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Tecmo Bowl: Kickoff Review

10:38 PM - November 27, 2008 by RaychelSnr

At a time when football games are not quite as plentiful as they used to be, Tecmo Bowl: Kickoff had a chance to be a savior of sorts for football fans.

Like All-Pro Football 2K8 before it, Tecmo Bowl: Kickoff's emphasis on player and team customization could have given gamers the opportunity to use their alma maters and hometown teams in a game that was not built by The One Engine To Rule Them All.

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Game: Tecmo Bowl: KickoffReader Score: 7/10 - Vote Now
Platform: NDS / WiiVotes for game: 7 - View All

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Member Comments

# 1 hellbent @ 11/28/08 08:50 AM

Excellent, well written review - it pretty much confirmed the pros and cons I was expecting from this release. Let's hope they add different CPU difficulty levels and fix the bugs in a future release.

# 2 Ruffy @ 11/28/08 11:24 AM

Good Review...I've been reading the discussion in the Tecmo threads as well.

With all this solid info I'll thank you guys for saving me $35 of trade credit. I've got a bunch saved up and nothing to spend it on right now....I love tecmo bowl but it sounds like im way better off to dust off the NES and plug in the best version ever...Super Tecmo Bowl for the NES.

Soo much potential...it sort of sounds like MLB Power Pros problem too..both games made for the handhel and really if they just completely copied the old NES version and just added player customization so we can make our own rosters it would be perfect for me. Online play would be a bonus but really I always enjoyed just playing seasons in Tecmo.

Guess my wishlist for the future will include a solid complete version of Power Pros and Tecmo for my handheld...which right now only gets used to play Advance Wars.

# 3 Brian Gee @ 11/28/08 12:34 PM

I'm editing the rosters for the starting players (all teams) and it's great.

Ruffy...the gameplay and the fact that it's a handheld is really worth it. I'm not saying you are going to spend every waking moment with this game, but it's CLUTCH when you are in a situation where the DS is your only option. And the gameplay is pretty damn good (if you do like the series).

# 4 jyoung @ 11/28/08 03:30 PM

Yeah like the review says at the end, the classic Tecmo Bowl gameplay is still here, it's just missing a lot of the "little things" that made the old NES/SNES games so fun, and some of the new additions to the game really get in the way of the fun.

The $15 it's going for on http://www.amazon.com/Tecmo-Bowl-Kic...=operasport-20 this weekend is about how much I'd want to pay for it.

I'd make sure to get a copy for one of your friends, too, as that's really the only way you're going to get a lot of long-term value out of the game.

# 5 WatchdogXC @ 11/28/08 07:04 PM

I picked it up for $15 on Amazon and figure I'll get enjoyment out of it since Tecmo Super Bowl on the NES is easily one of my most played games of all time.

# 6 DJ @ 11/28/08 08:22 PM

Fair, balanced review. Touches on the pros and cons.

Thankfully, the gameplay is still intact and that makes it a keeper, flaws and all, for me.

I do wish that for the abilities, they'd give you a brief description as to what each one does. I had to tinker with my RBs for a while before I finally found the combo that gave them the most speed. For a while, felt like I was running in mud.

And man, I must not be that good at this game as I don't score nearly as many points as the reviewer. I haven't lost a game yet, but I've had some close ones.

# 7 Ruffy @ 11/29/08 02:22 AM

Man now I am tempted to play it....the wife bought it for me tonight...but its wrapped out and unopened...I was all set to take it back....hmmmm im in a bit of a quandry here fellas!

# 8 fistofrage @ 11/29/08 02:32 AM

I'm in the same boat. The one thing I am going to try is to put all teams to human and see if I can allocate points that way. Haven't even played the game so I don't know if that works or not, but if so, I'm not too interested about just playing a season anyway, I want to just be able to pick it up and play good games of Tecmo.

# 9 MrNFL_FanIQ @ 11/29/08 11:09 AM

Personally, I'd rather stick to the hacks I make of the SNES first version of Tecmo then to shell out the money for this new attempt.

# 10 EnigmaNemesis @ 11/30/08 12:59 PM

Seriously considering getting this. Mainly for the nostalgia reasons.

# 11 LHT69 @ 12/01/08 03:41 AM

Just picked this up at Amazon for $9.95. I know it has its flaws and drawbacks, but I figured I would get my $10.00 worth of nostalgic gaming.

LT

# 12 sixtydashone @ 12/03/08 03:40 AM

meh, honestly I'd rather just play the original via emulator on my laptop.

# 13 StormJH1 @ 12/04/08 04:05 PM

Okay, many of the criticism from a hardcore sports gamer's perspective are fair, but c'mon, this is Tecmo Bowl. There was no "hardcore" sports gaming the way we know it today back when Tecmo Bowl ruled the Earth...it's just a fun arcade game and it works surprisingly well on handheld.

The one criticism I would strongly agree with is the total lack of difficulty. I am not a particularly good gamer by any stretch of the imagination, and I'm already rolling computer opponents on a regular basis. But it's still much more fun than trying to play a stripped down N64-esque version of Madden on DS, and if nothing else, I can blow time on long car rides filling in team and player names!

# 14 PantherBeast_OS @ 05/09/09 02:45 AM

Tecmo bowl was a fun game to plaay as a kid growing up. But looks the same but no NFL rights just like with BB game coming out soon. Sorry but forking out money for a old scool game is just plain dumb.

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