Tecmo Bowl: Kickoff

Developer: Polygon Magic
Publisher: Tecmo (duh!)
Release Date: Nov. 17, 2008
System: Nintendo DS
ESRB Rating: E
Official Web site

In a nutshell: It's easy and fun to beat those Supercocks!

0:00 I never played the original Tecmo Bowl, but I know it has a borderline obsessive fan base. I generally like old-school sports games more than modern, hyper-real simulations, so this one should be right in my wheelhouse.

0:01 The title screen logo appears with what sounds more like fighting game music than football game music. It's all very tinny and old-school. "Tecmo Bowl: Kickoff," says an even tinnier announcer when I press A. Also, why's the game called Kickoff? The series kicked off decades ago. I don't think that word means what they think it means...

0:02 I get to choose from a bunch of fake teams, including the Carolina Carnage, the Chicago Chinooks and ... the Los Angeles Supercocks? Really? Supercocks? I go with the Houston Heatwaves, because they're the only team that has a halfway decent name.

0:04 In the team editor I can edit my team's name and colors. So I can rename them to the Houston Texans, but they can't just call them the Texans out of the box? Thanks a lot, EA.

0:08 So apparently I can edit stats like max speed, hit power, pass accuracy, rush avoidance ability, etc. for all my players. That's not that surprising. What is surprising is, they all start off intentionally gimped, with plenty of stat points to distribute as I see fit. Good thing I looked at this player editor screen, or all my players would be underpowered scrubs!

Read the full review at Crispy Gamer