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1991 · NES · Famicom
| Region | Date | Publisher |
|---|---|---|
| North America | Dec 1991 | Tecmo |
| Japan | 13 Dec 1991 | Tecmo |
Every team in the 1990-91 NFL, 28 of them, with real names, real players and their real strengths, squeezed onto an NES cartridge. Playbooks are bigger than Tecmo Bowl's, and a full season tracks every player's statistics, NFL records included.
Three quarterbacks, Jim Kelly, Randall Cunningham and Bernie Kosar, appear only as QB Bills, QB Eagles and QB Browns, because they were outside the players' association deal. The rosters stop at the 1990 season, so no 1991 rookies or trades.
Tecmo Bowl in 1989 had the players' licence but only twelve teams, because LJN held the NFL team licence. For Tecmo Super Bowl in 1991, Tecmo got both, making it the first game licensed by both the NFL and the NFL Players Association. It topped Babbage's NES sales charts from October to December 1992, and at $54.99 it was the most expensive NES game yet.
Its fame has only grown. ESPN called it the greatest sports video game of all time, and PC Magazine put it among the ten most influential games ever. Fans update its rosters every year, and in 2016 there were 26 national tournaments; the world championship in Madison, Wisconsin, had its own NFL Films episode. Bo Jackson's player is a legend in his own right, so fast that players treated picking him as cheating.
It still plays fast and fair. A game takes minutes, the play-guessing between offence and defence is a real contest of nerve, and every team feels different because every player has their own numbers. It might be the only NES football game people still play for fun.
The depth is thin by modern standards, and some players, Jackson and Lawrence Taylor most of all, break the balance. That is also half the fun. Play it against a person, not the computer.
Tecmo Super Bowl has outlived its own season by more than thirty years. People still meet in rooms in Madison to play it, with rosters updated by fans each year, and NFL players who are in it have talked on camera about loving it.
Durkheim wrote about collective effervescence: the charged energy of people gathered for one shared act, which binds them. A Tecmo tournament is that in miniature, a crowd leaning in over a 1991 cartridge. The game is the excuse; the room is the point.
You have been training these without noticing. Here is how to do it on purpose, and where it pays off away from the couch. All the skills games teach →
In the game. The play-guessing between offence and defence is a real contest of nerve. Give it to Bo again, or bet the other bloke is waiting for it?
Do it on purpose. Play one game where you never call the same play twice in a row, and one where you always do. Compare the scores.
Off the couch. Mixing it up beats being predictable, in footy and in a pay negotiation. Know when to take the safe yards and when to throw long.
In the game. Some players, Jackson and Lawrence Taylor most of all, break the balance. Somebody always picks the team with Bo, and somebody always complains.
Do it on purpose. Next time you lose to a broken player, don't moan. Ask for the rematch and swap teams.
Off the couch. The bloke who laughs off a loss and runs it back is a big part of a good night. Nobody wants a sore loser at a barbie, or on a second date.
In the game. All 28 teams, real players, real strengths, and a full season that tracks every player's stats. Every team plays differently because every player has his own numbers.
Do it on purpose. Pick a weak team and play a few games. Work out which one or two players carry them, and build every drive round them.
Off the couch. Teams at work run the same way: a couple of people carry it. Spot who, and you know where to help and who to learn from.
Verdict · 9/10
Simple, quick and endlessly arguable, the NES sports game with the longest life. Grab a friend and watch Bo go.
