For years we (my friends and I) have recalled the fun that we had with Tecmo Super Bowl for NES back in the day. We recalled the overpowered players and the ability to run a ball all the way back to one’s own end-zone only to sprint back to the opponent’s using Bo Jackson. The game was the highlight of its day showcasing Tecmo’s beautiful cinemas (they were some of the best at this) and running full seasons with friends, never getting tired of playing.

When Tecmo Bowl Throwback was announced for the Playstation 3 I was one of the many that was elated. Having had some of the former “throwbacks”, I knew it would be changed and made graphically better for the PS3. I expected it to have kickass 3D models, awesome cinemas and online options to make it even better. What I didn’t expect was a dressed up version of the game I loved with an annoying AI to make me want to throw my controller into the screen.

Overall Impression of Tecmo Bowl Throwback

Tecmo Bowl Throwback is unsatisfactory, while it has the gameplay of the original, it has crappy cinemas (when was the last time you saw a black cheerleader with a nappy afro?), a lackluster interface and an AI which buffs the speed of your opponents times three by the time you get near playoffs. The AI is so bad that it took me finding a super cheap play with my chosen team to continuously win in order to make it to the Super Tecmo Bowl. The Tecmo Bowl was even disappointing, in the original game you got a spectacular halftime show and the feeling of having “made it” was evident, not in this game. I had to check the season roster to reaffirm myself that I was playing in the Tecmo Bowl.

Fake Team Names and Fake Players

Thanks to the NFL and the Madden Football franchise, we can now forget about playing any other football games (yes even “throwbacks”) which bear NFL names or team names. My 49ers are now the San Francisco Waves and Steve Young is some other dude. The stats are the same as the original game however so if you Google the roster for your current team, you can go into options and rename characters. The colors and logo for your team however stays, so if you pick Kansas City for Joe Montana, you can expect to play in an all white uniform with a big Nuclear symbol as your logo.

I wish I could add this into the list of “must buy’s” from the Playstation Network but you can go ahead and stick to the old NES version for your nostalgia. My only happiness with the game so far has been to trounce on a sh-t talker’s ego online by beating him 49 – 0 with my “Waves”. I assume he was some Madden construct as those boys tend to blow a lot of hot air when they face off against each other after paying $60 for a roster update (f-ck you EA the John Madden franchise needs to die a quick, painful death).

GOD KING GRADE: (D)   ★★★★★