually, I thought that, you know, we've seen bars that are, like, more difficult even in, like, the golf games and stuff. Like, that bar was, I feel like, pretty easy to get, like, at least really close to full. Oh, yeah. Yeah, you're actually better off just trying to get, like, close to full than full. Because if you go for full, there's a good chance it'll carry over and you'll do the shortest kick of all time in a football game. So, you know, the difference between a 100% meter and an 80% meter is probably, like, what, five yards if even? So I think it's always better to play it safe than to kick a, you know, a 10-yard punt.

Yeah. I feel like even sometimes I felt like I was, like, three quarters of the way and it still was, like, I was, like, it was still, like, in the end zone. Yeah, I liked that they're, like, in a field goal setting because it's actually pretty easy for the defense to get behind the line and sort of threaten your kicker. That if you do get greedy and for some reason want to do a full power kick on an extra point, you're much more likely to get blocked. Because you only need, like, half the meter for that. And I was blocked many times.

And there's a ton of depth going on even in the kicking situation. Like, which team you pick, the kicker has stats that then determine, you know, the ability that they have. And so you could be at the 50-yard line trying to get a field goal. And there are teams that I don't care if you get 100%, like, they're not making it, they're not making that field goal. Yeah. But other teams can.

And I think that goes back to just, like, I don't even know how we could talk about this in a podcast episode because we'd have to start, like, actually breaking down characters and stats. But it's pretty remarkable that everybody has, like, a speed, a physicality, an offense, you know, a defense. Like, how they perform is built into, like, each one of these characters. And the game never bothers to let you know that, you know?

You even find out the names of your players in passing when they do either, like, touchdowns or interceptions and stuff. Like, that's the only time you know who's who. So it's pretty interesting. I'm sure, like, if you play this game enough, you'll know based on the play who's where. But that takes extreme knowledge. And the game's not exactly giving out that information. So there's, like, a lot of, you know, behind the curtains information here that is really enhancing the game for someone like me. Because every game can actually be different and go down differently. And, yes, the computer's kind of easy.

But I'm sure, like, if we did try to play, like, a full season and go further down the weeks, I'm sure the computer would pick up, too. And you'd get some really interesting situations out of this. So I think we just have to appreciate, without being able to go fully in-depth on it, we have to appreciate how much is put into the players and the stats of these guys. Because we haven't really seen that in a sports game. I know we saw it a bit in baseball. But I don't know how, like, I know that they had the stats. But were they actually, like, changing the performance of those characters as well?

In RBI baseball, they definitely were. And, obviously, like, in other games that have officially, or any baseball game that you just mentioned, like, yeah, they do have the same. I just don't feel, I feel like it doesn't matter as much. It doesn't feel as robust, yeah. Right, because it's not happening live. Baseball is, like, a turn-based game. You know, it's your, the pitcher's turn. Then it becomes the batter's turn. Then it goes to wherever the ball goes. Now it's in that fielder's play. Here it's, like, your entire team matters all at once and so does the other teams. There's a lot of, like, conflicting information happening on that screen that you're directly and indirectly in control of.

Going back to what you were saying about sort of the goofball moments in the game or, like, the sort of arcadiness, I really loved how, I don't think it was on purpose. It may have just been a quirk of the code that most of the time there will be a lot of late hits just randomly in the play after the whistle's blown. That kind of reminded me of Blitz.

And the other thing is the ridiculous halftime shows. I'm always a fan of a good halftime show. So, and I know that it's the same halftime show every time, but those are some great cheerleaders, I gotta say. But is it the same halftime show every time? Like, don't they change, like, the order of the pictures or something? I think they change the order of the pictures, yes. But I think it's, like, the same pool of pictures every time. I just think that's another nice touch, though, right? Like, rather than see the, it's like, oh, which one's gonna come first? Like, I bet there are some really rare orders for the halftime show where someone's like, wow, I never saw that one before.

Well, this one was the throw the cheerleader in the air and then the hot air balloon. That was crazy. Right. If we're gonna talk about one player, though, it would have to be Bo Jackson, who plays for the Los Angeles Raiders. And I don't know, did anybody pick Los Angeles? Did anybody play against Los Angeles? Were any of us at Bo's mercy? No, I, you know what? I completely forgot that, because I associate him more with Tecmo Super Bowl.

Because I remember in Tecmo Super Bowl, it was basically, if you played as Bo Jackson or Thurman Thomas, because they put the bills in that one, your run game was basically unstoppable. I think Bo did have a slight edge. But no, I actually never played against or with Bo. And I feel like it's a, I'm a dummy for not doing that. Because no, the number one player in my heart is Kevin Mack, the fullback for the Cleveland Browns. That while he was never all that, I mean, he had a couple of Super Bowl, Pro Bowls, but it's not like he was a star player.

But he basically was my run game for a couple of the games, like one of the games that me and Mike played. He's, he will always be number one in my heart now. It was something comedic about him, though, because, like, I would, I would run up to him and think like, okay, cool, we're going to get into that, like, tackle fight where you have to spam the A button. But no, he would just like, literally, I would just go flying.

It was like he was, it was like he had, you know, he was like a naked, greasy guy from Family Guy, you know, he just like, you could not get a hold of this guy. And I'm like, who is this? We actually had to look him up and see his stats. I couldn't believe that. It seems like none of us were, were interested in taking on Bow, but I did have to see it.

And I will tell you, it doesn't, like, you know, it was a cursory glance. I didn't, I didn't, like, play with him enough or anything like that. But I could understand that, like, you know, if you take it to Goldeneye with the no odd job rules and stuff like that. But it's probably the same thing here. It's just one character that just got way too many stat boosts. And it's like, if we can both just agree to not be him, then everybody wins, right?

Like, there's plenty of other teams. It's not like the whole game is the Los Angeles Raiders versus the Miami Dolphins, right? Like, if you only had those choices, that that would suck for one player. But I think there's enough to go around here that you can kind of avoid, you can kind of avoid Bow. That said, there's plenty of guides online on how to deal with him and, like, what to do and stuff like that. But from what I understand, Bo Jackson is, like, the Mewtwo of Tech Mobile. Finally, some terms I can understand here.

And he's never played Tech Mobile. He said in an interview, to be honest with you, I've seen a kid play that game once. I have never played that game. I still have the Tech Mobile cassette in a box somewhere in one of my storage places or in the attic. But I've never played the game. That's crazy, because I feel like if you find out that you're, like, the buffed-up character that's, like, unbeatable in a game, like, how do you not play that game?

It's funny, because nowadays you'll read about players complaining about their Madden rating or their, like, FIFA rating or whatever, like, in the press. So they all play them now. If Bo were a modern athlete, he'd be playing as himself all the time. Maybe part of the difference is that a lot of people still saw video games as for kids in the 80s. Oh, for sure. Rather than now, where it's, like, everyone's, you know, 20s and 30s that play video games.

And also, this happened before, too, with Mike Tyson never played Mike Tyson's Punch-Out. And I think he was actually, like, not a fan of the game or what have you. But then it was either Jimmy Fallon or Jimmy Kimmel had him play it. One of those. Well, you know what? They're both awful. On one of their Tonight Shows, they had him play the game. And it was, like, they just should have – somebody should have, like, play-tested that idea first of what it would be like if you never played a video game, for all we know. And then they tell you to, like, go up against Mike Tyson from Mike Tyson's Punch-Out against real-life Mike Tyson.

It was just – I mean, like, maybe I'll put it in the show notes. Maybe I won't because I don't want to give these guys any more views. But there's something about how awful he was that I wouldn't want to see Bo Jackson play Tecmo Bowl because it would just be disappointing to the in-game character. Why do you hate Jimmy Fallon?

He has never been funny. He just slams his desk and laughs as hard as he can. He's not funny. He's just such a friendly guy. Yeah, he's a friendly guy. I don't mean that he did anything wrong. I want to make it clear. I'm not canceling him.

So there's one player, two player, and then there's coach mode, which is also just for two players. There's no coach mode with you versus the comm, which I thought was just a weird choice. Why couldn't that be done? I will never find out. But you do need two players to play coach mode. And essentially, it's the same exact game, except for now you're only ever just guessing what the other opponent is picking as their play.

And I don't think we ever made that clear. And I don't think we ever made that clear, actually. Can I actually just make that clear for the audience? Sure. Most people don't pick plays.

Only the offensive picks a play, and defense sees the offense's plays and then gets to choose which one they think the offense is going to pick. There is no defensive playbook. Yeah, that's sort of what I was trying to get at earlier. But yeah, it's just showing you these are the things that this team does. Like whatever team on offense, these are their plays. And your defense just sort of will cater to stopping those plays. So with that said, you know, because each team has their own playbook and, you know, even their own amount of possible plays, too. Like some people will have only one running play and three passing plays, or they'll have an equal amount of running and passing plays.

And those running and passing plays are different. Even if they're titled running play one or passing play one, it's a different play per team, which is great, too, because that really helps make the teams feel different other than just the stats. Again, another thing that you couldn't necessarily do in baseball. There's no like, oh, well, this team's, you know, catcher signs are just like unbeatable. You know, like that just doesn't happen. So, Sean, coach mode, what's the verdict?

I think as basically just because there's been a few games that we played that have like a spectate mode. Yeah. Which I find to be weird. But I guess if it's possible, then add it. I think this is a step up from a spectate mode because like you still like you basically are just the coach. And you decide whether you're going to punt on fourth down or if you're going to try and go for it, if you're going to try to go for a field goal. You're going to throw or you're going to pass.

But you don't get to directly influence any of that. And like people want to do that. Like even in 2009 or something, EA came out with a NFL head coach game where you didn't play the game. But it was basically just watching Madden and playing and picking the plays. So there's always been a market for this. I think it's a really neat add-on to the game. And I guess I'm pretty good at it.

Yeah, you need to do a little more playtesting than me. But I thought you were great. And I think that there is something different going on in that mode than just playing the game. It feels like something you could talk your like father into. You know, you could be like, hey, dad, like play video games with me. You can just pick the plays. You don't have to actually do anything.

I feel like most dads would be down for that. Sure. There is something though about like why not just also include a watch mode. I don't think anybody would have a gripe if that was just in there to watch virtual football. There's something like novel about that in 1989. You know, football is only on on Sundays. Now it's like I could just watch football any day of the week on my simulated Tecmo Bowl.

You're right. They definitely could have. I mean, all of the the all the AI is there for it. I guess. I guess I just didn't think that they thought that coach mode was enough for you people. Well, see, my thing with coach mode, which brings me back to I think coach mode is really cool. Actually, I think it's a cool idea. I do wish, though, then with coach mode, you'd have like more robust strategies available to you or just more options.

Because now it feels like coach mode just does sort of become like playing. This is that's also where the rock, paper, scissors really shows itself. Like because like your performance in any given play will just vary because you're a human and you do things differently when you repeat them. But when you play the coach mode, it's pretty obvious that like if you guess that play correctly, it's either going to be like a sack or an interception.

It's very binary that way. Right. And Joe, to go to your point, though, about like in coach mode should have had something in terms of strategy or or the like. There isn't much else here other than the four plays. And then if you're on the fourth down, you get the option to go for the field goal or do the or do the punt kick or just go for it. Right. But there's there's you can't fake a kick. You can't you know, there's no like special teams in the in the way that trick plays could be done or something like that.

And I'm not saying that that needed to happen here. But we also just need to address like the lack of actual rules that this game is recognizing compared to real football. We've had a great time talking about how it feels like football, but somehow they've managed to avoid a lot of what real football actually is. And we we've let them get away with it up until now. So the fact that there's like no penalties, there's no you can't run out the lines other than during passing plays.

I'm trying to get some other things, you know, that the fake punt seemed like one that like that's that could be an easy thing to select. But how do you select that? You know, I understand. What do you guys think? Did we did we not give them a fair shake here on the on the things that they dropped the ball on? I feel like due to the arcadey nature of this, like adding rules and adding anything that would stop the flow of the game would be a detriment to it.

And so I think that it's I think the choices they've made are more than fair. And I think it's also just a frustration removal thing, because the two most common penalties in football are false starts in the holding. And when you are with whatever position you're controlling in this game, it won't be because of you, because like when you're on offense, you're not going to be playing as a lineman who holds a guy so they can't get to the quarterback.

So it's going to be a random thing that a computer does. And that would make me pull my hair out if in this game I just was getting random false starts because my team has a low discipline rating or something.

I don't think that this kind of game needs that. I pull my hair out when I'm playing Madden, like modern Madden, and I get a false start because that wasn't me. That was just the computer rolling a die and saying this is going to be a penalty play. So I think it's OK that they don't really have penalties in this. And they also don't really have incompletions in this unless you weirdly throw the ball out of bounds randomly.

Completely agree. Completely agree here. Just pose the question out there. But really, like for me, I'm the guy who when I was a kid and I had Super Mario 64, I would talk to the same NPCs over and over again because I thought there was a chance they'd say something different. You know, like that's how that's how gullible I was as a kid in video games.

And then I remember it was some version of Madden, maybe like Madden 08 or 07 or something where they introduced challenges. Like you could actually challenge the play on the field. And my friend had the game and I remember him like just showing it to me and I saw that challenges was an option. And I was like, how would that be an option? Like why would it's a it's a video game. Why would it make a mistake? The ref should just know everything.

You should never have to challenge because it's a video game. So I am like I'm on both ends of this spectrum where like if the game lends itself to the style, I'm in that world. But when you're trying to simulate like, you know, an actual sports game and then you allow for error and especially computer error on your own team, I don't think I don't think it works. Yeah, I think that it definitely lends itself of that authenticity that I would bring up in most of these sports game talks to have that weird like gray area of the computer knows that this is a bad call.

But it's just giving you so that it's like allowing that feature of challenges to express itself. But I still I agree with you. It is weird that that's even in there at all. And it definitely wouldn't work here.

So we had some roster changes through tech mobile and I'm I'm not sure you know, sometimes it depends on which version of the game you get a hold of. But I won't get into the players names or anything like that because it's not important because we never really talked about the stats anyway. But there's the original tech mobile for the NES. Okay, and then there's a later version that was released with a white and gold seal on it. And that has like, I think, either one or two different players compared to the original tech mobile.

I'm not sure like why the decision was made to change those guys. But then a year later, the Japanese Famicom version of tech mobile came out and it has like a bunch of different roster changes because there's like it was released technically in 1990. So I think they tried to change the teams or the players to be based off of those new stats from the 1989 year instead of the 1988 year. I just think it's amazing that they went through the effort of technically changing the roster on what are essentially like revision changes of tech mobile, not actual new games. And that's sort of carried on to Madden.

Yeah, and FIFA and all those other games now, but they released them as new titles. This was only ever called tech mobile, tech mobile, tech mobile. But there's three different versions of this game that I'm not sure if collectors even collect the differences. That's interesting. Huh. I mean, I'm sure somebody does. I'm sure the people who now know about it. I'm sure I just made the price of complete in box original copies of tech mobile without the white and gold seal. That just skyrocketed. That's what we do here. We manipulate the collector's market. We may or may not have bought 1,000 copies of the original tech mobile before this episode came out.

And sequels and spinoffs. You guys know you want them, right? Who doesn't want sequels and spinoffs to football games? That's me. Imagine if I just start listing off like Madden, Madden 64, you know, like just keep going. No, we're only talking about the tech mobile games here. So, obviously, the arcade version came first and we didn't really mention that at all throughout this because there are kind of two different games. The original arcade version is gigantic. It's got two huge monitors and it is an upright arcade cabinet. So, it's not like – it takes up a lot of space I guess is what I'm trying to say. But it also supports four players.

So, I thought, oh, that's kind of interesting. You could do 2v2, never 3v1. Should be four teams, four separate teams all playing at once on a big square. Right, and it's a circle. No, it's a circle. Also, the arcade version only has two fictional teams, the Wildcats and the Bulldogs. That's all you can play as. No player stats or – well, obviously, player stats built into those teams, but no NFLPA. I guess that's all you need. Why not, right? Especially if it's just putting in quarters. You really have to select – like, oh, if I can't play as the New York Giants, I'm going home.

Tecmo Super Bowl is our next – we will play that one. It's going to come up sometime for the NES. Not too soon, but it will happen. And this one should have the bills. It will. It's automatically a better game by everybody on this podcast's opinion. Tecmo Super Bowl II Special Edition. Why does this sound like a Street Fighter game?

That's because all the different, like, additions to the title. Yeah, and the Roman numeral II and Super in it. Like, this is crazy. Yeah, and Tecmo Super Bowl II Special Edition and Knuckles. Knuckles. Remastered. So if you plug this into the Sonic and Knuckles, like, double-decker thing, it would – there would be another team of just Knuckleses? I think that's how that works. Yeah. Yep.

That's funny, but thankfully that doesn't happen. Instead, Tecmo Super Bowl II seems to make a lot of interesting changes that Joe seemed to have been requesting this entire episode. So in Tecmo Super Bowl II, you can now trade players. There's a 37-team roster. Defensive players can now be injured. The fair catch and two-point conversion, which were first introduced in this same year that the game was released, are now added into the game. And the offensive playbook was expanded to 16 plays. I'm glad I was heard. I'm glad that they heard me and they followed through.

Do you think that that had to be pitched? Like, somebody had to go to an exec and be like, I got it. 16 plays. To be honest, I think – you got me thinking about this a minute ago when you were talking about the arcade version. I think that maybe this was like, okay, well, we have this game already for the arcade. Let's port it to the NES. And then they were, like, rethinking, like, what's the best way to have something that's in someone's home? And then they maybe started thinking about making it a little more robust in that way.

I mean, they probably already made that change by adding – like you guys said, adding the teams and everything, which, like, wouldn't be as necessary in the arcade. So that's my guess. And I also – I'm just kind of guessing here as well. But I would say that as people get more familiar with menu diving and just kind of using – or just video game interfaces and, you know, something like a 16-option playbook may have been, like, a lot to handle at this time.

Whereas in the future, in the early 90s, people kind of can wrap their heads around it a little bit more. Yeah, you're hungry for it now. You've had the taste of four. You're like, oh, I hope they do eight. And once they do eight, you're like, they better be doing 16.

I don't know why Madden every year doesn't just, you know – Double it? Yeah, double the number, right? There should be 1,048 plays by now. Gets more than that. Yeah. You know what I mean. I was just saying, like – Exponentially more plays. You know what I was saying. Right, right. There should be 500,000. There should be as many residents in Massapequa as there are plays in a playbook. Before we started recording.

Okay. After Tecmo Super Bowl II Special Edition comes Tecmo Super Bowl III Final Edition. That's a weird thing to say. Seems pretty declarative, too, though. Like, the final edition of Tecmo Super Bowl or of Tecmo Bowl in general? What do you think? I mean, it sounds – because I'm looking at Wikipedia right now. It seems like for a while, like, they held their end of the deal with that. Like, that was the last Tecmo Bowl game. And most people will tell you they should have just stuck to that, too. That that was their decision and they should have just, you know, sat it out after Final Edition. I think that's why you could always – you only get one final.

Right? Yeah. No, Final Fantasy. We're not talking about them. Oh. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, they're just still working on it, though. It's still their Final Fantasy. They're just – yeah. They're starting Chapter 16 now. It just does seem like such a weird decision to – like, who would make that decision to call this final? Like, what if – I don't know. It just seems like a weird business decision.

Yeah, like, they saw how much money they were making from the series and they were like, okay, we probably have enough to make just one more. Right. Like, we don't want to make any more after this because the whole marketing gimmick of this one is it's the last one. Anyway, Tecmo Super Bowl III Final Edition lets you do a couple of additional things that Tecmo Super Bowl II didn't let you do.

Now, you can switch out plays and put another in its place in the middle of the game. Oh, they got audibles in there. Nice. Yeah. In the middle of the game, you can do that. And there's a superstar editor which allows for you to create your own player and you use a limited point system and then you figure it out. It's basically modern-day creative player. And now you can play as that player. So, Sean, you would obviously be the quarterback for the Bills in this game. I would just make Josh Allen.

Nice. Instead of yourself. Very good. There is a free agency in the game, too, that you have, like, three weeks or something beforehand to sign or something like that. Or, no, that's how the trades work. Free agency is a little different. But it's in the game. And then depending on the home team, now there's different stadium types, too.

Oh, I dig it. I like that. There's, like, actual, like, closed roof stadiums and open stadiums and stuff like that. Yes. Yeah. Yep. Absolutely. So, Tecmo Super Bowl III seems just like we just keep improving, which honestly makes me, because I left out, obviously, for important reasons, all the information on Tecmo Super Bowl I, because we're actually going to play that one. It makes me wonder, how will they improve the formula from Tecmo Bowl to Tecmo Super Bowl when we're already seeing so many changes in Super Bowl II and Super Bowl III? I still have hopes.

All right. We're running a little fat here, so I'm just going to say that they made a DS game called Tecmo Bowl Kickoff. And I can't speak to how true it stays to the Tecmo franchise, but I will say that it adds superpowers. There you go. It's pretty, truly not that true to the series.

A Wii version was also announced, but it was canceled and retooled into a different game. And I didn't know you could cancel Wii games. There is so much shovelware on that system. Thousands of games on the Wii. And they canceled one? Yeah, I feel like you just release whatever you have. Just release it. Right. It'll hold up. I think that's the way to go. Tecmo Super Bowl Unfinished Edition. Yeah, they made eight Cooking Mamas. Might as well. Definitive Edition. It's just like a Bible. It's just like a pitch deck. And you just go through a menu using the Wiimote. And you're like, oh, yeah.

And last, Tecmo Bowl throwback for the 360 and the PS3. It's that same era of time where people just use shitty 3D graphics and low budgets to revive classic games. But, you know, the graphics weren't ready yet. And also, nobody wanted to see these games get remade into 3D instead of just being Tecmo Bowl again. So, I'm not even going to give this one a chance. I'm just letting you know it exists. And it's only available on Xbox 360 Arcade and PS3 Downloads. So, good luck playing it. Jeez. But we've had a long time to play Tecmo Bowl. We've had a long time to talk about Tecmo Bowl. And now, it is finally time to decide if Tecmo Bowl is going to be on the Essential Games List.

Joe, I'd like to start with you for your vote on Tecmo Bowl. These are always tough for me. As I think I say every time we have a sports game or a shmup or just a game that's not something I would usually seek out. Because I did think that this is one of, if not maybe the best sports game I think we've played so far. But we always talk about that sort of barrier to entry that sports games have. And I kind of was playing around with the idea on this one. But the idea of kind of skipping that this time. But I do think that based on, first of all, partially based on just learning now that it seems like the sequel will kind of add some things I was looking for.

And just based on the fact that as much as I think this is probably a joy for anyone who's a fan of football games to kind of go back and play and see how it works. And see that it works really well and still is functioning. I just think that there are just so many other options out there. I can't imagine that this would be, that this is something that you should play if it's not something, if you're not like interested in old versions of this game. You know what I mean? I mean, like, I don't think, like, a bunch of my friends who are, you know, who play Madden, I don't know if I would tell half of them, like, oh, you've got to play Tecmo Bowl. I think that it's more a niche for people who are really into, like, retro versions of the game.

So, for that being said, I'm going to give it a no. But just know that I agonized over that decision. It's understood. You almost gave us a shark tank there. You almost were like, and for that reason, I'm out. You know, like, it was good. Sean, your vote. I very much respect Joe's logic here because that's basically been my thought process going into every sports game. I've been fascinated by almost all of them.

But even knowing that Tecmo Super Bowl is shaping up to be the better game in the long run here, I think I have to waive the sports game edict of the NES, of this nostalgia essential games list. I know that I might be the only vote here, but I at least need to put in the symbolic vote of putting this on the essential games list because I think that they did so many things right. The game feels great. It feels like football. And it feels like football beyond just like, yes, these are the rules of football. It's just a hell of a lot of fun. All right. That is one vote.

Sam, please give your vote. So this game, I think something that we touched on a little bit, but I didn't explicitly say is it's very nuanced for what you get. And these all the players have their own stats, which impacts the game. And it lets you over time, I would imagine, pick your favorite team or pick how you want to play based on the players on the team and the four play options that you do get.

And for me, I don't really play a lot of football games or any football games. This is really the first time in a long time that I played a football game. I think my friend had an SNES and we played one of the Maddens for that once. And it was it was fun. But, you know, that's beside the point. But this one is really fun. It's a great football experience. And in my book, it's essential because it's just perfect for what it's trying to accomplish. Oh, man, I'm so glad you joined me.

Well, it's close. It's close. That's two. You know, you need three. I know. And that means that you need me. You son of a bitch. Because it rhymes. Three and me. Twenty. Forty. Twenty. Three and me. Yeah. You know what's funny? Everything about this, like, Tecmo Bowl experience that I've had, it makes me think of what I want in a sports game, right?

Like, forget about being on the NES or anything like that. Like, it's just it's got to be fun, first and foremost, to play a sports game. There are weird moments where I want to play something like out of the park baseball, which you're just like the general manager of a team and nothing exciting happens. But that's just because I really love baseball. That's not actually like a fun experience for almost anybody.

This is a fun experience that, like, the sports genre of it makes it feel like a qualifier. If we're just putting in sports games, it's in a league of its own right now. That's, this is the top of the genre right now for sports games on the NES, hands down. But I'd argue that this isn't even a sports game.

Like, this is, this is the same kind of thing we were talking about when we were talking about Mike Tyson's Punch Out being like a rhythm game. This is just a fun arcade-y style game that happens to have most of the rules of football, but also exists as, like, just a fun video game. It doesn't exactly emulate and presentationally give you football. It just takes the football rules and figures out a way to make them work on an NES with limited restrictions.

I'd argue that most of the restrictions that they made actually made the game better than ever made it worse. And for that reason, this is going on the Essential Games list. Oh, hell yeah.

Joe, how do you feel? You know, I suspected that, honestly, I was surprised that Sean was, thought he was going to be the only vote, because I suspected that you both were going to put it on. I did not expect Sam to put it on, but, you know, I got no issue with it. All right. I mean, like, look, this is what happens. We finally have an Essential Game in 1989. I doubt it will be our only one, but it's also only safe until, according to my math, it's only safe until December 2nd, 2022. I guess we'll see. Oh, that's, oh my God. We'll see. That's so far away from now. But also... So it's going to be on the Essential Games list for a long time, and Zelda 2 will not be on the Essential Games list for a long time.

So, you know, there are people who are mad about Zelda 2 not being on. I just wanted to keep this off to use it as a bargaging chip for Zelda 2 in December of 2022. It's an interesting strategy. It would have gotten you somewhere, probably. Right. I'll say, though, I, you know, if... I wouldn't want to be the one to keep this off just because it's not a game for me anyway. So I'm glad that if you guys feel this way, I'm glad it got on. I'm glad we didn't change the rules so all four of us have to vote. Yeah, that's true. That's true. That's only for Essential Platinum games. Right, right. Anyway, this has been a very long football episode of Nostalgia,

and next week we promise to deliver probably one of the longest episodes of all time when we play Ultima 3 Exodus. Now, technically, it's only Ultima Exodus on the NES, which I think is the right call because people would say, where's one and two? But I'm going to call it Ultima 3 Exodus so everybody understands the same game we're playing here. So if you've got to play it on a computer, Ultima 3. You've got an NES and you want to play it, play Ultima Exodus.

Whatever you get, just know that you're looking at a really, really long game and the kind of game that we have not tackled yet on a podcast like this. So expect something a little different. But I think, you know, guys, we promise to deliver, right? Yes. I promise. Always. We were waiting on you, Sam. We were just making sure that you were okay.

Anyway, that'll be next week's episode. And then, you know, it's RPG into probably the longest game on the NES. Dance Aerobics is the following week. So if RPGs aren't your forte, maybe Dance Aerobics will be. We always have something because we just play the games in chronological order. So we always have something for someone. I don't have any preference on what games come next. If you tell me John Elway's quarterback comes after Dance Aerobics, I'd say let's check Wikipedia and make sure.

Now, you can find me, Mike Esposito, on Twitter at Esposito Film. But you can find Nostalgia at NostalgiaCast on Twitter. And that's the one you really care about because that's the one where you get to talk to all four of us and say, Hey, I think you guys are really dumb for putting Tecmo Bowl on the essential games list. Don't you know about Tecmo Super Bowl? And remember that time you guys put Excitebike on only to take it off very soon after? It's like, you know what? Sounds like you've had that on your mind for a long time because that was three years ago.

But I'll allow it. I know I have. Because you're talking to us on the Twitter page. And that's where we want you to talk to us. That's at NostalgiaCast on Twitter. I'm at Esposito Film. We'll see you next week for Ultima 3 Exodus. And nobody circles the wagon like the Buffalo Bills. Go Bills.

Thank you.