Dynafire has 132 chronicles

1. Tecmo Super Bowl: Great football game, or the greatest football game?
   

   Player Chronicle -- Posted on Sep 25 2008

   My recent find of Tecmo Super Bowl has inspired me to write about it, as I firmly believe that it is the single best football game ever made.
   
   EDIT: This was an old chronicle that I never got finished, so I decided to finally get around to it.
   
   While it was made roughly 18 years ago, it's withstood the test of time. Sure, it has those bland, 8 bit graphics and monotone sound, but holy crap is this game fun.
   
   TSB is a perfect mix of what a good sports game should be: a game that keeps to the roots of the sport, yet doesn't take itself too seriously. In TSB, you get 8 offensive plays (4 running and 4 passing, and that's it. Both players get to see the other's plays which shows what routes the little guys will take. Each player chooses a play. That's about as complicated as it gets. In the 1/8 chance you both picked the same play, the defense goes nuts and unleashes a huge blitz, which is usually impossible to get out of. The gameplay is incredibly fast paced, and never gets tiring.
   
   I may also be mistaken about this, but I believe that this was the first football videogame that had rosters of entire teams included. You have stars from the time, like Joe Montana, Barry Sanders, etc. Some players don't have a name attached to them, such as the quarterback from the Buffalo Bills. I believe that at the time the game was published, there wasn't confimation as to who the QB actually was. Because of that, you will ocassionally see players listed as QB-Bills and the like. It doesn't take away any fun from the gameplay, which can be horribly broken if you know what you're doing.
   
   It's been a while since I've played through the game, but I can't remember a single game where I've scored less than 50 points, or had a total offense of less than 600 yards. It's fairly common to end up with about 10 sacks a game, too.
   
   About the actual gameplay: There are no penalties, which expediates games substantially. The quarters themselves are only 5 minutes long, but the clock actually ticks down much faster than every second, so I think it's more like 3 minute quarters. At this rate, you can normally complete a season in about 4 hours. Try doing that with any football game from the current generation.
   
   Sometimes during a regular season, players can get injured and be out for a random number of games, which can royally screw over your team if you lose a key running back or quarterback. There are also the obligatory fumbles and interceptions, and they seem to come at the most inopportune times, and this leads to my first of a few complaints.
   
   First, you are only allowed to control one person per play. While on defense you have the option of selecting which player you will use, which is fine. However, if the CPU manages to bust through your defensive line, you may as well call it a TD, because there is usually no chance that your AI controlled players will catch that guy. This is the same deal on offense - if you fumble the ball, you are still in control of your running back or receiver, who is still laying in a heap on the turf, well behind the guy who recovers the ball. By the time you get up, he's long gone. Normally your AI controlled characters will catch the guy, but it would still be nice to be able to switch up with someone closer to the action.
   
   Another complaint I have is that sometimes the computer just becomes unstoppable. I have seen receivers catch a hail mary while covered by three guys, shake them all off, and come out of it with a touchdown. I have seen running backs suddenly gain a ton of speed, and tear off down the field like they're strapped to a freaking rocket. I have seen guys jump what seems like 15 feet in the air to intercept a pass, or snag that desperation touchdown pass. These are still minor issues, though it can be kind of frustrating if you're going for a shut-out or something.

   
   

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Dynafire has 1 comment on this chronicle.

1. BEN
   Posted On Jul 10 2008

   I would have to also vote this in the top 5 football games ever made! Some of the games in the series would also be in the Top 5, like the original and TSB III
   
   Madden, Blitz, NCAA are the other ones that come to my mind, but this is the fundamental classic for sure!