Tecmo Bowl: Kickoff -- and Tecmo Bowl in general -- seems so simple on the surface, yet there are a surprising amount of nuances to master in it. Nuances such as how to set up your team and playbook before a game, to how to have your squad performing at its best on game days can sometimes be lost overlooked by gamers.

To even the playing field, this short guide should give you everything you need to put up a fight against some of the wily veterans you are likely to meet in Tecmo Bowl: Kickoff's online arena.

Building Your Team

One of the major features that separates Tecmo Bowl: Kickoff from previous versions of the game is the fact that you have the power to change every stat point for every player on your roster (including the backups!).

But as with previous Tecmo Bowls, the attribute system in Kickoff has certain abilities that are more desirable than others.

Early on, here are the stats you want to avoid putting your points into:

Base abilities

Run Speed – This attribute affects your player's starting speed at the snap. However, it is a stat that does not matter if your player has a high rating in Run Power, which determines your rate of acceleration from that starting speed to your maximum speed. Instead of wasting points on Run Speed, it is generally better to max out Run Power and Maximum Speed, then work on Hitting Power, and finally come back to Run Speed at the very end when you have spent all your points on the categories that really make a difference on the field.

Position-specific abilities

Quickness – In my experiences, the difference between zero quickness and 100 quickness is not even noticeable, especially with the Run Power and Maximum Speed attributes maxed out. Instead of spending points on quickness, you will want to boost the Interception category, which has a more noticeable (and useful) effect during the course of the game.

Pass Accuracy – Like Quickness, this attribute does not seem to have any impact on your player, regardless of whether it is set to zero or 100. Instead, you will want to pool most of your QB’s attributes into Pass Speed and Pass Control.

Return-man glitch

One other issue that you will want to account for when building your team of created players is the "return-man" glitch that has not been fixed from older editions of Tecmo Bowl.

Essentially, the glitch makes your kick returner run with your right tackle’s stats and your punt returner run with your strong safety’s stats. So make sure that the tackle and safety have the same maxed-out Rush Power and Maximum Speed stats that your backs and wide receivers should have; accounting for this bizarre glitch should boost your return game from worthless to dangerous.

Building Your Playbook

Successful play-calling in Tecmo Bowl is built on two key principles:

1. Calling the play your opponent least expects

Because every Tecmo Bowl play has the potential to turn into a touchdown in the hands of a skilled player, it can often be beneficial to call plays that do not make "football sense" purely for the sake of catching your opponent's defense in an incorrect guess -- for instance, guessing a pass when a run is called.

Reason being, as your opponent can only control one defender per play, it can be extremely difficult for the defense to stop plays when it "guesses wrong," simply because the 10 CPU defenders will be left way out of position, and you will only have to beat one human player to break into the open field for a big play.

2. Disguising your intentions

Smart Tecmo Bowl players that oppose you will quickly memorize which of your plays belong to which formation. Therefore, the more plays you have to run out of the same formation the less predictable your offense becomes, and the more likely you are to keep your opponents on their toes at the line of scrimmage.

At the minimum, you will want to have at least two different "possibilities" from each formation you use -– it is even better if one of those is a pass play and the other is a run play.

However, if you really want to keep your opponent confused, you can run all eight plays in your playbook from the same formation. A good formation to use for that purpose is the "single back 4-wide split," which gives you two receiving options on each side of the field.

Balancing your playbook

The final key to building a strong playbook is giving yourself a variety of plays to choose from so you'll have an ace up your sleeve during any potential offensive situation.

Here is a general template for creating a simple, well-balanced playbook:

Running plays

• Run Left (toss/sweep)
• Run Right (toss/sweep)
• Run Middle (lead or iso run -- draws and direct snaps just are not that effective against human players)
• Trick Play (reverses work well, as do QB bootlegs)

Pass plays:

• Short/Intermediate Pass (curls, ins, outs)
• Deep Pass (posts, corners, streaks)
• Play-Action Pass (usually something deep with a short check-down in case the defense sniffs it out)
• Trick Play (flea flickers work well against human opponents)

When you are deciding which plays to pick, always try to choose plays that feed off each other. For example, if you have a toss/sweep play in your playbook, adding a flea flicker that starts out just like that toss/sweep is a smart move.

Or if you have a couple of plays that use pre-snap motion, make sure the motion is identical in all those plays so your opponent is not tipped off before the snap.

Finally, do not forget about the dive play. It can be called by pressing the "Y" button at the play-calling screen, and is a great way to gain those 1 or 2 yards you need for a crucial conversion.

Running Techniques

Football coaches like to preach the philosophy of "north and south" running to their young backs because it helps to cut down unnecessary lateral movement behind the line of scrimmage.

Tecmo Bowl coaches will also want to keep their rushing attack simple by running in a straight line as much as possible, making only sharp, slight cuts to avoid the computer defenders.

Reason being, every time you make a cut in Tecmo Bowl, you have to "re-accelerate" back to top speed, and the harder you cut, the more speed you will lose and have to regain.

Because defenders, like runners, are also slowed by making cuts, you will notice that even the slightest "side-step" is enough to leave incoming computer tacklers in the dust. In fact, a few small "taps" is usually all it takes on most runs to get past the first wave of defenders and out into the open field.

Of course, human players are not so easily fooled by taking baby steps up or down on the screen, so you will have to dance around a bit more when dodging a human defender.

But once you do get into the open field, you will want to practice your zig-zag running to keep the defenders from touching you.

Tecmo Bowl has always been set up so that the defenders’ closing speed is greater than your running speed, so you will have to keep “side-stepping” them to throw them off course and slow them down.

Master the zig-zag and side-step techniques, though, and your running backs should become a threat to score on any running play.

Passing Tips

Long-time veterans of Tecmo Bowl have two new rule changes to get used to in Kickoff:

1. Receivers now frequently break off their routes as soon as the ball is in the air instead of continuing to run their routes and catch passes in stride.

To complete those passes on broken routes, you may find that you have the most success staying in the pocket -- as close to the line of scrimmage as possible.

The reasoning is because quarterbacks can no longer consistently lead receivers and hit them in stride, defenders have less ground to cover when closing in on the ball for a deflection/INT. This makes it more important than ever for quarterbacks to decrease the amount of space between themselves and their targeted receiver before the ball leaves their hands.

So the closer your QB is to your receiver, the faster the wide receiver is going to get the ball, and the less likely it is that a defender will get there first.

2. The efficient, stylus-based passing system makes it easier than ever to get the ball to open receivers -- too easy, some would argue.

Because of the "broken routes" mentioned above, quarterbacks in Kickoff really have to keep their eyes on the safeties and judge whether or not they can get the pass to their receiver before the safeties or other nearby defenders close in on the ball.

Tecmo’s compensation for upping the difficulty of those deep passes seems to be the added bonus of being able to "tap" on any open receiver’s icon with the stylus and instantly send the ball his way.

Players who have grown accustomed to the old method of cycling through receivers one-at-a-time with a button press will want to give the new stylus passing a try. It gives quarterbacks a huge advantage by shortening the amount of time it takes to get the ball to the appropriate receiver once you have made your read and are ready to get the ball out.

Defense

In this version of Tecmo Bowl, there really is not a whole lot of strategy on defense aside from deciding which player to control for any given play.

Here are my general recommendations for whom to play, though ultimately, it is best for you to try out a variety of positions and see where you feel the most comfortable:

Obvious passing downs - You have probably guessed a pass play in this situation, so your coverage should be all right. What you really need is some pressure on the QB, and the best way to do that is from the defensive tackle or defensive end position.

Generally, it is best to play the DE on passes that have play-action because the middle of the line gets clogged with bodies. However, for all other pass plays, using the DT will get you into the backfield before the QB has even finished his drop-back -- just slide in between the center and the guard and you will go in untouched.

Obvious running downs - If you have guessed a running play, your front-seven will probably do their job, so play that strong safety and get ready to run into the box at the snap. It is generally not a good idea to use the free safety, though, because he is your last line of defense if it turns out to be a pass play or if the RB breaks into the second level of the defense.

Everything else - The best thing you can do when you are unsure what kind of play is coming is to play a position that can react to the snap and defend the run or the pass. Some people like to play linebacker, others like the safety (with a preference again going to the strong safety). I prefer the cornerback, simply because he is one of the fastest guys on the field, which makes him great at chasing down running backs, and he will still have help over the top from the safeties if he falls behind a WR at the snap.

The Kicking Game

Here are a couple of old Tecmo Bowl secrets that few people seem to know:

1. You can angle your kicks to the side of the field by holding up or down prior to kickoff. Angled kickoffs give returners less of the field to work with, allowing you to use the sideline as an extra defender and come in from the wide side of the field to cut off the return man’s only "escape route."

2. For extra points, you can usually get away with mashing the "kick" button as soon as the ball is snapped and doink the ball through the uprights, which completely negates the possibility of a blocked kick -- you are out of luck on field goals, though, which you still have to take time to aim.


Well, that about wraps up this session of Tecmo Bowl 101.

If you are looking for some fellow OS members to join you for an online match, check out our forum thread for the game.