Tecmo Bowl: Kickoff

[Nester the Lark]

I'm have almost zero interest in American football (or any professional sports, for that matter), but I've been somewhat intrigued by the announced return of Tecmo Bowl for the DS. It's interesting for a couple of reasons.

First, in this day when EA's Madden series holds exclusive rights to the NFL license, it's interesting to see other publishers' approaches to creating football games. Tecmo Bowl is a classic football series (the first game is currently available on the Virtual Console) attempting a comeback without the license.

Which brings me to the second point: the DS seems to be a great system for classic franchise revivals that remain faithful to their roots. So far, we've got New Super Mario Bros and Contra 4. You could also acknowledge Tetris DS and the fact that the system is still getting 2D Castlevania games. Not to mentioned Metal Slug 7. This is a trend I hope to see continue.

In fact, that's probably the sole reason that Tecmo Bowl: Kickoff has my attention.

Here is GameTrailers' preview. X-Play also did an All Access feature for it.

Furthermore, it appears that there will be a Wii version of Tecmo Bowl coming out next year.

[TV Eye]

A new Tecmo Bowl?

I'm sorry, but times have changed. Isn't EA the only company to make Football games? I mean, they bought out SEGA Sports...

Let's see if little ol' Tecmo has a chance against the mighty EA...

[missingno.is back?]

Doubt they will. EA doesn't believe in competition, they believe in monopoly.

[Wildcat]

EA didn't buy out Sega Sports, aka Visual Concepts - Take 2 did (if EA and Take 2 do indeed merge, then indeed, they would be owned by EA). Visual Concepts did All Pro Football 2K8 last year to moderate success, but there hasn't been any news on a sequel yet.

Has anyone here played the NES Tecmo Bowl? It's one of the best NES sport games you can get, and if Tecmo can keep that simple yet effective concept together with all of the customization options and new features (I've heard both the touch screen and button/d-pad can be used, and interchangably), Tecmo may have a winner on its hands. But, of course, will the Madden faithful buy it? Unlikely, alas, but we shall see.