Tecmo Bowl for the DS Misses The Point Entirely

After watching this video wherein a sad Newsboy/Beardman game designer hawks the nostalgia inspired Tecmo Bowl for the Nintendo DS, I realized that in this era of EA/Madden NFL sports domination, off-brand football games are depressing.

While the original Tecmo Bowl for the NES didn’t officially have the name licenses from the NFL for the teams, they were able to create a game that aped the teams and players to a successful level of similitude. Heck, the SNES version, which was given NFL licensing, allowed for the greatest sports superhero of his time, Tecmo Bo. In this updated version, though, they’ve stripped out that (admittedly thin) layer of realism and made it more arcade-ey. I don’t really care much about whether or not the Baltimore Bulldozers do well. Honestly, while I think that in-game-Cleveland made a bold move by naming their team the “T-Rexes,” it all feels like watching arena football. Nobody cares much. The designer makes a comment about how he can relive his glory days of youth by using the in-game team editor to play as his high school team, which is about as sad a thought as a human being can hold in their heart. A grown man, wearing a newsboy hat, painstakingly recreating the team he played on when he was in high school on a handheld video game system. He dropped a fun hint that you can customize each player’s skin tone, which is good for all of you neo-nazi, DS owner, football fans.

The meat of the game looks like Tecmo Bowl, which I suppose is good, with players running around like little idiots, so I guess if you are a staunch Tecmo Bowl fan, that’s all that matters. I just kind of wanted to make fun of this dude. I mean, come on guy, you have a Tecmo-branded foam finger. Were you born ready to hate yourself that much, or did you learn it somehow? Was it right about the time that you “gave your shoulder to sports?” Tecmo Bowl, as is said in the video through a sad smile, will come out this fall 2008. Cue the animated in-game high five, boys.