It is great to have Tecmo back to creating games. I'm sure their latest effort, Tecmo Bowl: Kickoff, will be a must own for all people that have a DS. Sports games for a portable really can't get any better than Tecmo Super Bowl. But really is this as good as Tecmo Super Bowl? I've thought about buying a portable for years. The last one I owned was the original Gameboy, which I did own Tecmo Bowl for, and played until it died on me. I kept telling myself that I'd get a new portable when Tecmo made its return, and once that happened how could I not get one, if not just for that game?

Now it has finally happened, Tecmo is back with their first football game in 11 years (which should be 14 since the Playstation version was so bad it shouldn’t have counted). After seeing the first screens and videos I actually feel let down. It is the same great gameplay as before, but where’s Bo? where’s Okoye? And no more Montana to Rice.

It wasn’t just the lack of players that dimmed that Tecmo buzz for me, but also the fact that the play books were still the same. Don’t get me wrong, don’t change the way that the playbooks are designed. I like the 8 plays, and the defender guesses which play is coming, I think that’s a great part of the game. But the fact that it appears that such a high percentage of the plays are the exact same ones straight out of 1991 gets me wondering what exactly has changed other than the loss of team and player names.

Adding the online play through Wifi I'm sure will be an enormous draw for Tecmo Bowl: Kickoff. It may even be a big enough draw to suck me in and have me get a DS. The idea of being able to play Tecmo Bowl: Kickoff online against people all over the country will add some interest for me. What will multiply that interest ten fold is the unsanctioned leagues that will spring up here and there across the net (a phenomenon which is certain to occur since there are many people who still playing in Tecmo Super Bowl leagues on PC’s across America). I’m just not sure yet if that’ll be enough to sell me on the DS. I’m sure it’d sell me on the game if I currently had a DS, even if I were able to play an old updated rom of the game on the DS already.

I know that it’s a must buy for all those who currently have a DS, since really what else are you going to play if you want a football game? It just seems like because of the fact that it can't use the NFL license it's actually worse than the original. With all the roms with updates for the previous versions of the game out there, the screens and videos of what should have been the biggest comeback since Jordan have just left me with a ho..hum.. type feeling. I'm not sure what more I could have wanted or expected from them other than giving the same great play as before, but somehow giving me the same game 14 years later just doesn’t feel quite the same.