SNES Game Review: Tecmo Super Bowl

  This is the start of the Tecmo age on the SNES.  Tecmo Super Bowl, a game that was hugely popular on the NES (along with his trademark starter, Tecmo Bowl.)  The NES games were huge for the Tecmo brand, as there are tournaments held across the nation still to this day.  The Tecmo game crossed through three consoles, ending with the PS1 and their game there (which is actually better than Madden 97 on the PS1 in my opinion.)  Tecmo Super Bowl started the SNES trilogy, and it is honestly unfair to compare it to the other two because Tecmo really just brought themselves better and better off the first game anyway.  I can't do much of a comparison act between the other games because of that.  But what does Tecmo do well?  What did Tecmo not do well to start the trilogy?

Tecmo Super Bowl SNES cover.  Credit: Lukiegames

Positives:

1. Quick pace- This game is amazingly fast paced, something the game takes from the NES and is actually really good to the rest of the series.  All the games are quick to finish.  Typically about 25 minutes at maximum to finish with overtime.

2. The most realistic Tecmo game honestly in terms of being competitive.  The Packers are a team that typically goes to the Divisional round but typically not much further.  The dominant teams are San Francisco, Dallas and Buffalo, and typically those three teams plus either Houston, KC or someone else are in the championship game.  Typically the Super Bowl is SF/Buffalo or Dallas/Buffalo.  There could be a surprise team like Washington (who was a playoff team in 1992, but not 1993) but those were few and far between.

3.  The playbooks are simplistic but they can also be changed on offense and defense.  It just takes a couple of buttons to press and you are good.  So if you want the Flea Flicker play, you are able to insert it in just a couple simple ways.

4. The success Tecmo took from the NES directly applies to the SNES right away.  It's easy to grasp, it's quick paced, and it's a lot of fun.  It's pretty realistic for the time in terms of skill and team ability so you don't expect the Cardinals to be better than the Giants and Cowboys or the Buccaneers to be better than Minnesota in the Central division.

Negatives:

1. Why is Brett Favre so awful at this game, and why is Ken O'Brien so good for GB?  I found myself asking this a lot.  In 1992, Favre was raw but was actually decent.  I know 1993 he was very inconsistent, but Ken O'Brien is listed on the Packers roster and was actually better than Favre.  This is evident on the deep ball to Sterling Sharpe constantly.

2. I feel like this is the start of the wacky defensive flaws of Tecmo.  You really can't get a good feel for defense on the game.  Most times you hope to get it right and most times you are wrong and it gashes you for a insanely big gain or a TD.  There were times I just wished to hold a team to a field goal and go from there.

3. It's essentially a third version of an NES game, and I know some people will find that to be a negative.  To me, it's not a terrible negative but it's one that I can agree with given the fact I have at least played some of the two games on NES, it feels a lot more of the same, if only just a bit more polished.  This is something obviously the later games fix to make it feel a SNES game.

Reaction, Ratings:

To me, Tecmo Super Bowl for the SNES is a gateway from the NES to the next versions on the SNES.  This is a perfectly okay football game and SNES game.  Obviously the later Tecmo games are better but this was a good start to the trilogy on the SNES.  You should anticipate a quick paced game that you can grasp, at least offensively.  Defensively it poses a problem and different things make you adjust a lot but with the right set up, it may work out.  Overall, as far as football games go, it's in the top 10 but behind it's two sequels, Maddens 97 and 98, both QB Club games and Sterling Sharpe End to End.
Overall Rating, Ranking: Rating for this game is likely 6.4 out of 10.  For the overall ranking, it's probably.. 331st out of 721.  The sequels do a lot better in the future and this game starts that ascent.