That moment in Tecmo Super Bowl when...
 

...you realize the CPU team is massively out to get you, because you're 10-0 in the season so far, and suddenly even mediocre defensive players from the Buccaneers become mind-reading half-orcs.

A few years ago I cataloged an entire season of ONLY running the ball with Bo Jackson as the Raiders.

The Chargers made it close... you must have been sweating that one.

Gotta love the enhanced AI of Tecmo... at least it was expected after a while.Man I used to love it when 6-8 of us used to get together for all night tecmo playing marathons. People would sleep between games... we'd wake them up when there was half a game to go and they were up next. Tecmo, Mountain Dew and funyons by the truckload. Good times.

Yep, I had one game where I took the lead with about a second or so. AI had been invoking the "bullshit rule" (what we called it when they decided "nope - you lose today") all game. Had to kick off -- to Walter Payton. Absolutely knew he was taking it to the house, which of course he did.

So that is where Madden got the comeback code from. :)

Bo had a bad game against the 49ers.

Fumbles increase by a magnitude of 100.

In those games I do a LOT of running out of bounds and avoiding taking hits.

I kind of thought about this when playing NBA 2K recently. It's kind of crazy how far we've come from "game is too easy and can only beat me through some BS comeback code" to "game is literally more complicated than the actual sport."

Yeah, sports games are in such a strange place now. They are all basically complex simulations where you need to be a die hard fan of the sport already to be willing to commit to learning the intricacies of playing it.

I still think TSB is the greatest football game of all time, an I think it's because it was exactly where "completely absurd arcade gameplay" met "attention to real-life detail" on their two different trajectories.

So many things were groundbreaking at the time; having every team, sizable rosters, probably the perfect number of play-call options (With the ability to change your playbook between games), injuries of unknown length. I could go on and on.

And to this day, I don't think I've seen a sports game do a better job of making success actually feel rewarding like Tecmo does when you win the division, or the conference championship game. Those little cut-scenes make you fist pump and say "hell yeah!" to yourself.

NES Tecmo Super Bowl: Team Celebration For Division Win - YouTube


The season/career mode in almost every game I've played since then just feels like a fucking grind with no reward by comparison.

Pffffff...no 1000 yard game?

Of course, i could only pull those off by giving Marcus Allen many, many large negative runs.

I did not realize this was a thing until a couple of days ago. It's called "rubber banding" in some of those cart games- since the AI will shoot cars forward that are too far back and pull back cars that are too far ahead "like a rubber band"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamic...ulty_balancing

If you ever start a cult, look me up. I'd love to be a member.

I did not have any plays in the playbook for Allen. Only Jackson runs.

It's tough when a five minute quarter is really only two ;)

...you first discover the power of the nose tackle.

+1

Down and dive! Always a sack.

...your friend hits the substitution menu at the start of a new quarter and you see this

RC Pro Am? anybody?

Oh how I loved/hated that game. I was terrible at the NES version, but ace on the GameBoy.

I think that was the turning point in my life where I knew I'd eventually lose my hair. Summer 1988 playing RC Pro Am.

I used to allow the other team to score intentionally so I could get the ball back and rack up more stats.

Hah, i always loved those races where 1 car would just shoot ahead like a maniac and end up pretty much lapping you by the end of the race. Was it always the yellow car?

Anyway that game was awesome.

...you discover that anyone on the Saints clearly gets some sort of weird home cooking on kickoff returns. (Gil Fenerty FTMFW)

I played an entire season with the Saints under a house rule - no scoring except on kickoff returns or by the defense. I recall that team making the playoffs on the strength of a lot of 18-7 wins. Setting up the foe for nose tackle safeties was the real key, of course.

You could also blitz with just about any of the Saints LBs too, they were all good. Find the excellent one if your NT was not doing well.

I definitely spent an entire season with a "no offense" rule. I think I used the Saints, but it might have even been New England. Either way I know I lost in the Super Bowl.

But if you can score on KO returns, Punt returns, defense, or immediate FG attemtps... you can easily make the playoffs with almost any team.

...you realize "Pass Speed" is glorified INT bait, which means John Elway is almost definitely worse than Steve Grogan.

Why isn't there a mobile game based on TSB? It would be pretty easy to play on a phone.

+1

From Tecmobowl.org:

"Btw people with androids you can download the nes emulator from the play store and play this rom. "

Play Nintendo games on iPhone, iPad with NES emulator; No Jailbreak required

hmmmm

I've played it on my phone with the emulator. It's still fun, but a touchscreen d-pad makes it hard sometimes to hit the diagonals right and a lot of times guys end up running only at 90 degree angles. So I only win games by like 45.

Is there a Genesis version out there somewhere?